My New Business Cards!

the back on all cards

Aren't they fun? I used MOO and am quite pleased with the results. It cost me, but I was able to get a 3-day turnaround - a boon to us procrastinators! Even without the affiliate deal below, I would recommend them. The "50 different designs" option [as discussed here] is just too wonderful!

Use this link -- you'll get 10% off, I'll get some MOOla!

Full disclosure and the fine print from MOO: For every new customer we receive through you, you'll get $7.50 in your account to spend at MOO - and if they decide to use MOO Business Services, you'll receive a whopping $150.00 credit! Plus, they receive a 10% discount off their first order - so everybody wins.

My Insane Week, In Instagrams

I am still recovering from a very intense week of activities and deadlines:
1) Art show mounting, opening and reception
2) Sketchbook due for ArtHouse
3) Lucky FABB Conference
Any one of the above is major. All three simultaneously? YIKES!

Here is an overview from my Tumblr archives (a great way to get a quick read on one's life-in-instagram, btw, if you happen have a Tumblr and tick "on" to the Tumblr option in Instagram [IG] and don't do much else on Tumblr... and... did I lose you there?)

Some pix are out of order, some loaded in may... ah, internet!

Sunday, April 22:

To Do list, Sunday morning

Hanging art show

Monday ~ Wednesday: money job

Mr Lou sums it up

Thursday: worked all day on portraits of fashion bloggers for Threads and Surfaces sketchbook

Linework in Illustrator for Rocquelle of Consider Me Lovely

In the evening, I let myself out for fresh air and watched a beautiful sunset.

Friday: portraits, break, portraits, sewing

At 8am, I removed 7 pages from the book
because I knew there was no way I could get them finished in time.
That's Kiah's [of From the "REZ" To the "CITY"] page, pre bling.
At the bottom, you can see my chart of steps, I kept on track with it.

9:30am Qi Gong break in Clover Park to fortify myself for the day

Another ArtHouse project came in, I ignored it
(and missed the deadline)
Very apt quote, however!

Diya's [of In Her Stilettos] pages printed, pre bling

I took a break from the computer and sewed my outfit for the reception.
I worked under a stern taskmaster.

Saturday: prep for reception, errands, teaching, reception, collapse

Meyer lemons and mint from the garden for the reception spa water

Picked up my MOO business cards at the PO en route to class
(yes, had to teach, along with everything else)

Here's a snap of my blog post about my reception look.
No instagrams from reception (distracted)

Sunday: work on sketchbook, blogger brunch, shopping, portraits, party, portraits

Decided I wanted a metallic cover on the book.
I'd found some silver spray paint in Severo's stash...
did NOT find a flat head screwdriver to remove the cap.

It took a lot longer than expected to get to this point where paint emerged

At noon, there was a Lucky FABB kick-off brunch
(again distracted/ no coverage = no IGs)
When I was walking back to my car,
I thought the above was a cute purple maxi dress hung out for a yard sale...
that's when I realized my blogger immersion was complete - it's ice plant!

There was a FABB shopping safari on Abbot Kinney, which I opted out of...
I DID go over there, however...
I'd gotten the brilliant notion my Monday conference outfit needed silver clogs to complete the look.
But Zingara's silver clogs were "try on for size for ordering" only. Nooooo!
In the end, I worked my self into an acquisitional frenzy and got these floral sandals

Rocquelle's pages finished at 4pm

List with more checkmarks -- progress!

By 5pm, I'd finished the flat coloring for La Dama [of Vintage Passiones Like Mine]
Yes, I was allowed to go to the FABB cocktail party on Melrose

Shot an IG at the party, used the hashtag, and my shot showed up in the LuckyMag.com feed!
Then home and back to work...

Monday: portraits, PO, conference, collapse

La Dama's pages done by 1am

Erin's [of Design for Mankind] pages done by 2am!!!!
SKETCHBOOK DONE!

Here's the sketchbook joining the mail stream at the PO @ 7:30 am
Deadline met!
On the the conference!

My bracelets, badge, and card holder thing

Bloggers!

I'd sketch, then shoot IGs of the sketches
This one is of Zac Posen and Brandon Holley

For lasting all the way to the end of this post,
I present you with a beautiful cake!
This was in the LeSportsac booth
It was created by Vanilla Bake Shop in Santa Monica

A Lesson Learned @TxSC: The Business Cards I Wish I'd Had but Didn't [Part 2]

In part 1, I discussed the types of cards that I personally found the most helpful for remembering fellow TxSC participants. Now let's brainstorm on some visual aids to memory and design some cards with me as the guinea pig. 


