If you're looking for new ways to promote your artwork, I highly recommend checking out Zazzle. It's a site that lets you customize multiple products (check out my postage to go with my engagement invites above, which are available for sale here!) and you can either make your projects public and sell them through their site, or keep them private and have them printed for yourself exclusively as a way to polish off your professional presence to your clients. There are a lot of different products to design, from notecards to calendars, which can be great products for indie photographers, fine artists, and graphic designers as well. Be sure to check them out, and see what we've been designing at our Zazzle storefront!
After nearly a year of ignoring my studio space at home, I've decided it is high time to make it look more like a graphic designer works there. Don't get me wrong - it's really pretty: lavender accent walls with a light cream carpet, a large window that floods the space with light, and these awesome industrial-style glass and silver metal desks and shelving units from CB2. Other than the basics, though, it's not very inspired - or maybe it's that I'm just not very inspired by it? Whatever the case, it's clearly upgrade time, as I'm planning on doing some freelance graphic design work for the indie community in the near future (more on that soon), and will be spending my weekends almost exclusively in there! I figured I'd share since (in my opinion) the more you like your work environment and the more professional you think it looks, the more you'll take yourself seriously - and in turn, your clients!
My first step: wall lettering. I want to spell out "THE STUDIO" - nothing too creative, because I don't want to be locked into a name I can't or won't want to use later. I was originally considering buying these cardstock letters from Target, installing them quickly and calling it a day, but I thought it would be great to have some dimension to them, since the light is really beautiful in that room. I had been looking through Joann a few weeks back and found some really awesome dimensional letters that appeared to be made of chipboard - there are also these wood letters available online, though I think I'd prefer a flat edge to a beveled one. Since I want them white, I'm planning on painting the letters with Gesso, but you could use a variety of paint media to cover it if you'd prefer a different color. (If you're interested in coloring it but still maintaining some of the wood grain, why not try painting it with gouache? Gouache seems expensive, but if you use it right, it can go a long way, and the price could be well worth the final results!) Although I'm keeping it as a flat, graphic color, you could also consider rubbing the paint down with sand paper for a more grunge look, or focus on just the edges with your sand paper for an antiqued look.
I haven't decided on how I'll mount them yet, but I may end up purchasing a white Ikea Lack shelf (it's thick, basic, and modern looking), or I may just make something similar and set the type on that. The other option would be to mount them directly to the wall, which would probably look better given how clean the rest of the aesthetics in the room are. I'm going to run to Home Depot - I'll let you know what they recommend for that!
So I caved and registered for IndiePublic. I didn't need another online place to waste away my few hours of free time, but oh! The peer pressure! If you feel like caving too, be sure to friend us.
IndiePublic is a great concept and an amazing opportunity for craft supporters, businesspeople, bloggers, and retailers alike. It's growing very quickly, and I've already found a bunch of new designers I'm interested in featuring, so it's a great way to find and be found... think MySpace populated with artsy kids and not shady.
What I'm super excited about is the broader opportunity to interact with all of you folks. I'm using our site as a means for you all to give me your immediate feedback - no launching your email interface necessary if you've got a question or comment. It's also going to drive our new Discounts and Offers program which we'll be making available to IndiePublic members - if you've got a coupon or promotion code you'd like to exclusively offer Try This at Home readers that is valid for at least a week, use our IP site to submit them. We'll publish all valid discount codes every Monday, which means free exposure for you! The longer the code lasts, the more links you'll get - it's a win-win situation for our indie businesses and fans alike, and I couldn't be more pumped about it! See our IndiePublic site for more information if you're interested in participating!
In the same vein as yesterday's post, I figured it would be good to follow up with some pointers about photographing your work. Especially on sites such as Etsy, where your product really is in a sea of competing items, you need to take great photos to capture the attention of the browser. They better they look and the more they pop, the more likely you'll get the click - and of course, the more clicks, the better the chance at the sale!
