Getting in touch
I’ve decided that February is the month in which I make new business contacts…
There are so many people I would love to work with, yet even after all these years, I still sometimes find it hard taking that first step. It can be daunting picking up the phone or sending that introductory email, but I’ve promised myself that February is the month that I focus on this and so I am honouring that promise.
To make it easier for myself, I take a methodical approach and follow these steps:
1. Find the best direct contact
2. Become familiar with their company and projects
3. Clearly introduce myself and articulate why I am contacting them
4. Be clear about how I can help them – it’s not just about what I hope to gain
5. Follow up – after all that effort, it would be silly not to follow up the initial contact to see if something might develop!
6. If they or their company can’t help, I ask if they know someone who might
One of the sentences I like best when introducing myself is, ”So and so recommended I contact you because …”. Having a referral from someone else helps break the ice and gives both parties a point of reference, a way into a conversation that helps create a receptive space in which to talk. However, I don’t always have a referral, in which case, it comes down to being passionate about my idea or project, genuinely wanting to make contact with the person who might be able to help, rolling up my sleeves and just getting on with it!
Megan Walker, Director of Market Savvy, writes a very helpful monthly column that she generously shares on her website and I recommend reading her recent article, How to get face to face with potential customers. It provides some useful tips to assist us getting on with the job.
Week four… here I come!
Not just a new website…
Many of you will have noticed my new website…
I’m very excited about its clean and paired-back visual style, allowing simple and effective navigation to find clear information about what I do.
Designed by Finn Creative and produced by Joyce Design, the design process was not only fascinating, but incredibly rewarding, helping me gain clarity about my goals this year.
Finn Creative began with a redesign of the lovely ‘mark’ that Designfront created for me in 2009 (which evolved from the original menu button configuration on my first website, also lovingly designed by them). Kevin Finn took this as a starting point and simplified it to bring the focus back to my name – as a sole trading artist and designer, the importance of what I do is held very much in the fact that I am the one doing it.
Finn set me the task of developing a site map for my new website. This was the clincher! It was during this process that I firmly decided on what I wish to focus going forward. I outlined three main areas within my practice: 1) my artwork, 2) client commissions, and 3) products (including my own products and licensed designs). While it sounds simple and even though I’ve been working across these areas for years, it felt like a revelation!
By guiding the focus of the site to these three areas, as well as connecting visitors to my blog and collectors to my store, Finn framed my work by making the images ‘hero’ and adding only a little text to tell the story. The idea here is more ‘sneak peek’ than ‘entire portfolio’ – to reveal the essence of how I approach my work, while igniting the interest of prospective collectors and clients to contact me to find out more. Another addition to the new website are testimonials, which provide essential feedback with great sincerity. Sometimes other people’s words speak louder and more clearly about our values and the skills and qualities we bring to projects than we can ever articulate ourselves.
Joyce Design brought the concept together through quality production of the site. I wrote my own copy and resized all my images, which assisted Henry Joyce in delivering my site in a very short timeframe.
It’s interesting to acknowledge all the self-taught skills gathered over a lifetime that all of a sudden become important, even with tasks as simple as correctly creating web-ready image files. Also, to have time to reflect on the direction my practice has taken – not by chance and yet, not completely by design either – has informed the path I wish to take into the future. Sometimes it’s only by going through these kinds of almost ‘formal’ task-based processes that we can get the clarity we need to allow us to do amazing things.
As you may have read in this post here, for me this year is about doing a few things well, taking time to enjoy the process and making very ‘considered’ decisions about the projects to which I commit. Just as my new website echoes simplicity in its paired-back appeal, so too is my practice reflecting a philosophy of ‘less is more’ and ‘simple is best’.
Image: ‘What to focus on’ by Marc Johns
Pantone Tangerine Tango – What’s in a colour?
