January is Get Organized Month

Every January for the last 10 years the National Association of Professional Organizers and it’s member chapters have a real big go at instilling the hearty benefits of organisation and of course the services they offer!  Getting organized can help people with managing time, productivity, managing families, and it makes real sense that successful organization can greatly assist in relieving stress and anxiety. As I said yesterday when discussing Creativity Month then I was beginning to a assess the added influx of belongings into an tightly packed homestead. I am also starting to feel the need to decide which spelling to use! Do I work with an Anglicised ‘s’ in this word or a ‘z’ – a little confusing as this International Day had not originated in England so it also feels a bit rude to make a change to it!

Anyway let’s not get too bogged down in etymology and keep instead to the nub of the gist and instead get organised in January.

I know I woke yesterday on the first of the month (and indeed the first day of the year – woo hoo) exceptionally keen on making a great start. Some detritus stuffed surfaces got a clear off and I managed to easily summon up some rubbish to fill up my newly emptied wheelie bin. I also had a Mum like growl at the state of my daughter’s bedroom and gave her a nudge in the direction of relocating the floor! I’m not entirely sure if this wee spree at getting things into basic order was to do with it being the start of the year or whether it was because it was also the first day for a few where I was actually fit to do anything as I was icky for a wee bit. Well whatever the reason it does mean that there isn’t receipts and coupons littering the front of the TV and that’s nice! And there is scope for at least 30 more days of organisation round this place so it could be a busy month!

As far as Project Isabella goes then I need to begin populating The Library with articles so a calendar of articles will need to be organised – organized??

So do you have any strategies for streamlining your home or business and getting organized this month?

How I’m celebrating Science Fiction Day

To celebrate Science Fiction Day I am going to give a sneak peak at a very small sample of the robots being worked on at Project Isabella These guys will when completed be in lots of colours and materials and art styles and will be available to be purchased as large individual .png files for artwork and in sequenced .png with run and walk actions for game programming.

January is Creativity Month

Well! Happy New Year – we have made it to 2015. I wish you well and may your year be full of blessings.

As this year has started I have found myself researching days and months and celebrations. I have always enjoyed these sort of things so now is the time to explore it all a bit more and just see what little gems are out there! Of course I had to start with one that sounds like it represents my own life and work so wholeheartedly. January, The Creativity Month. Yes! At first glance it would seem I have started this one with a blast and have filled my digital hours from the wee hours of this morning with colourful and cute little characters that are in the making for Project Isabella. Today for many people is probably a day off for many but as I got knocked out over the festive period with a stomach flu thing, then I feel I have had a creative drought and needed to slake my thirst literally and figuratively.

So, January is the International Month of Creativity which was founded by Randall Munson.

It is designed as a month to remind individuals and organisations to make the most of the power of creativity. I know in my own home there is clearly going to be a need be some creativity in finding places for my daughters new possessions without the house reacting something like my own body did over Christmas!

For organisations it’s a superb time to have a period of reassessment as this may be the longest period teams have been away from one another over the whole calendar and the distance can help where creativity is concerned. Hopefully on return to business there should be still a smattering of Good Will and most promisingly that new exercise book feeling you had at school – a great time for some fresh thinking and creative ideas to get a look in. 

So for Project Isabella and myself as The Graphic Overlord what do I take from this? Clearly in actually creating and creativity terms, myself and the purr of hard drives here can confirm then I honestly do not stop! But I think the idea is greater than that and this Month of Creativity is about creative thinking and I really do need to make some commitment to one particular aspect of business. Creative thinking needs to be applied to sourcing and working alongside a team to market Graphics For Schools that is a service at Project Isabella.  So that’s a resolution of sorts from me!

How do you think you will take advantage of International Creativity Month to refocus your attention to creatively improve your business and personal activities?

Boost Your Zazzle by Using PromotiGraphics

If you purchase quality graphics or letter art from Project Isabella they come with built in advertising for what you create on Zazzle. Those using the Print On Demand Company Zazzle to create merchandise such as T Shirts, mugs and device cases are usually creative souls already, so why should they go out of their way to buy graphics to boost their Zazzle designs?

