Creative Conversations and Creative Conversions

Here’s a conversation I have often had and I hope not to have for much longer, tell me if you can relate:

Mrs Interested: So what do you do then?

Me: I’m a Graphic Designer and Illustrator, a Branding specialist and I work in Business Development

Mrs Interested: Oh, just who I’ve been looking for I’m starting a new business and need a logo and branding can you help?

Me: Yes, of course, I’d love to…

So the conversation goes on and evolves into a quote and then a client meeting, the client loves my work – well 25 years’ experience I’m quite good you know – they want to go ahead so I agree to send out a contract and we will start work.

Suddenly, there’s a problem, I don’t use this word PROBLEM often, I’m of that school, you know the annoying positive type, I like to call it a Challenge or something we can work around, however in this case we have a PROBLEM.

The potential client has gone away had a think and doesn’t want to pay for my services or those of any other professional experienced designer, because – and it’s not as obvious as you think so I won’t bore you with “My cousin is a design student they have an Apple in their bedroom (festering under the bed no doubt) and can do it for £20 and a four pack of Carling”, we have all heard this and it’s not why, there are more serious reasons.

Many potential clients (you are one so please read on), many potential clients just don’t see the value in good design or creative work (you are the exception). I am passionate about good design and I love my work, so these people think I will DO IT FOR NOTHING, they think it is a calling, a vocation where I don white robes and float on a cloud giving out free work. To set the record straight I'm not a floaty arty type I'm a commercial designer.

You may not know this next bit, because to be frank I got bored with the slog, I'm also an accomplished Illustrator. I got so fed up with people treating this part of my work as a hobby and asking if I could do them a favour and draw them a ‘whateveritwasthatday’ that now I will only draw for people I really want to work with. Here’s a link to one of the pretty little drawings I did for Lootybag.co.uk – they liked and valued the work and paid on time :)

Lootybag drawings

And here's some work which was featured in a billboard exhibition in the USA

The Billboard Art Project

I refuse to be defeated, I am sure that at their core everyone is intelligent and kind and can grasp the situation. The whole of what I creatively do, the design, Illustration, photography could become a drag simply because people do not appreciate that these hard practised skills are ways I feed my family, my children will not eat A4 sheets of paper – this is sad as it’s only £2 a ream in Tesco and it would help if they could fall in line.

I do not have the value PROBLEM with Business Development and Business Counselling work, I talk to people, I listen to where they think they are in business and tease the best solutions out of them, as a business owner you have the solutions you just need me to help you squeeze them into useful shapes. I charge this work out at my day rate and people pay because they think it’s a real job and I think the key is that it has the word Business in the title.

So I am rebranding myself.

I am no longer a graphic designer, Illustrator and branding specialist, I now do Creative Business Support, I’m a Business Graphic Designer, a Business Illustrator and a Business Branding Specialist who can also work alongside you in Business Development. In short I will pop round or meet you in a place with cake and coffee listen to you and give your business a lovely big creative hug.

Here’s what a longstanding client says about me

You are my ‘go to’ option for design, you did such a good job first time round, I’ve never wanted to change my logo! I think there are too many out there who are happy to cut corners and not give good customer service.

So if you value Creative Business Support and would like to talk to me I can do you a great job and really look after you – the batch of clients who have been with me for 10 years+ are testament to this – go on give me a try, I promise you will get a great service.
I love to chat, you can find me in various places:

0779 200 6698

My website

Pink Digital Ecommerce specialist

Join me here on My LinkedIn page

And follow my ramblings on twitter @naughtymutt

Twitter Art Show Twitter:140

I am part of a group of artists taking part in the Twitter Art Show here's what you need to know - it's exciting, it's a challenge and the people involved are diverse, fascinating and Worldwide.

So what is Twitter? “Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read other users' updates known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length which are displayed on the user's profile page and delivered to other users who have subscribed to them (known as followers)” WIKIPEDIA

This is how thw Twitter Art Show started back in May with an online post by Sheree Rensel @wizzlewolf on Twitter:
'So what does this [Twitter] have to do with ART? Artists use Twitter like everyone else. The cool thing is that it connects artists all over the world. The members of this Twitter Art Show group are coming together and creating a proposal for an art exhibition. Once the proposal is complete, we will submit it to exhibition venues in hopes of exhibiting our work all over the world. In order for this to come to fruition, we all must work together as a cooperative group. We can do this. Our vision can become reality if we work together to make it happen.'

Well, after much work and layering (140 layers actually) here is my contribution to the Twitter Art show:



Here is the link to the call for artists: http://twitterartshow.blogspot.com and to Sheree Rensel the organiser's site http://www.wizzlewolf.com

It's a bit spiritual this...

