Seeking a healthy balance

or better said: "How to keep MC, PC and the rest from overworking"

April was special... it was fun, it was successful but in between the rising workload and getting everything done that must be done on time, we slowly approached 70 hours a week.

Our families started to worry why we've all been dead silent, some of you Patrons wondered about the lack of updates and slowly but surely this month took a toll our physical well being due to the constant traveling back and forth, appointments and days spent with all sorts of important media, crafting and design work.

We're glad our mental proved rigid and work didn't start to feel like a drag but being pushed by ambition without keeping tabs on your body is a dangerous trap. At a point some of us simply couldn't sleep with PC shouldering surplus work while MC made sure to get some needed rest.

To take our physical matters serious and not wanting to go on a break (we wouldn't feel okay with anyways): Here are the following changes to Tiers to make the whole experience a lot more manageable for us and more enjoyable for you!

Along with the increase in quality and the future opportunities currently on the way. We feel this is a needed step to guarantee us being able to operate long term without risking to drop in front of our computers hehe! :D

The changes will come into effect next month and for any new Patrons joining in this month.
The current set rewards running in May from the Easter Surprise are not affected by it.

Changes for everyone:

• Our shop will now slowly be filled over time with past sets becoming available. That means we won't rotate sets anymore and you'll be able to pick from more looks you like!

• We are introducing monthly discount codes to purchase old sets at a reduced price for each Tier with at a large 25% off for Stylists, 12% for Moe Lovers and 5% for Based Fans.

• We will continue to shoot multiple times a month but will no longer be able to shoulder 4 entire sets each with over 500 pictures on average, pre-sorting and pre-edit. Instead we will now focus on further increasing the quality to give you truly the "creme de la creme" shots rather than pump out an insane number of pictures.
  As soon as we're set with our new camera workflow, you will also see a clear difference in picture clarity and grading, it's exciting!

• Tier 3 set votings will now affect bonus sets instead of the main set. We started to dislike the approach that Moe Lovers were bound by the decisions of Personal Stylists for something they would both get. Now bonus sets give Stylists something that is even more exclusive while also being privileged with a choice to pick from our monthly bonus photoshoots.

• The set of the month is now a single photoset with a theme chosen by us to make it as best as we can. Since it would be almost impossible to accommodate a certain look going forward without sacrificing quality, plans and our creativity, we felt that the votings never affected much of the expected result. All at the cost of providing 4 or more sets we had to rush through even if the results were good. It's simply inefficient and would degrade our health and quality over time.

Personal Stylists:

A lot of consideration went into how we could reward our most dedicated supporters. Some of you have been here for over a year and we're super grateful how you have helped us to increase our quality ever since we started. Thank you, really.

We reworked the Tier extensively to strike a good balance for the increase in quality vs. the decrease and change in other benefits. The Tier now sits at 26 EUR

We advise every Stylist to switch over to the new Personal Stylist Tier since we will stop supplying the old Stylist tier after this month.

Here are your new rewards:

Get the "big set of the month" + extras + bonus content

(over 68+ High Res Photography Pictures & more)

• Blog, Insights, Previews

• Big Moe Photoset

• Exclusive Moe Bonus Set

• 25% Photoset Shop Discount

• Community votes to choose the bonus set

Moe Lovers:

You always have been an important part of our Patreon, as people who simply liked to support us and gain something nice in exchange. We may have reduced the pictures offered in your Tier but the changed quantity will come with an increased quality in the set and some small bonuses here and there along the regular blogs.

Here are your new rewards:

Get the "set of the month" + insights into our cute cosplay & media productions

(over 30+ High Res Photography Pictures & more)

• Moe Photoset

• 25% Photoset Shop Discount

• Look behind the scenes bonuses

• Access to exclusive Blog (cosplay, OC's, planning, previews etc.)

Based Fans:

To you who simply wants to provide us with a snack and how couldn't we be grateful to you? It's a snack! Everyone loves snacks! Nothing changes to this Tier, except gaining a small discount as thanks for your help if you ever want to support us without directly going into another Tier.

And with that, the Wall of Text is over! Thank you for reading all of this. All of this was carefully considered back and forth and how we could improve all the aspects of AKIKO without sacrificing you, us and any future community members.

We are grateful and happy for being able to provide you with something we have a passion in. Seeing all the likes and the support has and will continue to make us give it our best.
Now lets get back to inspire more smiles and see you again soon!

Ps: Your codes will be distributed starting tomorrow and are valid for 30 days