I’ve always thought colour theory very interesting… How colours have such a high impact on our wellbeing, our psychology and our attitude… Whether it’s the way the colours in an artwork lift our mood or send us into a state of melancholy, or how seeing a clear blue sunny sky can bring us out of the doldrums, or even the impact that living in an environment bereft of the calming green of trees can have on our emotional state. And all this simply refers to us moving through the world. Then there’s the global mega-machine that is colour forecasting…
Each year the global colour matching system, Pantone, releases its Colour of the Year. It is greatly anticipated by both the business sector and consumer. For companies who use colour as a key part of their product strategy, keeping within the mainstream of the pack is vital to being promoted in media and reaching the consumer. For the consumer, it’s something fun to look forward to and inspires change. It’s a known fact that the clothes we wear and the homes we live in greatly influence our emotion state. Putting on a brightly coloured shirt can lift our spirits, just as a lively feature wall can transform a space from lacklustre to wow!
Without debunking trends and where they come from (although, here’s a tip: we create them ourselves), it’s worthwhile taking a moment to look at the power that colour forecasting plays in western society. With Pantone touting Tangerine Tango (aka 17-1463 or 7625C) as the colour for 2012, we are going to see it everywhere. In fact, we already are. And, why not? It’s a fantastic colour – spicy, rich, fun, sassy and as Pantone says, “Tangerine Tango marries the vivaciousness and adrenaline rush of red with the friendliness and warmth of yellow, to form a high-visibility, magnetic hue that emanates heat and energy.”
Trends would say that our spirits still need a lift due to the effects of the global financial crisis, the unabated concern of global warming, and the impact that seven billion people is having on the planet’s resources. Hence, all the colour blocking we’ve seen in products and fashion last year and it would seem that Tangerine Tango is here to help our mood in 2012 as we continue to face all these challenges.
I feel compelled to try a little experiment… Perhaps release one of my giclée prints in this deep orange and see where it lands… Would you buy a print solely based on it being printed in the ‘colour of 2012’, or because you like the depth of the story behind the artwork and the work itself? Or maybe you already love these giclée prints, but have been waiting for my departure back into colour?
A new year…
The start of a new year is such a nice place to be – a blank canvas, an unfurnished room, a piece of paper waiting to be written on…
For me, it’s a time to sit down and nut out the coming 12 months in terms of both my practice and personal life. And I don’t mean simply writing bottomless ‘to do’ lists.
This year I’m focused on ‘minimal simplicity’, a ‘less is more’ approach to living every aspect of my life more fully. Rather than setting lots of goals and saying yes to every opportunity, I’m paring back to focus on a few well-considered goals which will be challenging, rewarding and have great depth. The important part here is not only settling on these goals, but defining the strategies I will use to achieve them and the milestones for their completion.
How can any of us get where we are going, unless we are clear about where it is we want to go? How can we achieve great things or even little things, unless we are clear as to what they are? Throughout January, I’ve taken time to look at the year ahead and figure out how I will get where I want to go. I see this month as an investment in the next 11, which seems proportionally a good ratio.
Like many or most of you, I’ve been performing this ritual for many years, but it’s only in the past few that I feel I’ve gained more clarity on what is important to me and what is not. For those of you who enjoy the feel-good, easy-to-read Design*Sponge blog, take a look at the Biz Ladies post (also for fellas), Planning a Blueprint for the year. This is a simple planning overview for the novice or those who’ve been out of the groove and are getting back into gear. If you would like something more in-depth, more pervasive for all areas of your life and particularly if you’re in a rut and need a good shake up, read Why People Fail: The 16 obstacles to success and how you can overcome them. There are some great strategies and tips to help you define your life purpose, set goals, eliminate time wasting tasks and refocus. Author, Siimon Reynolds, says they are sure to help at the very least make improvements in your business, if not overhaul your life completely. I’ve already begun introducing some of his approaches and am excited about their power to help keep me focused and de-stressed.
A word of caution… We can read as many books as we like, however, we can’t reap the rewards of our learning if we don’t put our learning into action!
What I learned last week
My blog has a new badge, a new format and a renewed purpose…
Recently, I began contemplating the reasons I continue to write a blog. For the first 12 months of it’s life (2008-2009), this blog was a weekly report on what I had explored, learned, achieved and completed during the previous week towards Making Place: Wallpaper & Textiles, a project I developed to create a range of sustainable, commercial wallpaper & woven textiles in Australia. I wanted to talk about what I learned along the way, as I believe information becomes more valuable when disseminated, added to, questioned and ultimately shared. I thought that perhaps other people could benefit from what I was learning and that could only help to strengthen the arts, craft and design industry and perhaps other industries as well. Knowledge when multiplied becomes incredibly powerful.
