Happy New Year!...

Happy New Year! Hello 2016

I hope it's a very happy, healthy and peaceful year for all!

All in all, 2015 was a productive, happy and enlightening year for me.  

It was a year filled with interesting and inspiring opportunities to try new things, meet new people, step out of my comfort zone a bit more to learn and discover new skills...

It was a year where I went with the flow a little more and stressed a little less.
This approach worked well throughout the year and helped me get something off the ground that I have been dreaming of doing for ages...this was the year I launched my first collection of FABRICS over on Spoonflower (US based) and Print Me Pretty (UK based)

I've always enjoyed pattern making, but had felt like I had so much to learn before I could properly get a fabric range together.  This year I finally began to get to grips with it all...and yes, there is absolutely loads I need to learn, but I feel like this is just the beginning and I am really enjoying learning and discovering how to do it, what works and what doesn't.  This is definitely something I will be continuing to do this coming year, I'm loving it!...

Throughout 2015 I designed lots and lots of new greetings card designs for license to my friends at publishers Art Eco Designs and The Heart of a Garden.  They handle pretty much all of the wholesale of my greetings cards and gift wrap products as that's what they do best. They have a lovely big shiny warehouse in Redruth, Cornwall and a very friendly team of people to take care of wholesale orders...I, on the other hand, have a couple of cupboards in my house to store a small stock of cards, a trusty computer, a graphics tablet and a vivid imagination...so I work closely with them on designs as that's the bit I love doing most of all.  It's a beautiful thing, I hope to be doing lots more work with them again this year.

Last year I filled in lots of the gaps in my occasions card range.  I created designs for many milestone birthday cards for all ages.  The most challenging of these designs was a range of cards for men.  My natural style is very floral and feminine so it was a real step out of my comfort zone to come up with designs which would appeal to men.  However, I learnt that I am capable of creating designs for that market, which made me very proud and happy...

I also designed two new wholesale collections of greetings cards and have some new mug designs in the pipeline for The Heart of a Garden  for this year, which are ready to be launched later this month at the Giving and Living trade fair in Exeter from 17th to 20th January.

Giving and Living is a South West home and gift trade show aimed at the coast and tourism sector.  Lots of my designs will be found there on The Heart of a Garden's stand number B332...

One of the most exhilarating things I did last year, which also proved to be a revelation to me, is that I had the chance to be a guest speaker at a west country, Creative Women in Business meet up.  

I'd not done any public speaking for at least nine years when my lovely friend Helen, who runs the creative women groups, asked me to come along and share some tips about online selling with this fantastic group of women.

I was very nervous, but oh my goodness I enjoyed my day there so much!  

It made me realize how I need to get out more and meet up, face to face with other creative people.  Doing what I do is very solitary work.  I am lucky to have a wonderful group of creative friends I've met through social media and their support and company is utterly wonderful.  That said, chatting via a smart phone or computer is no substitute for being in the same room as other like minded humans.  It wasn't until I did the talk that I realized how much I needed to do this!  Getting out and meeting other creatives is definitely something I aim to do plenty more of in the coming year...

In the summer I rose to another challenge I was lucky to have the opportunity to take up.  I had been invited by my former secondary school to come in and run an 'Art Award' workshop with a group of students aged between 12-13.  This was a whole day of doing art together, with me leading the project for the day.  Although I was initially terrified at the idea of teaching (not something I naturally saw myself as), once I got there all those fears melted away and I had a really great day with some wonderful young adults.  I was blown away by their attitude to the work and their enthusiasm for art.  It reminded me of when I was at school discovering my passion for art and design. I have always felt at home in the art department!...

There were plenty of chances to get out and about and find inspiration last year and I seized every one I could.  In the spring I visited the Outlaw Fair in Bristol and met up with a few of the lovely creative women I had met at the talk I gave. In the summer I had a wonderful, sunny weekend in great company at the Contemporary Craft Festival in Bovey Tracey.

The highlight of all those days out had to be visiting Banky's Dismaland  in Weston Super Mare, with my husband and few of my very good friends.  It was utterly mind blowing to see so much great art close to where we live.  Nothing like that ever usually happens in our neck of the woods!  I did a blog post about it after our visit, you can catch up on that here if you fancy a virtual trip to Dismaland: http://artworkbyangie.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/dismaland-mind-blowing-day-of.html

So it's back to business as usual with a whole new shiny year ahead.

