Direction Plan, not as easy as it sounds

The dream is not so easy to achieve, but it's not impossible!

Image from pickthebrain

Yes, I do have a direction and action plan all written down. That was one of the first steps I had envisioned a few months back; what I had not envisioned correctly was the amount of time I would need to get here. What I was hoping would take about a week took well over two months, and I am not really very pleased with myself.

On the other hand I feel that it is absolutely critical to focus and write down what you plan to do, how you will do it and how to measure the results. People like me who plan to work doing Arts/Crafts from home need to be very focused on this aspect or else because there is no formal structure or direction you can just swing away and focus on just the creative aspects.

I did read a lot about what artist should be doing when they start out. Unfortunately there is not a lot of local information or inputs (specific to my geographic area), but there is a heap of information on how artist should take there work as a business and not a hobby as it is very easy to go the hobby route.

Some good resource where I picked up information from;

Mari Loughran  (Arts/Crafts Business Guide, about.com)

Business Guide for Emerging Artist by Mike Booth

Creating A Business Plan for Artists by Kelly Swanson  Kelly also has some great info on her Blog

  

Business Plans for Artists by Gayle Mahoney

Corry Huff has some great information and tips on The Abundant Artist

Logo :- DONE

This has been a tough exciting and a learning phase in my life. I have been working hard on a lot of things, putting in long days and even still there is not much to show or count as completed.

It really feels great and fullfilling to know that there is something that I can say is DONE!

Here is the tag line

Not giving up on OLD

I was stuck with two options all morning, and then I thought that our society is just giving up on everything of the past without a thought. The words of the tag line brings back some wonderful memories of my grand mother and how she made sure that everything was used even though it was past its prime life.

Just because something is old does not mean that it is useless and the first three words "Not Give Up" will be relevent in any stituation for anyone; anywhere in the world and more so for somone starting out.

Where is the tag line?

I had sent over my design sketches to someone who could digitize them. Yesterday I was thinking that the logo is all done and today he called me back saying if there was a tag line that I wanted to incorporate. We went back and forth a few times and I called my friends and family for some ideas.

So after a few hours on the lelephone and numerous emails; I have the following:

* What was old, is NEW

* Nothing wasted everything gained

* Ideas that clebrate the past

* Not giving up on OLD

* Positively different

* Building great products from trash of the past

I will have to brainstrom this list tonight and finalise something by the morning as the graphics guy is waiting to hear from me.

New Name and Logo

The last few days infact the last few weeks I have been thinking on what course to take and draw out a detailed plan. I do have some things finalized and will be sharing them with everyone soon.

In the meanwhile I have changed the name to Leftover Studio, for the reason that I will strive to use used materials in most of what I am trying to create. I am working on getting a logo done and do have some ideas  in mind.

Here are the two main design directions I am going to ask the graphics designer to work on.

I want to use this to emphasise Re-Use

Incorporated in the name here

Full name

Another concept

Valentine Bloom

During my younger days anyone hardly celebrated Valentine's Day. Most people just dubbed it as another influence of the west, but slowly things started changing. With the economic globalization every thing that was far off or only in the west was even available in dusty small rural towns across the country.

These days it is just difficult to ignore Valentines day in India as the masses of common folk here  do not want to be deprived of Valentine's gift of love. Commercial TV channels run special valentine shows, dedications of love filled radio programs and even love letter competitions are organized.

Days before Valentines day hawkers start peddling red roses in every corner and street of the city. Yesterday I had gone out for a relaxed Sunday brunch and while walking back to catch the train I saw this roadside flower shop making these huge rose displays.

But with the advent of globalization the flowers he has used are not real roses, but paper roses imported from China....... welcome to the global stage India.

Happy Saint Valentine's Day  

Slow Start

I have been thinking quite a lot on what kind of designs and materials I want to use for my creations going forward. Earlier last year I had though that I would require about a month to have it all figured out. It is not that I have nowhere to go; or what direction to take but I want to set out on a very clear and defined path but defining it clearly is proving to be way harder than I had imagined that it ever would.

One thing is for sure that I want to work with materials that have been left behind by some other use or process. I remember when I was a kid my grandmother used to sew old cloth cuttings into small square mats that she used to call “Pandu” and each kid in the family had his own one. Old pants were made into tote bags or even pillow covers and some were just cut and made into a smaller size for kids.

I myself had a very special use for old cloth trimmings, we used to stuff them inside old torn socks and turn them into balls for playing cricket and other sports. I will try to post a tutorial on how to make them and get some decade old memories back.

Until next time.