The Value of Personal Projects

You might be a designer or painter or musician for your day job. Even if none of these are your profession,  you might spend a significant amount of time writing, drawing or painting for your boss or client. 

They have demands you are there to fulfill, and so most of your day might be spent meeting them. 

However, what do you really want to make or paint or create for yourself? What idea do you have that you want to throw down on a canvas and see come to life. These ideas may never get the money or recognition that you want, but they are there in your brain need to get out. This is your dream or personal project. It’s the thing you want to make for yourself that is near and dear to you. However how do we define “personal project”?

Define Personal Project?

The fact it is personal means it is yours and yours alone. You can say, draw, paint, make whatever you want to. That is the ideal goal behind the thing you want to make. Lots of times when I am at my day job, I will have an idea for a painting or a few and they go into a list that I have for myself. This is my “project list” or “idea list”. You might want to keep one for yourself in case you run out of inspirational ideas when you sit own to do work. When the time comes to start a new project and I don’t have an idea ready I look at the idea list to see if I can get any inspiration. This idea list fuels the personal project and can get you stared. The idea behind the personal project is that you create the thing that you want to see alive if someone gave you the time or the money to do so. Make the play, the song, the painting anything that you want to see alive and kicking and living. You are your won boss when it comes to the dream project so what you say goes. 

How Long Should it Take?

The answer is it should take a long as it takes. There is no real end timeframe that works for everyone.  When you are done you will “know” it for yourself. One summer, I was working for different companies, and I decided that after my next job had “ended” I was going to take several ,months off and just practice painting and drawing. This was a personal project I really wanted to see happen. I made the time and budgeted enough personal savings to see this come to light. In the end I spent about 8 months off from day job work, just to concentrate on getting better at drawing, and painting. I didn’t really preplan the length of time it would take to complete this for myself. I felt the time I put in was all valuable, because it meant a lot to me. It was my personal dream project for myself. In essence my dream project was not what I was making during those 8 months. My dream project was myself. I was putting time into myself to get where I wanted it to be, by practicing and getting better at the thing that I loved to do, which is drawing and painting.

What are some tings to take away from it?

Aside from piece of mind and the ability to nurture your self another hidden side benefit of the personal project is the fact you get to practice certain skillsets. For example if you want to make a personal project and write a book, you can take those 8 months off and put time into writing. Or if you want to make a play or a drawing, the hidden benefits are the experiences you get for doing the thing for yourself as your side project. At the end of the 8 months, I took off, I was better at anatomy finishing work from start to finish,  brainstorming idea concepts and making complete work. 

I was able to crank out more and more paintings because I put in the time investment to produce more of them. As a result I was further along skill-wise than had I not taken the 8 months off in the first place. 

You will also eventually see, the hidden benefits for the side project and the skills that you will gain while reaching your goals. You can then inject these skills back into client work (or your next side project).

Holiday RAWK 2017 (Setting up your space the night before the event)

Prepping and deciding for your show

Tomorrow is the Holiday RAWK Show and I am pretty close to getting everything in place to be ready for the event. There are just a few items I need to tighten up and I spent last weekend pulling it all together. Last week I went to check out the space and get a preview of the event, as well and get a sense of the things that I will need to be ready for Dec 20th. Below is a little bit of a run down that I hope will give you some ideas about how to prepare, wether it’s for your fist show our your 50th. 

How to prepare

The advisory board for the event is really top notch, which has been a really huge help. 

There have been a few weekly calls, ongoing e-mails, constant contact for people reaching out for advice and looking for help. It also helps that the festival coordinators are very organized. I can’t imagine the amount of time it takes to pull something like this together. It must be a monumental challenge to coordinate. This has taken at least 60% of the work off of the artists plate and made it so that we can just focus on the work and get things ready for the event. Even, if you don’t have a super top notch organizing team to pull the event together, at the very least have a contact person available for questions and concerns. It’s going to save a lot of time and energy.

Checking out the space in advance

As part of he set up we were given the opportunity to check out the space and see what the layout is going to look like. We got an email with a floor plan and a designated area which was also helpful. 

However, that is not quite the same as being able to go and check out the location and see the actual space where you are going to show your work. That is a big difference between this show and the other. shows. This was also monumentally helpful as I was trying to decide what I am going to prepare for the event. Now after seeing the space I have a sense of what makes the most sense to prepare. I have a sense of how much real estate I will need and what the logistics would look like. I can definitely project, but will need to make sure to bring extra power supplies and power strips and account for the people that might get in the way. The key thing to note here is that checking out the logistics of the space is a key to getting prepared way in advance.

Doing a dry run

Last weekend I took the night before to do a test/dry run of what I am projecting for the show. 

This meant setting up all of the parts in my apartment/studio so that I don’t have to fumble with setup on the day of the show. I set up the projector, laid out the business cards and oriented my space so that I can get a sense of what is going to happen the day of. Normally most shows don’t give you the luxury of much prep time. This however has been another key in helping me decide to project and prepare. 

It will also be important to get the measurements as close as possible to the day of, just to try and simulate the day of experience.

Getting ready the night before

I have made my e-mails lists, I have my business cards ready, I have my slide show set up and ready to go, and I have all of my hanging utensils in place. That means that I don’t have anything left to do the night before. (side note: because I am going to be projecting from an iPad, anything can go wrong, so it is going to help if you are doing a set up like this, to also have an alternative method to project from a source, in case of technical glitches, etc. etc. So I will also make a copy of the showcase on my phone as well. Prep your setup as much as you can. That leaves you space to relax and enjoy the show the day of the event. 