When I completed Making Place: Wallpaper & Textiles, I wanted to continue writing my blog and have done so, penning another whopping 331 posts! In that time I’ve covered topics relevant to my practice including: the development of new work and projects, industry events and exhibitions, I’ve featured other creatives in my Design Spot column and shared contributions that I’ve made to design writing.
It’s been a very full, exciting and challenging three years in the blog space, and I’m looking forward to continuing to contribute to the creative platforms in which I work through this forum. However, it is important for me to keep the focus tight and make the content relevant, interesting and, above all, useful.
In 2012, What I learned last week, will be exactly that, a thought-provoking resource on my ideas, inspiration and perspectives…
I hope you enjoy a relaxing and peaceful festive season… See you on the other side!
Art + Design Store – Xmas Orders
Thank you to so many of you who have commented on how beautiful my Art + Design Store is looking. New images were taken last week and you’ll notice a few subtle changes to the layout to keep it clean and fresh and really allow the work to shine!
I’m still taking orders leading up to Xmas. If you live in Brisbane, you might like to contact me directly to place your order, so that you can collect artworks from the studio and save on shipping. Today is the last day I can guarantee international orders to make them to you before Xmas, otherwise, those of you in Australia, still have another week’s grace. But, don’t leave it until the last minute!
Oh, and the most popular prints so far are pictured below: the lovely Bunya 6 postcard-sized letterpress print (A6) and White Clover letterpress print (A4)!
Happy shopping!
Collectibles – Exhibition Views
For those of you who haven’t been to visit the Collectibles exhibition at Spiro Grace Art Rooms (SGAR) yet, there’s still time! Read more about my work in this group exhibition here. Below are some installation views of the show, courtesy of SGAR.
Exhibition runs until 17 December in Brisbane
Gallery opening hours: Thursday-Saturday 11am-3pm
DESIGN SPOT – QMG
Well-known to Brisbane in the web and multimedia design circles is QMG. The DESIGN SPOT column has been in hiatus for a little while, but here we see out the year with a little conversation with the lovely David Perkins from QMG about their business and what they offer. We love supporting local…
What services do you offer?
We provide expert online solutions to a range of different customer groups from retail, SMEs, Government, NFP and startups. Our services include online strategy, web design and development, e-commerce, email marketing, social media advertising and campaigns, search engine optimisation and marketing, e-learning, web hosting and domain management.
Describe your background and what led you to starting your business?
After studying Multimedia I did a few years in the industry working as a developer for Education Queensland, producing interactive learning objects to be used by distance learning students. The business was set up in the early days with 3 other guys I studied with. It wasn’t until 2005 that we starting working full time on it, starting off with each of us working from home and communicating via webcam. We had a belief that our individual skills could combine to create some innovative web and multimedia solutions. We wanted to get out in to the wild ourselves, start building our own client base and deliver them quality and honest work with down to earth service.
What kinds of projects are you working?
At the moment we provide a large range of services within the digital media industry. We have also built our own suite of web products, such as a Content Management System (CMS), E-commerce system, Email marketing software and Learning Management System (LMS). The majority of our work is for SMEs, designing and building websites in to our CMS, then working on an online marketing strategy to make sure the website works for their business. For example this could be a mixture of email marketing, SEO, Paid search advertising, social media, etc.
We still continue to work on a lot of innovative and creative multimedia projects as well, such as e-learning games, microsites and social media applications.
What are the most important things for you to communicate through your designs?
We follow a strict methodology with all of our clients and our work. The visual design is an important part, but what is even more crucial in our line of work is the strategy. Every project we build is unique – it will have its own goals, target audience, technical requirements and features. We work closely with our clients to ensure we are producing the most effective solution that will meet all of those requirements.
Through digital design we are able maximize the use of interaction, animation and user engagement.
Are there any specific design influences in your work or do you have a signature style?
Over the years we have probably continued to win new projects based on the quality, style and process of previous works. In saying that, each project is unique, so we start with a fresh canvas each time. We do a lot of reading, research and development about design and development trends in the digital industry.
How can we contact you?