Before I get properly stuck into 2016, I want to say some big heartfelt thank you's to those who supported me in 2015....

First and most importantly, thank you to my husband John, he's always there to lend a hand when needed and supports me in all I do.

Thank you to my friends at The Heart of a Garden, who've I been working with for a few years now and have always been great champions of my work. I look forward to lots more fun working with them all this year. 

I'd also like to thank all my lovely design clients, it has been a pleasure to work with you all this past year and I look forward to continuing with projects and starting new ones this year.

Thank you to everyone who has ordered prints and products from me this past year, either from my online shops or from my stockist's shops.  I really appreciate every single purchase as it enables me to continue to do what I love most for my job.

Finally, thank you to everyone who has supported my social networking efforts, your feedback, likes and encouragement keep me going and spur me on - it is truly wonderful to feel part of a very supportive and inspiring online community.

THANK YOU!

 Here's to a very happy new year for all!

Best wishes

Dismaland - A Mind Blowing Day of Bemusement and Art...

Hello,

This week's blog post is a big change in style from my usual colourful and cheerful images because yesterday I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to visit Banksy's Dismaland in Weston-Super-mare.

After the initial hard work of trying to get hold of tickets, I was very excited about going for two reasons.  Firstly, I love Banksy's work, I love the way he uses art to provoke thought and shine a light on the absurd and shocking in our world.  Secondly, I make no secret of it, I was just as curious about what the inside of the old Weston-Super-Mare Tropicana looks like these days and reignite some old but happy childhood memories.... 

In the queue.  Top Left: My Husband John and I. Top Right: My very good friends of many years, Vikki, Me, Venetia and Jane.  Bottom Left:  Showing our support to the campaign to save the glorious Victorian Birnbeck Pier in Weston .  Bottom Right:  We're In - Going through the 'Security' gates.

In it's hey day, the Tropicana was a colourful and exciting outdoor pool/ lido (well, exciting by the standards of a kid growing up in the West Country the early '80s) .  I can see why, if Banksy visited the Tropicana as a kid too, he chose this venue.  In it's day, to kids our age (I understand that Banksy is said to be a 40 something too) the Tropicana was the closest thing the kids of Somerset, Bristol and Bath had to Disneyland...all be it on a tighter budget! 

See for yourselves, here's a link to The Weston Mercury's article showing some lovely pics of the Tropicana (or 'Club Tropicana' as I used to call it when I was 10, as I always hoped I may bump into George and Andrew from Wham on a lilo there!!):

http://www.thewestonmercury.co.uk/news/dismaland_the_tropicana_through_the_years_1_4212808

But less about the venue, what you really want to see is inside the Bemusement Park isn't it?

Hold on to your hats then, here comes my whistle stop brief tour...

Walk through the main entrance and here you are, in the heart of Dismaland with 'Cindrella's Castle' straight ahead of you.  The brochure says "Step inside the fairytale and see how it feels to be a real princess".  More on that exhibit in a bit....

In the pic above we are sat by the 'Jeffrey Archer Memorial Fire Pit' - again, as the brochure describes it " Warm yourself around an authentic real open fire ceremonially lit each day by burning one of the famed local perjurer's novels"...

...then we move on to something for the kids (although I personally would give Dismaland a 15 rating and then add a warning of not for those who are easily offended by ...well everything really! nothing is off limits here!).

This is a puppet revue show "constructed entirely from the contents of Hackney skips - it's 'Fly Tip Theatre' by Paul Insect and Bast."...

There were plenty of colourful 'characters' if you wanted to have a novelty photograph...

...and of course no Bemusement Park would be complete without a Punch and Judy show, this one has been brought up to date by Julie Birchill with references to Jimmy Saville and Fifty Shades of Grey.  The sign in the background  reads " FREE Hotdog for anyone who can guess what animal is in this HOTDOG".  Always look at the signs in the background at Dismaland, the attention to detail was amazing!....