When photographing my portfolio almost two years ago, I definitely learned a lot just through experimentation, so I'd love to share my insight with you - hopefully it will help.
Find and get to know your camera.Most people are using digital cameras these days. If you're doing product photography, you'll probably want a Digital SLR rather than your standard point and shoot digital. A digital SLR (single lens reflex) functions like a standard film camera. You can adjust the apeture and focus point, unlike its point and shoot counterpart, which tends to have a flat focus. Always try it out before you buy it, because like any other tool an artist uses, you'll find cameras you're more comfortable with. If a DSLR is out of your price range, don't worry about using a point and click for now - you can always upgrade later, or you can simply use a film camera and ask for a CD back rather than prints (though that might be a hassle). I personally use a DSLR and would never use a point and shoot again; my weapon of choice is a Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT. When you've purchased your camera, you should make it a point to set time aside to read the manual and experiment - take a couple of shots on different settings and see what you like. I highly recommend using the Macro mode on your camera for anything small, such as jewelry - you'll get very tight, graphic close-ups on details that translate very well into feature photos (remember you should also pull back to see the whole piece in alternate shots so the customer can also have a sense of scale).
Use natural light, or white light. I find the best shots for most objects is natural light. Don't use direct light; aim to shoot in partial shade, during a partly cloudy day, or in the morning or late afternoon. If you can't time it perfectly or weather conditions aren't ideal for shooting, turn off the lights in your room and shoot near a window that does not have direct light coming into it. If, for whatever reason, you don't have enough light or are shooting at night, you have to be very careful about shooting with household light. NEVER USE YOUR CAMERA'S FLASH - it will wash out your product, which is not very flattering. I highly recommend investing in some GE Reveal bulbs - they shine bright white so there is less of a color cast to your product. Another incredibly useful purchase (in my opinion) is either one or a couple Medusa-head lamps like this one from Target - you can adjust your light sources as well as how much is coming into the shot quite easily, rather than using a bunch of various lamps. If you do purchase a Medusa, however, make sure the plastic lamp shades around the bulb are WHITE, otherwise you will get color casting.
Simplify your backgrounds. A lot of times I see people shooting stuff on very busy backgrounds or environments, but I think the most successful feature shots are more graphic and are really about the product. For smaller items, solid color paper, flat table cloths or pillow cases, or wood surfaces (minor distressing is okay) are often best. Try to avoid busy patterns (if you prefer patterns, think small polka dots or simple stripes); you can make solid colors more interesting by having an interesting texture to the fabric or a pretty tooth to the paper. If you need a shot illustrating the product in your environment, simplify the space as much as possible, and use the environment photo as an alternate rather than the main picture. Most importantly, choose colors that make your product pop the most - if you're mostly metal or neutal colors, head towards bright, poppy colors. Really nice mushroom grays or warm neutrals work beautifully and look sophisticated against brighter colors or jewelry with colorful accent stones.
Keep in mind that Etsy will end up cropping your photos into a square when it's the feature photo - you will want to compose your photos with that in mind. If you've used natural light, I'd generally discourage bringing your photos into Photoshop unless there is color correcting that needs to be done - for example, if you have a color cast. Slight adjusting may be needed in Levels if you've used indoor lighting, which may have flattened out your product.
I admit it - I'm a very picky web browser. I surf so many sites each afternoon, looking for great new product, and I confess that I could easily be missing a lot of great stuff simply because of my Internet prejudices. I'm sure in a lot of respects I'm a pretty basic Internet user - I'd say you have about 5 seconds to capture my interest, and if it's busy or cluttered, you can pretty much count on me closing the window before I get further into the site.
After a particularly long string of sites that turned me off today (and I concede the point that I've had a pretty bad week, so I may have been a little more impatient than usual), I decided to dedicate an entire post to tips on how to create a cleaner, more professional website. I'm not going to point out what not to do, since that would be unfair to the website owners, but I will list sites that I think are displaying my points well. Hopefully that will give you great inspiration!