I have some great reasons and I am building a business around them - I want to hear you scream about Zazzle sales!

If you haven't heard of Zazzle, then as a quick explanation I would tell you that it is a Print on Demand service that allows creative folk to place images they have rights to use on all manner of things that the company will then print and send to you, or place in a online store and display it for someone else to purchase. If you would like to see a store feel free rummage in my own Zazzle store. Zazzle isn't the only Print On Demand (POD) set up, there are others such as Cafepress, Society6 and more.

So, back to to the point I am writing about today, I call my system PromotiGraphics and here are some reasons why you should consider using graphics from Project Isabella Graphic Workshop with PromotiGraphics to boost your Zazzle exposure and sales.

1. It's good for your store to vary up your work a bit and add new elements, as someone who creates images and graphics for a living I constantly find it is some of my least favourite things that sell, not everyone has your taste or style. Using graphics that push your Zazzle designs out of your normal groove will increase your exposure and potentially boost your sales.
2. It's good for your own creativity and artistic development to work with new tools and elements on a regular basis, why not use elements that are good value for money and offer promotion for your Zazzle store.
3. Project Isabella Graphics contain built in advertising, this means if you use them your item and the Zazzle store it is in will be promoted across many Social Media account and on the website at Project Isabella.
4. The PromotiGraphic catalogue is growing with many themes and each the the themes at Project Isabella contains hundreds of images, so you are by no means going to be struggling to be inspired. You are also able to post requests for custom items or to suggest the next items to be uploaded that have already been created. There is no need to feel like Project Isabella will not be able to produce something you can use in your next creative project.

Graphics with built in PromotiGraphics service can be purchased so far, on Etsy or at the Project Isabella website, other sites are being made available too.

It's not only Zazzlers that can use PromotiGraphics - but I am hoping some Zazzlers will like this as we know that boosting our store traffic to this growing marketplace is what it takes to sell our goodies.

Pinterest for Kick Ass Market Research

 

Pinterest is certainly fun to use and once you are in the swing, it is very compelling, inspiring and frankly hard to stop. Thankfully for my business it has a number of positives so now I can schedule pinning and know it's actually part of my working day - and that pleases me no end!

My business Project Isabella creates graphics, so before I sit down and start on a new batch or a certain subject I start a pin board on that subject. If you took a look at my board Fairy you would know that I pinned over three hundred - yes 300 images from all over the internet on the subject of fairy. I searched Pinterest for pins that contained the word "fairy" and also searched for boards that used the word "fairy".

So how does all this pinning of images of other people's fairies help my business? Surely that is just promoting other people's artwork? So to put pay to that attitude I would like to share the ways this activity helps me.

1. I have established that images of fairies are very popular. There are many boards, pins and pinners for this subject.

2. The subject matter remains active, I know this because when I pin Fairy things they are quickly repinned.

3. The Fairy topic includes vintage and modern material, this interests me as the subject is not a fad of a fleeting fashion pinning frenzy so it should stick around some more - definitely long enough for me to put together my collection of fairies and get them to store.

4. I have been able to study the popular images of fairy that can help me understand some artistic elements such as poses, lighting, colours and attitudes.

5. I can follow where fairies on my board get pinned to - for example is it to a board named "I love these" - or "Things not to touch with a mile long stick"

6. Basically I get the opportunity to study my subject matter and observe the traits of the most successful images as wells as observe the demand for such images. That is pretty good market research and it did not cost me anything other than a small amount of time, time I belief I can happily justify.

I don't think we have ever had to hand such a powerful tool to utilise in Market Research for artists and illustrators and I can confirm that for me it worked - a fairy figure was the first I sold in my new business - and here it is on my clients t shirt.

Brilliant!

You can visit this T Shirt at its store at Who Has Your Back?

So I have done my research on Fairies and now I have images of fairies that I have created for sale and a Pinterest board followed by fairy hungry followers - I wonder what could happen next?