Moving swiftly along we have 'Kids Enclosure'.  Again, let me stress that this is not a place for kids.  This area features a 'Pocket Money Loans' shop to help you get out of debt with a loan with 5000% APR and compound interest (the small print on the posters made very amusing reading!).  This area is by artist Darren Cullen who has a wonderfully twisted and thought provoking Etsy shop which is worth a good look at here (unless you don't like rude words, in which case don't look):  https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/spellingmistakes?ref=l2-shop-info-name

There was also a chance to play Mini Gulf "An oil calphate themed crazy golf course made from the hockey pitch at Cheltenham Ladies College"...

After a swift game of Golf you can visit 'Guerilla Island' which features a bus-mounted museum, library, gallery of guerilla art and a Comrades Advice Bureau!  Above are just a tiny selection of some of the guerilla art....

I guess by now you are sensing there was too much to see in the time available.  I definitely have a sense of wanting to see more.  Five of us went together and each of us have a different out take on the day with our minds thoroughly blown and imaginations stretched!

Towards the back of the park there was a Cinema area showing some brilliant short films, many of which I noted at the end gave a reference to a You Tube link so I will be looking a few things up on You Tube this week to have second chance to view/ view more.

There were side shows such as 'Hook a Duck from the Muck' where you can win a lovely laminated card fish finger in a plastic bag!

You could marvel at the graceful 'Big Rig Jig' which is described as "a masterpiece of post-industrial assemblage art - it's two juggernauts performing ballet by Mike Ross"

As I mentioned earlier, in the heart of the park is Cinderella's castle, which as many of you may have seen on the news is a chance to join the paparazzi frenzy taking pictures of the unfortunate princess after her carriage has crashed .  

And of course there were The Galleries to view "the finest collection of contemporary art ever assembled in a North Somerset seaside town" and I agree wholeheartedly with that statement being fairly local to said town!...

The last exhibit we got to see was a model village - just after a riot!...

And finally there was the highly glossy and seductive 'gift shop' before heading off for our fish and chips on the sea front....

I hope you enjoyed my brief tour of Dismaland as much as I did.   I firmly believe that you can't really appreciate all that is bright and beautiful in the world without experiencing and getting to grips with some of the darker sides of life!

My usual bright and colourful blog posts will return on my next post.

Have a very happy week!

Best wishes

Happy New Year! Goodbye 2014. Hello 2015.

Happy New Year!

I hope that 2015 proves to be a very happy, healthy, peaceful and creative year for everyone.

I'm not a great one for setting resolutions as such, but do believe in the power of setting goals, so I am never far away from a list of goals and plan of actions.  What I do find the New Year useful for is a time for reflection on the year just gone - to use that as a way to refine and tweak my ongoing goals and plans. The only resolution I will make for 2015 is to continue to be creative and use that as a way to work from home around my family, because that is what I love doing most of all and feel very blessed that I have been able to do that for the past four and a half years...

2014 was a happy year on the whole.  It was a year where I had the opportunity to experiment a little more with new designs and ways of working. There was more time to play and most importantly of all, I felt I had a better work and home life balance with thanks to some very clear set hours and better organisation for working.

Of course there were struggles along the way, but it all worked out OK in the end. 2014 was the year where I felt more relaxed about my work because I had the benefit of experience and a growing sense of creative direction with the work I was producing.  

It was also a year that saw me achieve a couple of  little long held dreams.  Back in January I became a Folksy Featured Seller.  Having began my business with a Folksy shop and this blog, being chosen as a featured seller meant a huge deal to me, it was a wonderful milestone to start 2014 with...

February saw my designs featured on Art Eco Design's stand at Spring Fair International.  

I traveled up to the NEC in Birmingham to go and visit the team on the stand and meet up with some fellow artist friends to go and explore the trends for the year ahead.  

It was great to see the Art Eco Designs team again and I'd like to take this opportunity to say a huge thank you to them all, we've had another successful year working together and as usual it has been great fun.  I look forward to continued working with everyone in 2015...

This year, with thanks to the team at Art Eco Designs, I've launched my Blooming Lovely range of greetings cards and added lots and lots of new occasions cards to my collection, including some Welsh language versions and special wedding anniversary cards.  I'm currently developing more occasions cards for them which will be launched this year...

Another little dream came true for me back in the summer when my work was featured on one of my favourite blogs - Print and Pattern by Bowie Style...