Next time I will post some photos, and give a round up of how everything went.

Holiday RAWK 2017 Preshow Prep (Making Business cards)

One of the promotional items that I am working on for the show next week are new business cards. I don’t give out a ton, but for showing work and connecting with people, the business card is still ideal. Here are a few tips and reasons why.

Why the business card still works?

Considering the age of texting, social media facebook, instagram and all of those things, the need for the personal business card seems to have never gone away. It’s like a little piece of yourself you can give to a potential customer or client. This will make them remember you when you don’t have access to social media. If you happen to have a professional beneficial encounter with someone you are not going to stop to find a wifi signal to connect on social media. This is the reason why the personal business card is still the top way to exchange information. It’s a quick exchange which you can then refer back to later on when you are home.

What kind of card do you need?

There are many kinds of cards you can use to get the point across. You can go the traditional route of the small pocket sized card. You can go more of the unique route with a non traditional shape or design. 

The point is to have the most key and relevant parts of your contact information you want to include on the card. If you are an artist or photographer, having your work on the back of one of the sides of the card is not a bad idea either. A lot of sites give you this option so you can provide your audience a preview of your work. Your goal here is to leave a memorable impression with your design and help your client or customer to remember you later on when they go back to find your information and follow up.

Sites and other resources

There are a ton of sites that you can use for printing purposes. 

My personal favorites are

-Vistaprint.com

-Moocards.com

These two sites have easy interfaces, the ability to upload designs, customize layout, pick a card style, etc. and much more and also ship to you when you are ready. 

Also, take a look and explore what other promotional ideas you can come up with that might be useful. 

You can have a business card with a discount code on the back, or a free download link item help your audience remember you. The most important thing is for the business card to do the work for you so that your potential client or customer doesn’t have to.

Holiday RAWK Show 2017 (Show Prep How to prep for your first art show including social media)

So you got into an art show? Fantastic! This is great news and you should be proud of yourself. Now you get to showcase your work in a different avenue that just online. You get to meet with people in person, and press the flesh and actually talk directly to the people that currently support you. Hopefully, they will also will become your future fans down the road. This is great news and you should be proud of yourself.

The next step is to begin planning for the show, there are a few things to consider as you make your gallery/art show debut. Below are some of the ways you can start to get ready.

Setting up the space

The very first thing to consider is, where is your space going to be held? Are you going to be in a dark room or in a light room? Are you going to have a wall to hang your work or are you in an open space/gallery? Will you need to get a display banner to showcase your work, or are you going to be presented with a table where you can spread your work out? All of these things play into how your work will be displayed and how you will want to catch the eye of potential buyers or viewers. For the Holiday RAWK show that I will be participating in next month, these are the exact things I will need to consider as I prepare for the show. Currently the space is an open area, with a gated wall that I can display my work against (think a gate-like fence where you can hang materials). For my event my plan is to hang a sheet over the edge and then project my work against the sheet. I have already received the projector in the mail and tested it las night (it’s pretty sweet). So now the next thing I will additionally hang a banner showcasing my name so people will know it is my work. I am honestly not sure how this is going to work yet. The good news is that I will be able to walk through the space and get a preview which will help with the planning. Seeing the space in advance is key for how you are going to display your work during a show.

Promotions:

I have several promotional ideas, I am just not sure which one will work. First-off I have already done the social media promotion right away, so that is done. Although done, I will need to keep posting and reposting until the day of the show itself. I also need to develop/update my business cards.

There are several sites you can use to do this, but the best sites that I have seen so far are:

MOO cards:

Have ordered from them several times, and I think I will keep doing so. 

They have tons of options for card stock, it’s really easy to apply designs and make edits.  

You will want to account for delivery time wen ordering by mail. So make any of the promotional ideas that require shipping early so that you are not stressed out about getting the materials to arrive.

www.moocards.com

Sticker Mule:

People love* stickers and they are a good way to have your logo or brand on visible items so that people start to gain brandd recognition. One of the next things to do is have stickers printed up and shipped. 

For that I use Sticker Mule. They have lots of design shapes to choose from, and are fast and easy to use. Under the shame principle, make sure that you order the stickers early enough so that you get the materials on time for delivery.

www.stickermule.com

Getting the Word out

The next thing I need to do is send out an e-mail to the people I want to directly invite. 

The e-mail has already been drafted and I will spend time today looking it over to make sure that the e-mail makes sense and is not too dense or long.

From there I will complete the contact listing for the e-mail and send it today. 

I think that today is a good day (Tuesdays). I can have the e-mail and the e-mail list ready to go, and send an e-mail every Tuesday and Friday leading up to the show to remind people to buy tickets. 

However, e-mail communication part is only the first step. I think the most effective way to get the word out is just to ask people directly. I have already told several folks bout the show and my idea is to then follow up with them  directly so they remember about the event and the tickets. The deadline for ticket is a week before the show itself, so it will be important to stay on people’s radar for purchasing. 

All in all, I think the event will be fun, and the hardest part will be sending the word out, getting people to come, and not resting easy until all is done. More on how it’s all going next week I have 7 days left.