First off, enjoyed immensely my time with my daughter last weekend. I was sad Monday evening after taking her to the airport. It takes a few days to get back to the routine of life. That said, I’m forever grateful for Emily’s expert advice with my cards. She works at Northwest Art and Frame (one of my favorite stores) in West Seattle. It’s noted for unique and interesting gifts in addition to tons of cards. Emily sees a lot of cards that are sold and knows what works and what doesn’t. I showed her my cards I’ve been working on and she provided an honest critique of what she felt worked and what didn’t. Because of her input, I’m going to take out some designs, change the message on others and add in images I had not considered. Plus consider doing a UPC code on my cards. Em says that’s a must if I want to work with larger stores. It’s a pain for the store if the product doesn’t have UPC codes and they need to then make the product work within their computer system somehow. Invaluable Advice!!
Yesterday I had some time to pop in a coffee shop and catch up on some journal writing. I opened up my journal and found some notes made last December. They were completely relevant, made at the time I was considering going with another company and licensing my work. A friend had defined my style as “artistic spirituality”. I thought that was a very descriptive and accurate way to describe my artwork. In combining my two favorite mediums “words” and “watercolors”, I bring together my love of Nature with words that inspire me. The words often come to me as I paint, or write in my journal or they are a thought I hold and elaborate on. When walking last night, I again thought of “Artistic Spirituality” and thought it the perfect way to distinguish my art/cards from others. I hope the messages I convey are viewed in terms of being “Spiritual” more than “Hallmark” like!! Only time will tell….but this is a phrase I’ll consider using as I market my material.
Speaking of time will tell, Sarah and I worked this morning on the design of the back of the cards. There is so much to consider!? Should I have a small image from the front of the card on the back? Do I incorporate my mantra of “words & watercolors…around the world….enriching and inspiring…” along with the image of the world I painted? Do I do one or the other, or both? Which typeface? What point size? Everything in a line or do I use 2 columns? We worked rather efficiently and got a lot accomplished. I also met with the printer yesterday and am feeling more confident as this comes together. Still a decision to be made between a textured paper or basic card stock. Not clear on the answer yet for that. Will do a test run to see what looks best, once I have my cards all printer ready. Sarah gave me some “to do’s” to focus on between now and the time we meet again. We looked at a calendar and planned out the next steps. Looks as if I’ll be printer ready by early May!! YeeHaw!!!
With all that, things aren’t always what you think. Susan, Mark’s sister, treated Emily, Mark and I to the play WICKED last Saturday night. It was Amazingly Wonderful!! Do go if you get a chance!! I don’t want to give too much away but will say you’ll reconsider, possibly, how you view things after you see the play….things (and people) aren’t always what they seem!!