The summer was also a time when I got to play with my art more. I dug out my crusty old inks and watercolours and challenged myself to do a doodle each morning for a few weeks, simply because I felt like it.  It was very liberating and helped me be more productive with the commissioned work I had on at that time.  What I found fascinating was by making 30 mins of 'play' time each day, I managed to still get my paid work done without adding extra stress - in fact it had the opposite effect, it made it all feel more relaxed and under control because I was glowing with the feeling that I had already achieved something that day. This is certainly something I want to try and do more of  in 2015...

It was really lovely to catch up with some of my creative friends this summer too.  A little road trip to the Contemporary Crafts Festival at Bovey Tracey was certainly one of the highlights of my year.  I spent a wonderful day in very good company drooling over all the beautiful things.  I've already made a note on my new calendar to go again this year, I highly recommend it!...  

As a family, we spent the school summer holidays out and about enjoying the benefits of having such easy access to the whole of the Westcountry from where we live.  Below are some of the snaps I posted on my instagram during that time - just look at those blue skies! I'm so pleased the days are starting to get longer again, I can't wait for spring!...

At the beginning of 2014, I had the aim to develop the range of stationery products I offer, specifically wedding stationery, wall planners and notepad planners....

I'm delighted that I was able to launch the start of these new stationery ranges.  I have plenty more ideas for these to continue working on in 2015 and am really looking forward to it as I love developing these sorts of products...

There are a few thank yous I must say before we get stuck into the new year with gusto.

First and most importantly, I'd like to say a massive thank you to my husband John.  Without all his support, help and encouragement I simply could not do any of this, he has enabled me to build a career doing what I love and I am eternally grateful for everyday I have him by my side.

I'd also like to thank all my lovely design clients, it has been a pleasure to work with you all this past year and I look forward to continuing with projects and setting to work on new ones in 2015.

Thank you to everyone who has ordered prints and products from me this past year, either from my online shops or from my stockist's shops.  I appreciate every single purchase as it enables me to continue on this amazing creative journey where I get to design pretty things each day.

Finally, thank you to everyone who has supported my social networking efforts, your feedback, likes and encouragement keep me going and spur me on - it is truly wonderful to feel part of a very supportive and inspiring online community.

May we all thrive, create and continue to be inspired by wonderful things this year!

Happy New Year Everyone!
Best wishes

Social Media – this much I know...

Hello,

Today's post is all about sharing a little of what I know about social media because there have been some big changes for businesses that use facebook pages lately - and not for the better!... 

https://www.facebook.com/artworkbyangie

Having spent a few years regularly posting updates to my facebook page (pictured above) and gathering a loyal following, I’ve watched my page post’s average organic reach drop to below 20% of the number subscribed to my page.  Equally, over those years I have also liked and followed many, many, many other pages that I enjoy seeing updates from and have interacted with, yet recently most of those pages seemed to have disappeared entirely from my newsfeed only to be replaced by sponsored posts for things that don’t interest me at all.  I understand that facebook is a business and that they need to make money for their shareholders – but their current strategy is spoiling the experience of being a facebook user.   It has got me thinking about how better to spend my time when it comes to using social media to promote my business and discover other wonderful businesses to network with.

So, rather than sitting around wringing my hands and worrying about the situation, I put my experience as a former ad agent to good use and decided to do a bit of desk research (as any good advertising or marketing exec would) to see how it would be best to divide up my time spent on online marketing and where and how should I be pouring my energies.  At the end of the day, I have very little budget I can spend on paid for advertising, so what little I have would have to work extremely hard for me.

Knowing that I am certainly not the only business in this situation, I will now share with you some of my findings from my research in the hope that it will help other’s make better plans for their small businesses too...

Source: Breaking Copy - breakingcopy.com

A little while ago an image was being circulated online (originating from Instagram and a man called Douglas Wray) of a whiteboard with ‘Social Media Explained With Donuts’ - which is why this blog post will be illustrated throughout with my little doodles of donuts (mmmm donuts!).

My research started with asking who are the leading social media networks? who is the face behind them? and whether they own other networks?  how big are they in terms of users? Who are the most popular sites at the moment? Then for each I looked at what they offer me - what their benefits are? basically their pros and cons.