This house used to be full to bursting both with people, animals and things. In the past two years two child-adults have left home, two fish have met their end. Small boy child has hit an age where football, cars and mates in the front garden are his focus and the daughter 3 is mostly at school, putting on copious amounts of bright make-up and singeing her hair or watching Waterloo Road...

So, in a week where husband and son have upped and gone to France to watch the Le Mans 24 Hr race leaving me in the house with daughter no 3 and her straighteners. It has been quiet like never before, I have taken the opportunity to do various things:
Turn out 'stuff'
Relax
Think
Write
Draw and paint loads

Today, whilst daughter no 3 is in town at the local Carnival I have been pottering. Really, after a week of the above list several times over, pottering means I have nothing to do. Yes I have a book I could read, the Kite Runner, is shouting "read me". The weeds have been pulled out and the washing done. I have even done some filing and filled out our Tax Credit renewal. I am not used to hours of nothing at all. It is very strange.

So, whilst sitting in the garden doing a bit more nothing amongst the fabulous lilies and magenta climbing roses, I had a thought. If I were you and looked through my window what would I think?



I did look through my window as if I were not me. Now I feel totally satisfied. I am grateful and happy. Sleeping easel with half a picture painted, pens and pencils all over my desk, tidy bright pink kitchen, snoozing dogs on their ancient chaise longue. I had a warm feeling at the long pine table etched with years of 'hello mum' and smiley face graffiti. More visions of the same table surrounded by laughing children and of arguments worked through on the big wooden settee full of big red cushions.

They may not be here right this minute, but the spirit of this home is set.

Yes that is what it has been about, building this life with people we love, about looking after friendships outside the home carefully and with consideration. Right now, I have everything I need and all is reflected in these surroundings, in our cherished build-up of 'the stuff we will never turn out'. And I don't just mean physical 'things'. I mean memories, family - the wider family; people we know and those we choose to meet. Things as in the lessons we have learned and are learning. It's about learning to trust your own instincts.

It may all be right now or it may, when you look through that window seem a little skewed: Listen to what you tell yourself, see what makes you comfortable, be honest and be guided and never stop looking from the outside-in.

Be grateful, be kind. The future is yours to build and nurture.

Go on, in a quiet moment, have a look through your window.

Linkety links
My Artwork
My Design work

Oh, and before I go. . .Reporting back on my Twitter experiment: Stop thinking about it and do it I have met some interesting people, learned a lot, gained some commissions, sourced some useful materials Joined two art projects, twitterartshow - a diverse group of artists hoping to show together and MailArt2 (MailArt1 was all over the internet so I am excited). I have also laughed loads!

Link to Twitter
Twitter

California poppies in the garden

Absorbed

We are so very very busy at the moment in our businesses, Pink Digital web design has gone mad with everyone needing a new website 'by the end of the month'. We are working on a really exciting web-to-print project which will see a swift turnaround for customised printed cards and posters. Naughty Mutt, our printing business is going strong with a high demand for our PDF design skills - PDF is a great way to produce brochures and marketing materials that can be put online and/or printed on paper. Off to see Sarah Roberts at WiRE tomorrow, if you are a woman in business, take a look at their website which has loads of really useful information.

Painting non-stop to produce Monet inspired canvases to show to the children I am working with at Sundorne Infant school in Shrewsbury. I feel the need to be able to show my work as well as the work of other very much more amazing artists. So I set myself a goal to produce three canvases by the time we start muralling on 2nd June...after starting at 6am every morning to catch the light that I can see colour in, the second small canvas is below and the larger third painting (underneath) is very nearly finished - fingers of fire! (the first canvas is below in my previous post).




The Twitter experiment continues. OK, I admit this now, I am meeting some interesting people and have learned some new skills. I have joined a painting group which is going to put on a touring show Twitter Art Show, exciting! I have re-made some acquaintances. I have learned to moderate my posts, to post pictures and links of interest, not to add every single person who wants to be my friend and most of all to converse in a maximum of 140 characters! I have even been able to pass on my new knowledge to a client or two. Find me at @naughtymutt

Also via Twitter and the Help Save Bees campaign, in my role as Graphic Beesigner I produced a new bee sign. This sign was for Karen Thorne of Hopton House B & B, Hopton Heath near Ludlow, Shropshire. She had been provided with a bee house by the husband of Eleanor who bakes in Shropshire. How else but with a sign would the bees know where to go? Bees can read - fact.

I shall be producing some lovely printed metal bee signs for gardens in A6 size, drilled centrally top and bottom so they can be fixed to a post. If you would like to own one of these to enhance your garden please E-mither me for details.

And I'd like to thank...