Pop online to our website www.qmg.com.au, send me an email david@qmg.com.au or give me a call 07 3257 0677.
Thanks so much David! Wishing you and the team at QMG a very Merry Xmas and Happy New Year! Here’s to 2012!
Once again, Katie O’Brien (Interior Designer, BVN Architecture and design writer), takes to the mike to review the last Bubble and Speak Breakfast Seminar for 2011 which was held at Brisbane’s Emporium Hotel recently. This series is part of the Design Institute of Australia‘s (DIA) annual program and focuses on bringing doses of inspiration from creative industry professionals to creative industry professionals. Katie says it like it is, so let’s get straight on with it… Thanks Katie…
So, when people say… ’It finished with a BANG!’ generally, this means the event went off. I guess in this case, you could say that the last DIA’s Bubble and Speak seminar series for 2011 finished with a PHENOMENAL BANG! So damn good that it implodes, then jumps straight back out and slaps you in the face, but instead of feeling offended, you’re kind of turned on and want it to happen again. Is that naughty? Well I don’t care if it is, because that’s exactly what first speaker Candy Bowers did.
The epitome of modern woman stood before us that day in the Emporium hotel. Intelligent, well spoken and dramatic.
Part South African, Part Asian, Candy Bowers introduced us to her ‘Balaysian’ heritage. Her confident aura of self that no doubt assists Candy in her pivotal role educating youths in the Juvenile Justice Program that she champions. Taking kids and their love of hip hop into amazing performance spaces where hip-hop ain’t usually allowed. You get the impression that the kids Candy works with will see right through her unless she owns herself and ‘works it’. And it’s her amazing sense of pride for herself and her history that is no doubt as infectious to the under privileged traditionally black kids she works with. They identify and connect with her.
On this day, the Bubble crowd is not treated to a presentation of works in traditional Bubble format. Instead, we become the audience of an impromptu performance. From her early days of NIDA graduation emerging into an industry where due to her colour the only roles she was offered were that of wet nurses, maids and characters often 40 years older than she is. The biggest kick in the guts was when she was told by agencies she approached, ‘Sorry we already have a black girl on our books and she doesn’t get much work’. A comment like this could knock you down and keep you there, but Candy tuned this beat down into something great.
She became super passionate about issues close to her and we witness Candy’s hip hop genetics with her playful work as MC Platypus, an educational Hip hop show for kiddies, comedy act Sista She with the well known triple J song, ‘What are youse girls doin’?’ and her acclaimed solo show ‘Who’s that chik?’ ruffling all the right feathers everywhere.
In a world where everyone is so afraid of stepping on one another’s toes and rubbing each other up the wrong way with politically incorrect terms, Candy is driving the anti-authority anti-establishment bus and you can’t help but want to jump on board with her. But, the bus isn’t just a joy ride, it’s a journey of creative collaboration, where Candy is the intercultural innovator bringing people of all backgrounds together for a REAL purpose. To some, it may seem idealistic, but is one cool ‘chik’ making a difference and that’s all that matters. Peace.
Quote of the day: “I had to break through the skylight”, Candy commenting on the acting industry and the fact that she wasn’t even granted access to the ‘building’ to break through the glass ceiling.
Sonny Vandervelde. If there is one down to earth guy in the international fashion industry, he would have to be it.
Half Belgian, half Australian, he has that perfect mix of European class and relaxed Australian outlook – a dichotomy similar in nature to Candy Bowers. And it’s this mixed cultural upbringing that has resulted in a skewed view of reality that most of ‘Straylians’ aren’t privy to.
With his humble beginnings shooting the amazing blue skies of Northern Sydney’s Narrabeen, Sonny tells the story of his catapult to fashion photography royalty as an effortless series of events that kind of just happened. But you get the impression that under this casual laid back attitude, this long haired scruffy guy has worked damn hard and pushed some boundaries to get where he is today. And it was this forward thinking that began cranking the catapult into position.
In a time where fashion models were all serious and moody, primed and poised in controlled environments, set against white backdrops with studio bulbs flashing in their eyes, Sonny grabbed them by the wrist, threw them in a smelly paddock and made them stand in the rain and god forbid SMILE! What resulted was a market in Europe where ‘lifestyle fashion’ emerged and the fashion folk over there went mental for it.