This is a summary (all be it an epic sized summary) of what I found out. Hopefully it will gather all the information in one, easy to find place...

(User stats sourced from an article on www.viralheat.com May 2013, other info gathered from Wikipedia)

So, it's no surprise that at No 1 is...

Facebook:

Facebook Inc, A Public company, Chair – Mark Zuckerberg, 

Facebook Inc also own Instagram.

Number of Users: circa 900 million

Businesses can create a page on facebook and then post updates, images and links to other online content in order to grow a following of ‘likers’ and promote their brand.  Facebook provides stats to page admin users so they can assess their page’s performance for each item posted, whether that’s organic (not paid for) or sponsored (paid for).

Facebook is still currently the most popular network, despite noises that its younger users are turning elsewhere. I don’t suppose that worries facebook too much, with a web savvy aging population and its massive user numbers, facebook has an extremely long way to fall. 

Facebook’s recent changes to their user feed determines how often posts get displayed and were introduced to encourage businesses that use facebook to market their brands to purchase sponsored posts.

So that there is no doubt, everyone who owns a business page on facebook should have a look at this article published on Ad Age’s site in Dec 2013, which spells out from the horse’s mouth (Facebook Inc) what their plans are: http://adage.com/article/digital/facebook-admits-organic-reach-brand-posts-dipping/245530/

The key sentence in that article that stands out to me is this one (from the author of the article):

“In other words, the main reason to acquire fans isn't to build a free distribution channel for content; it's to make future Facebook ads work better.”

Makes stark reading doesn’t it?  And with my organic reach now so low, it really makes me question the amount of time I invest in my facebook page anymore.  That doesn’t mean to say I won’t be keeping my hand in as it’s still clearly the largest social media network.  It just means, that I shall be choosing to spend more of the time I allocate to market my business on other social networks.

So let’s look at the others...

Google Plus:

Google Inc, Public Company, Chair – Eric Schmitt, Google Inc also own Blogger, You Tube, Picassa amongst many others.

Number of Users: circa 300 – 350 million

The article I discovered detailing the user stats placed Google plus as the second largest social network! Which I found surprising as my experience of Google Plus is there are some great functions for profiles and pages, but it feels like you are a lone voice shouting in an empty concert venue over there.  It looks like lots of people have been there but no-one is around, they all seem to be elsewhere!

And that’s all I have to say about Google Plus!

Twitter:

Twitter Inc, A Public Company, Chair – Jack Dorsey, Twitter Inc also own Vine.

Number of Users: circa 300 million

Twitter is the most popular network for mobile, smartphone and tablet users at the moment and it’s popularity is growing steadily.

It took me a bit of getting used to twitter with its language of hash tags # and RTs (re-tweets).  Also, the other off putting thing is the number of dodgy looking fake accounts that swing by and follow you – don’t be too hasty to follow back unless there are genuine links to other legitimate websites, or if it’s someone you know – as it could be a someone up to no good eg. hackers and scammers.

I have warmed to twitter over the years, I still don’t totally ‘get it’ but I do like the way you can unashamedly do business on there – it’s very direct and with only 140 characters, there’s no time to mince your words so say what you mean and mean what you say.  The other thing I like about it is it enables you to connect with the people and topics you are really interested in as you can search for them on key word terms (hence the hash tags).  Which makes Twitter a great place for sharing targeted information (a marketer’s dream!).  The best advice about twitter I’ve found is tweet often, keep it short, helpful, relevant and interesting.

Twitter will be seeing a bit more of me from now on – especially as my average organic reach on facebook has now dipped below the number of twitter followers I currently have.  Which is a question that I think every facebook page owner would benefit from asking themselves, ‘is my average organic reach on facebook less than my following on other social networks?’  And if it is, then really your time and energy would be better placed spending more time over on those networks.

Linked In:

Linked In Corp.  Chair – Reid Hoffman,

Number of Users – circa 175 million

This is basically your online CV or Resume (depending on which side of the Atlantic you are on).  It’s a place to network with employers, clients, colleagues, suppliers and associates past and present.  To me it feels like a virtual boardroom stuffed full of suits speaking corporate jargon and showing off who knows who.

