Constructing an Online Presence

It was exciting to post my card shop on Etsy—www.cookiefriends.etsy.com.  I invited people to come and I waited. Pretty soon I had to ask myself, "Does anyone know I'm here?" So I began to read about other sellers' success stories and their advice and I looked for examples of what worked. The Etsy community is a quite active and supportive place. Plenty of help is available and it's a real study.

I realized that I hadn't told a proper story about what I had for sale. So I took this picture to invite a potential customer to take time out, to sit down at the table or desk and have a quiet moment to write a special message to someone. You can compare this with my previous post of the same card entitled, "Look who's appearing on Etsy." How could I have missed the point of creating the background and attitude that I'd expect in my own shopping experience. I'm learning!

An Oldie but Goodie

Some ten plus years ago a good friend of mine who worked for the Free Library of Philadelphia told me there was a competition to create a logo for the Pennsylvania Public Libraries. Because it was for the millennium year it was special and rarely does an artist have complete freedom on a project. I simply decided to show the children who read and was amazed when my idea was chosen. They liked the iconic quality and strength of the art and used it for their website, button pins, posters, tee shirts, canvas bags, cups and a full size banner for the front of the center city branch and lots of other things. Pictured here is the requisite bookmark. The other side is a ruler because the program blended math and reading. This was one of my early Adobe Illustrator creations.

Spring is coming—I hope!

Now that I have a brand new studio with lots of places to store things I'm discovering all the old stuff. It's like another life, a whole different mindset. I'm digging out all the drawings I did before I thought I could do them better on the computer. I miss my colored pencils and wonderful handmade papers and the feel of the surface. One thing I don't miss is the Rapidiograph pen and the french curves I used to outline things. Also, the concept of doing the drawing was so different. It was a complete thought that had a beginning and an end with no endless edits and revisions until you drained all the sap out of it. My drawings were never freehand. But all the designing went on way before the finish and when that came it was the grand finale—over, done, with no second guessing. If it wasn't right you had to do it over. You were committed.