Sonny likes to tell a story with his work and stories are hard to narrate in a studio. But when you get outside and start to show interesting architecture and environmental elements as backdrops, contrary to popular belief, it does not dwarf the fashion but rather enhances its beauty and appeal to a wider audience.
Shooting in sites that range from a castle in Sweden, a bridge from Sydney to Newcastle and Sand dunes on the eastern Australian coastline, presents some interesting weather complications. But Sonny says this line of work is the most enjoyable when you ask models to hang from chandeliers or scream as loud as they can into the lens, they look at him as if to say ‘Who is this crazy Australian?’
It’s easy to view the fashion industry as indulgent and excessive and a little thin here and there (in more ways than physical), but listening to Sonny speak it feels like he’s bringing the humanity back into an industry that people view as superficial. And it’s his work as backstage photographer that has bought about this. A coveted role and invite only, a select few photographers are given the role to capture the happenings of a backstage runway show and it’s apparent just how much Sonny relishes this role. The serious façade of the models is left at the curtain after their runway walk and Sonny snaps them as soon as they emerge from front stage to backstage, the adrenalin pumping and smiles galore – they know him now and give him what he wants. Wide gapped smiles, bright doe eyes, the ‘Oz gang’ of models play up to him and give him what he wants.
And when viewing these images, it’s actually more fun looking at the impromptu back stage pics that offer personality and a ‘story’ that Sonny so often talks of creating, rather than a straight faced static glare that you get in all the high gloss pages of Vogue and the like.
Sonny leaves us wanting more (it’s easy to look at pictures of beautiful people being well, beautiful), but gives hope to common gals everywhere he says he doesn’t look for the prettiest girl to shoot, this isn’t always the focus, but instead character and personality is what comes out in the photo’s. Score. I am so in.
So with that in mind, we are left dreaming of a model life, jet setting around the globe, wearing a teeny tiny Chanel bikini, being shot in subzero temperatures on the banks of an icy Scottish lake and oh bugger it, I prefer sitting on an old beat up Holden drinking tallies out of brown paper bags overlooking the ocean – oh wait – Sonny has shot that too! Maybe I am a model, I just didn’t know it.
Quote of the day: “I’m sitting in this $15,000 Parisian hotel room with a model wearing a $30,000 Chanel jacket thinking ‘Is this real?’”. The boy from Oz reminiscing about the world he has created for himself.
Thanks Katie for your words allowing me to reprint the review on my blog. We’ll have to wait another six months before we get stuck into the next Bubble and Speak Breakfast Seminar Series. Good thing we’ll have the DIAlogues series to tide us over… See you in 2012 DIA Queensland!
2011. Collectibles
Synopsis
Collectibles is a group exhibition featuring a collection of small scale and affordable pieces, by over 15 Australian artists and designers including: Adam Cruickshank, Alister Yiap, Carly Kotynski, Edward Niznik, Keith Burt, Tiffany Shafran, Nicola Moss, Phoebe McDonald, Vivienne Kelly, Alexander Lotersztain, Rebecca Ross, Jan Van Dijk, Simone Louise Gillespie and myself.
My work includes three giclée prints as a limited edition yellow colourway based on designs originally created for my 2011 solo exhibition, Collected Patterns: The botany of Walter Hill and shown at Inter_Play held as part of Saturday Indesign Singapore. Included in this series, are: Casuarina, Cabbage Palm and Bromeliad. The intensely bright ink allows the white motif patterns to pierce their yellow background, offering something quite different to their original black counterparts. This colourway is exclusive to SGAR and there are only 10 impressions available of each design.
Details
Exhibition Title: Collectibles
Title of Works: Casuarina, Cabbage Palm, Bromeliad
Title of Series: Collected Patterns: The botany of Walter Hill
Year: 2011
Dimensions: Paper Size: 42x42cm, Image Area: 40x40cm
Materials: Giclée prints, professionally printed using Epson long life inks on Hahnemühle 100% cotton rag fine art paper
Edition: 10
Gallery: Spiro Grace Art Rooms, Brisbane
Images: KT Doyle (Top: Casuarina, Cabbage Palm, Bromeliad)