In its beginning, from what I understand, it was fairly ‘elitist’ with members having to be ‘invited’ to join by other members.  Now it’s a far more open network which allows freer access to industry groups and knowledge sharing. It also allows you to share other social media and showcase current projects.  Its main benefit, I think, is to get recommendations and endorsements from other linked in members to help validate the skills you claim you have.  Also, if you are linked in to members from a wide variety of industry sectors (I’m linked in to a number of people in the advertising, IT and finance sectors as well as lots of creative folk), it gives you lots of insights and information that you may not get from other social networks where you tend to zone in to your specific interests.

Instagram:

See company details above – Instagram is owned by Facebook.

Number of Users: circa 100 million users

Instagram is picture sharing pure and simple, using mobile internet networks and has grown to be one of the most popular ones.  It is rapidly rising in popularity since expanding the platforms it can be accessed on.

I am very new to Instagram having only recently purchased a smart phone (I know, I was in the dark ages – but needed to be convinced that I had a real need for one as I highly value my ‘unplugged’ time).  The rise of Instagram’s popularity over the past year persuaded me to get a better phone and get onto Instagram.  

So far, so good – I really like it, it’s like twitter in that it cuts to the chase. Content that interests you can be easily found by searching hashtagged keywords.  The thing that is most appealing is it’s all visual and has a certain intimacy as it’s great for giving little behind the scenes glimpses of your business and work in progress – ideal for creative businesses and enabling users to develop a more personal relationship with their followers and those they follow in a way that others don’t.  Instagram feeds well into other social networks and I find it works nicely linked with twitter.  I just need to get to know more about how to use it as I’m still finding my feet over there.  

Pinterest:

Ltd Company with 140+ Employees.  CEO – Ben Silbermann

Number of Users: Circa 25 million users.

Pinterest is a virtual pinboard for inspiring things found on the web.  When you find something you love whilst surfing sites, by using a pin tool you can pin it to a board on your pinterest profile just as if you were sticking a cutting in a scrapbook.  

With pinterest allowing you to click back to the original source, it’s a bloggers delight, where you can share engaging links to your blog with your pinterest followers. I read that 95% of the images on pinterest are pinned by users from elsewhere on the web.  So, by making sure your images and content are irresistible and that your site has a ‘pin’ button, your followers will help create more traffic to your site for you when they hit that pin.

Pinterest is fairly new compared to other networks but is growing rapidly.  It is the fastest standalone site to reach over 10 million monthly users (source – webtrends.com)

The drawback to pinterest is, days can be lost on pinterest, especially for creative types as the source of inspiration is never ending, quite frankly, it’s overwhelming and highly addictive, so self decipline and restraint on time spent over there is vital if you want to have a life!

That said – pinterest is my favourite because pictures speak a thousand words and seeing one person select to pin a particular image or group of images speaks volumes about who that person is without a single word being exchanged.  I find that totally fascinating and often think that there are people I follow on pinterest, who I’ve never met, but feel I could easily be friends with as we have very similar taste in pins – almost like kindred spirits.

Whilst searching for information about social media, I found a great article on Social Triggers site, that sets out some tips on what you need to do if you rely on your facebook page for your business. Here it is:

http://socialtriggers.com/facebook-lowers-my-reach/

 It suggests that we should tell our fans what’s happening and where they can also find us on the web or subscribe to our email lists so that they can get updates that they can see.  I think that’s a great idea and here’s where you can subscribe to my email list to get my updates:

http://artworkbyangie.us6.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=652aea9078616834d3a2f003e&id=97f65c83e6

or find me on twitter here: https://twitter.com/ArtworkByAngie

or pinterest here: http://www.pinterest.com/artworkbyangie/

or on Instagram here:  http://instagram.com/angie_spurgeon/

One final thing, I think the social triggers article is spot on about ensuring you are building your own email list so that your business has a database that you are in control of, so here is a link to mailchimp. 

http://mailchimp.com/

It’s who I use to manage my email list and I find them excellent for what I need. 

If you don’t have an email list set up and you have a business that you market through online social networking, then I urge you to have a look as it, it would be the best marketing strategy you will ever put in place for your business. Something so important to the future of your business (your customer database) should never be placed in the hands of something that you have little control over.

I hope you found my little bit of research helpful and informative.  I’d love to hear your views and comments about using social media to promote your business, what works for you?

Best wishes