Painting all day for days, how lucky I am


Merci!
The Artist Dea Paradisos's husband Richard Benjamin, for making me a new lightweight easel which does not slam on my hands and feet at odd moments like the old-school one I use.
Claude Monet, for the limited palette
Joe Plaskett for continuing to make me feel inspired and really driven to do things
Mario Doucet for dragging me out of a hole a few weeks ago
Rachel Moore for believing in me
My husband for support and years of love
Paint, brushes, fantastic light etc

30 day Tweet Trial

I have decided it is time to Tweet. I signed up to Twitter some months ago and then abandoned it in a middle-aged pfft way as inane waffle.

I have been online since Demon Internet sucked me in in the late 90s, but have never been an early adopter of anything much else. Well, apart from of things I should not have adopted early-on, like blonde 80s highlights, sandals and socks (how else to be warm and comfy between October and April?), toastie bags and an iPod pillow. That's it really, the rest of my life is made up of old stuff, second-hand things and ancient rituals. I even still wear Rimmel Heather Shimmer lipstick. Happy as I am comes to mind.

So Tweeting is like my mum and the words 'USB pen drive'. No relevance, or so I thought.

Anyway, I started in earnest (in my office) on Tuesday and have committed to Tweet once a day for the whole month of May and if I like it, for longer. The early signs are worrying, as Stephen Fry would say - and he is a famous Tweeter - it's quite interesting. I can definitely see how people in business find it useful.

Watch and learn. I have been Wiki-ing all the abbreviations. I now know what an RT is - Retweet, quoting another person's tweet to your followers, what #Follow Friday is - a day you recommend interesting people to your followers. I learned that you use @twittername to refer to another Tweeter. I found Twitpic and have another use for the lovely Tinyurl

Using Twitter, I have re-met some people I know and found that there are some nice projects online like this one, The Draw your Dad art project. It seems a good place to get fast answers, a colleague Tweeted that the car her daughter was in had broken down, a rescue was initiated via Twitter.

I have become a follower of a group of interesting souls including @helpsavebees a campaign run by Damien Grounds which I care about so much, I love bees. I have made a sign in the hope of attracting some more of these beautiful creatures in to my garden - I KNOW bees can read.


I am having a handful of these lovely signs made up as postcard size in acrylic. If you would like one of these for your garden let me know by email and I'll send you details.

I might be a late(ish) adopter but I do like a nice learning curve. Watch this slow gradient.

Twitter
Help Save Bees website
Naughty Mutt Graphic Design
Carla Boulton - Artist

Google Street View hmmm

So, a hypothetical cyber-stalker-type person can look up my address and see where I live. They might be able to see a blue toaster by the window in my kitchen. This has been possible for some time now, at least since I bought the toaster in March.

OK, you couldn't actually look 'up' a street online and see the dandelions growing through the cracks in the drive before the last month or so. Apart from this litter-on-the-garden type detail you could certainly get a pretty close-up aerial view, enough to see our badly-laid wiggly garden path anyway. Without using the interglobalsuperhighweb, it has been possible for years to search the electoral roll for the written record of people's whereabouts.

It's a bit like this: If you have relatives several thousand miles away that everyone would rather forget about - you know the type, hell to be with, hell to get rid of. Well, provided the Google Street View photo car thing has been up your street, these wierdo relatives can now have a closeish look and potentially gauge that you still have the same clapped-out old car that you had when you shooed them away years ago. They might learn that your new house has a funny looking spiky plant in the front garden, that your garage needs painting and, in a soul-lightening way, that if they are now in a wheelchair, access would be OK because there is a ramp up to the front door.

This is my hmmm. It stops at the front door. It's my door and it's closed unless I want it open. If anyone wants to have a steady drive past my house at say, 5 miles an hour to see these aforementioned details they can. I probably would not notice or care, (actually I might because I'm a nosy old bat). The point here is most information is available if you want to find it but it still doesn't give much insight - apart from to marketing bods - as to what the real nitty gritty innards of our lives are. Google Street View just provides pictures. Pictures for house-hunters, bored techies and for the five minutes while it's still interesting for everyone who wants to see the house where they lived when they were six.

As a business-person when I am asked to quote for any new-client work over a couple of hundred pounds I do a finance check. I can use any number of credit agencies and retrieve information, I can visit the Companies House website to make sure that people are who they say they are - and I do.

If an email plops in and I need to check out the person I can search online for their details, I can tell that yoohoo@daftaddress.com posts regular messages in the 'Care for your chinchilla' forum. I can easily see who owns a domain name, when they registered it and what other domains they run.

I can work out who called me by searching online for a phone number, this might tell me an area or an address. If I know a surname and vague address I can probably use the BT website or indeed the printed phone book to find a number and full address.