Don't use a free server. Seeing banner ads or pop ups on a business websites is frustrating to the user and doesn't give you a professional appearance. This applies to text ads like Google's AdSense. If you can't afford professional hosting services, you should be selling on a place like Etsy or Mintd before upgrading to your own site - with the extra hit potential generated by those kinds of sites, it's probably better for smaller or beginning operations anyway.
If you don't have web experience, hire a professional. While I love the do-it-yourself spirit of the crafters who make the great products I see every day, I get concerned when I see websites that don't demonstrate the level of craftsmanship I know so many of you are capable of. The web is a scary medium - if you don't know how to use it to the best of its ability, you run the risk of looking less professional than you actually are. Hire a professional, or if you can't necessarily pay them a huge amount, either purchase a site template from a designer or negotiate a barter system. Aeolidia offers web design services as well as really attractive prefab designs that can be easily customized to suit your needs.
Don't use blink or marquee tags, or use a large block of h1, h2, or other headline text. Blink and marquee tags don't work on all browsers and often slow down your load and scrolling time because it takes a computer longer to process it. Headline tags should be used sparingly - like its name, it's really supposed to be reserved for, well, headlines! If you use an entire paragraph of headline text, it's incredibly difficult for the reader to understand what call outs you're trying to prioritize. If it's kept as a navigational device to bring the reader into different sections, it's a lot more legible, and you'll have an easier time of bringing people into the information you're trying to hand them. Avoiding use of these three no-no's in internet typography will make your site seem a lot more mature.
Try to keep your typefaces down to three, maximum. This is probably my biggest pet peeve, and the mistake I see being used the most often. A lot of sites use a huge variety of different typefaces and try call out different product styles or categories by doing it, but it only makes the whole site a LOT more confusing. Your whole site should boil down to no more than three typefaces ("fonts"): your Internet-standard text font (Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, Century Gothic, Trebuchet MS, Tahoma) and up to two "brand fonts". Brand fonts are those that fit in with your company - you may use them in your logo or on your packaging. If you can reduce it down to one font (not including your logo), then that's even better! Try to avoid script faces in this area as they are often hard to read, especially as they get smaller. I find that san serifs work the best for me on the web, as you can tell from this current layout, which utilizes the typeface Gotham by Hoefler & Frere-Jones.
White space is your friend. Just because there's still room in your layout doesn't mean you need to fill it. White space is a great design element that helps even the busiest of layouts breath and look less "all over the place". White space, of course, doesn't need to be "white"; here the word refers more to "empty" than to a fixed light value. Of all sites, I think Wild Garden does a phenomenal job respecting their white space. The right panel has a lot of room to breathe, and the large detail images of their shirts, which rotate on each refresh, are all photographed on a white background to help give the feeling of even more white space. This could work also with a colored background - I would just advise that whatever color you photograph on matches the intended background of the rest of the site.
Sketch out a clear and concise way to organize your information before you get started, and always consider how YOU would use the site if you were just a visitor, not the owner. The most successful sites I've been to have a logical way of moving around their logo, their navigation, their news, and their features while still giving each area its own clearly definited space to live in, room to breathe, and an appropriate level of hierarchy. In this area, I have a lot of respect for what Freshly Blended Press is doing with their site. Their masthead is clearly defined from the rest of the site by the choice of a color (chocolate brown) which clearly contrasts from the background of the rest of the site (white); it also cleanly goes across the whole page rather than only a portion of it, making the separation more pronounced and attractive. The navigation is basic and logically placed; the faint pattern behind it is not busy or contrasted enough to distract the browser while using it. The page's content is clearly sectioned off with a lot of white space; photos, dotted rules and large dated numbers are used to help break up the areas into highly legible sections. Font size changes between the feature area and the updates help establish a hierarchy and draw you to the feature area first; the type size change gives a good range of font sizes while not being too small or too large.