First, your important information. This can all go on the back side, maybe with a graphic from your blog.

most likely the graphic will have to be B+W. oops.

Make sure your card has:
Your name
Your blog URL
Your twitter handle
Bonus points for: instagram handle, Facebook page, etc
And make sure it's easy to read! NO SCRIPT FONTS PLEASE!!!

The front is where the fun stuff happens...  Remember, my focus here is on cards with your picture on it...
Here are some questions to ask yourself to get inspired... (I had more questions but realized they went outside my "visual of self" criteria and better served a card with a less specific purpose -- I'll add them at the very end without visuals, maybe you can use some of the ideas)
Disclaimer - most of my samples here I did quickly at 72dpi. Don't zoom the images!

Do you post Outfit of the Day photos? No brainer!

Do you have a certain accessory that is a signature look?

Me, in my gigantic glasses
photo credit: Shimelle

note: you will be seeing a lot of that squiggle print background
in my samples below. just warning you!

or my handful of rings --
my hand over my keyboard is a good "blogger" cue

Do you blog about a certain thing?

I do crazy pattern mixing.
If I know for sure I'm wearing a certain outfit,
I could put that mix on the card
(very limited use!)

Does your blog have a unique stylistic thing or special kinds of posts?

I've got my SpyGirl sketches that are also self portraits

there's the self portrait that is my Blogger avatar

Do you have a DIY you might be wearing or that you are known for?
Can you give mini-visuals of the steps?

not mine, not entire image -- source

Do you sell a product? Will you be wearing a sample?

my scarf design I'm pimping

Maybe you have less visuals and more writing? A headshot and your tag line perhaps?

(if you zoom this, it will look pixellated. just warning you)
tag line is legible on my header at top!

Keep in mind -- fashion and beauty bloggers are primarily visual people. They will remember you by what you were wearing, your fabulous shoes, your amazing earrings, your incredible hair style, your style in general, etc, etc.
Help them remember you!

MOO Cards let you do 50 different designs so you could have an array to fan out for someone to choose... let your imagination run wild!

We were given an offer of 50 free cards prior to the conference.
So what did my cards look like for TxSC?










(drumroll)













hint...

this is what I was doing in my motel room at 5pm Friday night of the conference

voila! >cue awkward silence<

yes, they are the size of a 1 x 3" mailing label

DIY! Information FAIL! (do I at least get points for the QR code?)

What happened, Anne the SpyGirl?
I froze. I procrastinated. I had too many choices. I waited until the last minute. Was I the only person that handed out a weird sized thing (not even card stock) with raggedy edges? Did that make mine memorable? Ha - it certainly became a topic of conversation during card swapping.
Next time I'll do better, I promise myself. I'll start working on them NOW! [I vowed in March]

Did I? No.
At least I'd written this out so that now I'm under a deadline, I won't forget anything important!
When I get them all uploaded, I'll post my designs. That'll be Part 3!
To be continued...
here


ps: more questions/themes -

Do you blog about a certain thing?
I've been working on a 365 photo project. Maybe one of those images?

Maybe one of your Instagrams, one that you're really proud of or one that got a lot of likes or comments?

A trend board?

A "favorite things" visual?

Something from your Pose app?

Did I miss something?

A Lesson Learned @TxSC: The Business Cards I Wish I'd Had but Didn't [Part 1]

Jyoti of Style Delights recently tweeted a photo of her new business cards. I thought she'd done excellent design work.

source

Her photo reminded me about this post that I had in draft that I'd written in March after TxSC. It also reminded me that I need to get my cards designed and printed for the Lucky FABB West conference in two weeks. EEEEEEK!

[from back in March]
I am home now after a whirlwind three days meeting an amazing group of women (and a few men!) in Austin at the Texas Style Council. I took tons of random photos, I did a bunch of sketches and now I want to connect the faces to the URLs. By the last day I was pretty good at approaching people. -- on the first night, not so good. A conference is not a normal situation. It's very intense - you meet (and see) lots of people in a very short time. Next time I'm going to make special cards tailored for that kind of event.
Here is the pile of cards that I got:

Let's lay them out in a grid:

(some are fronts AND backs and not adjacent)
click on image to see bigger

For my purposes (putting a face with a name + blog), the most helpful are these:

Jessica Rae of Freckled Mama

Elizabeth of Delightfully Tacky

Lauren of A Wild Tonic

Chelle of Spangled Paraphernalia

You can see they included a photo of themselves so I immediately know what they look like.
(I'm sure when I get to everyone's sites, I will find the graphics on many of the cards match. A lot are very beautiful... Just not so helpful at this particular moment.)

Stay tuned for part 2: Designing a business card especially for conferences