From my Google Analytics I can see who visits all of my websites, where they are in the world, what pages they look at most and how often they visit, I can even tell who their internet service provider is - clever eh?

I am not a deranged-stalker-beast. I am just always careful about who I engage with and like to know how people are finding me. As an adult human I am picky about friendships and picky about who I do business with. As an artist I find it fascinating how people connect and how in our techno-times we can be connected even if we really don't care to - I feel a project coming on. I don't think Google Street View encourages psychos either, they were there before, using less obvious methods to look at my toaster.

It's all OK anyway, in the UK we have been advised from on high that Google Street View does NOT invade personal privacy, I'm not sure I ever thought it did more than CCTV, good legs and a detailed map. Now I officially know it's my ally, I feel warm and fluffy and much more secure.

Useful links for stalkers and chinchilla lovers
Companies House
Experian credit check
The BT website
Chinchilla Care
Carla Boulton Artist
A great Web development company
A great Print design company

Woo

I did this, it's bizarre but the thought of sitting on the fourth plinth and being part of Antony Gormley's art really appeals.


I have discovered an artist whose work made me cry, Cliff Holden, he is part of the Borough Group (Paula Rego etc), he studied with David Bomberg, he is 91 and his experiences shine through. I can relate so much to his work.

Fin?

From woodlice to ginger ninja cats, we are a family and business with familiars. One of these furry companions is the very elderly Percy (shown below). At 119 in human years he's as old enough to have been on the local news at least once. Rescued as a pup, he's now the ancient wise-man of the pet hierarchy. Sometimes grumpy, mostly asleep, always emitting foul old sock and wee smells and often forgetting where he has left his glasses, Percy is the geriatric force to be respected.

Wisdom says that having pets teaches children lessons about life, death and caring. When several weeks ago the youngest of our two goldfish seemed to be on his last gills, I as an adult gained a new perspective on these subjects.

The fish was so poorly, he swam sideways, he gasped. I fed him peas which is supposed to help with fish constipation, in response, he floated upside-down. I conditioned him with Fish Conditioner - he looked worse. Every time I thought the end had come and braced myself with a slotted spoon to help him into his fully-lined wooden Turkish Delight box coffin, he perked up. This went on for days. I cried, he floated more and looked very sad. In these days we renamed him, he had always been 'Boring Fish', he was always dull, but now it seemed cruel so when we remembered, he became 'Hopeful Fish'.

During the few weeks that Boring was poorly all family members had ideas about how to help. Youngest son suggested "feed him to the cat, it's recycling", my farmer-dad suggested "knock it on the head" - with what? The fish's head was all of an inch wide. I just wanted to get him out and shout "Get better Boring...". We came to no conclusions; we weren't keeping him alive for our pleasure; he couldn't tell us how he felt, it was quite a strain.

Boring continued to trick us into thinking he was dead then he would miraculously loop the right-way-round loop. Until one morning, as I made tea, I noticed he had expired.

As a family we have had many discussions - never gloomy - about how it would be very kind if humans had an 'off' button. When life is just too tedious, or at a previously agreed moment the button could be used. We have talked about natural burial, about pretty shrouds made of sheep wool (no good for me - makes me itch!). About whether if you scatter ashes bits of the person are trying to find other bits as they float around the countryside...

All this candid grown-up, frank conversation has clearly been no use at all. I now worry about my previously steely nerves and can see I will have to re-open talks with my elders. If I can't flush a half-dead fish how am I ever going to get on the plane to Switzerland?

New work in a new space

Visited Bridget Rogers at Down to Earth Gallery in Whitchurch on Saturday to take some new pictures including the Theatre Severn drawings. Having moved sideways into a new ground floor unit and taken on a new upstairs gallery Down to Earth now has loads of natural light and good display areas - it's always really interesting to see different gallerists ideas of how to show work and Bridget and Phil's creative minds come out in their use of the available space. my drawings will be there until 9th May in the upstairs gallery. See more of these drawings on my own website.


My artist friends who form the group Severn8 have a show Personal Statements at the Hive Gallery at Belmont arts centre from 17th April - 22nd May. This is a group who met at Shrewsbury College of Art and continue to work and show together - it's a mixed bag of work ranging from abstract to portraits with mixed media and photography inbetween, worth a look if you happen upon Shrewsbury during this time.


With the weather being so amazing, the bright spring light is almost too much for my digital camera to cope with but it is still at hand most of the time. On our journey through Shropshire countryside yesterday my stop-start-leaning-out-of-the- window to get the elusive shot of a pheasant or just-right sprig of blossom was coined as 'danger-photography' by my daughter. Dangerous on single-track roads it may have been but when else do you get such gift pictures of dust-laden April skies and boingy little lambs?