Last weekend, while presenting my Marketing Your Uniqueness workshop at the Practical Farmers of Iowa (PFI) Convention, I posed this question: “Why do you do what you do; what drives you?” Put another way: What is your passion? My workshop attendees were business owners, ranging from farmers selling directly to consumers, to agri-tourist operators, to […]
creativity
Kicking Off a Creative New Year
Would it be terribly punny of me to say that creatives are creative with their New Year’s resolutions? Check out this calligrapher who in 2015 hand-lettered the entire Book of Proverbs. Absolutely stunning, not to mention a work of perseverance and inspiration. Creative resolutions are wonderful exercises for those of us who make a living on our ideas. They challenge us to try […]
Creative Thinking for The Blogging Bee
Last week Chris Kirsch and I were excited to kick off The Blogging Bee, a collaborative venture in teaching fiber-istas the fine art of blogging. Today I’m going to approach The Blogging Bee from an art director’s view. I want to share our creative thinking and explain just how it is campaigns such as ours come to be. Our Challenge One day months […]
How Fun – A Promotional Photo Series!
One of my goals for the year is to challenge myself with something new. That opportunity came along right away in January when my walking partner proposed a brilliant collaboration. Since then we’ve been busy planning, scheduling, designing, and doing whatever in preparation for a big opening this Friday, April 1. No April Fool jokes happening here! In the […]
Difference Between Giving and Taking? NYPL’s 187,000 Images
“DINNER [held by] FOOD AND COOKERY (MAGAZINE) [at] “THE MONICO, LONDON, [ENGLAND]” Generally, professional designers don’t like crowdsourcing. We hold little enthusiasm for so-called “opportunities” offered by profitable companies to submit work—for free, of course—in hopes of winning their approval (like when Dog é Style Restaurant announced its logo contest). In most cases, crowdsourcing results in companies taking a lot for […]