Remember - having a clean, professional website does not mean it has to be devoid of personality. It's a more practical concept than that - is it easy to use and legible? Is it logical? Can your visitors understand it? Does it look to visually busy? There are a bunch of good examples of sites bursting with personality that are effectively organized - I think Modishoppe and queenthings are great examples of sites that reflect the brand and the owner but still are well designed and organized (yes, I know Jenny's got a placeholder there right now, I just realized that - but I'm sure her next incarnation will be just as successful as the last one!).
I may continue this post later. There's a long list of thoughts I have in this area, so I know I'm forgetting something. Got questions? Need advice? Let me know! I'm here to help.
Now that I'm in the process of starting my own line, the biggest hurdle to overcome isn't about planning the product (surprisingly enough!). It's the business card. That might not make much sense at first, but think about it: in one little piece of paper, you've got to tell a story about yourself, your product, your company, and - of course - including your contact information. Isn't that a little overwhelming?
Never fear though - thanks to a wonderful coworker of mine (yay, Roxanne!) I found this awesome Flickr album that covers some of the most interesting, unique business cards out there to inspire you. They may not all be for indie businesses, but some of the design elements can certainly influence you to make it your own (or, in this case, your business's own!).
When you're first starting out, one of the most exciting parts (at least for me) is choosing the name you'll be working with. With the introduction of the internet, people are competing across the country as well as around the world, and finding a unique, memorable name is more important than ever. You also want to ensure you're not violating any trademarks (eek!). Here's how to find that perfect name.
Make a list. It seems obvious, but this step is an important one. Make sure it's written or typed, not just in your memory. Number or arrange them by your name preference so you can check the ones you're attached to first.
Check with the Trademark Office. Free trademark searches can be done here with the United States Government. If you live outside the states, check your government's website for more information on trademark searches. If your preferred name comes back with a trademark result, never fear! Inspect the entry more closely, and check to see the industry the trademark is effective in. If the name is trademarked for, say, medical supplies and you're making quilts, you're probably in the green. It's always good to come back to this page later to trademark your name. In the United States, you'll want a Utility Filing for a logo/logotype or drawing, or Design Filing for an invention or product design. It's not as expensive as people would expect - and the USPTO offers reduced filing fees for small entities (individuals and small businesses, which I'm sure the vast majority of you are!). Remember, you do not need to register with the USPTO to use the ™ symbol, but the ® symbol can not be used without a completed filing.
Check with a Whois. A what? A Whois search engine is a program that lets you check various domain names to see if they're available. Check out the domains you'd consider getting - if your business has multiple words in its name, check it without spaces (likethis.com/net/org) and with dashes (like-this.com/net/org). Take a look at the domains that are registered with that name, if there are any. What's on their website? You don't want people confusing your business with another, so if your business is too similar, or if the other website could be considered offensive in any way, either change your prospective URL or move down the list and start testing another name.
Check with Etsy. The easiest way to find out if another indie designer is using your name is to check Etsy. You can search by user name, and you can return more user names similar to yours that you might miss otherwise by typing in a keyword rather than the whole name. For example, if I were to start up business using Try This at Home as my business name and trythisathome as my Etsy name, I could opt to key in "home" and see what pops up. If nothing appears similar to what you're hoping for, you're golden.
Check with State and Local government. Now that you've done all you can online, it's time to get out of the house and make sure nobody is operating in your city or state with the same name. After all, not everyone is operating online yet, and you wouldn't want to settle on a name and start producing business cards, packaging, and other promotional pieces only to find out later a mom and pop shop about 30 minutes away is preventing you from using that name when filing for a business license. All it takes is a quick trip to City Hall - clerks there should be able to do a search for you.
I hope this was informative and helpful. If you have any more questions, I'd be happy to help you in any way I can - just let me know. Happy Name Hunting!
Probably the most frequently asked question I see when going on Craft Community boards is the question of how to price items for wholesale and retail. I've never found comparison pricing particularly effective; one can look to certain areas of Etsy where that method has created an environment where products seem underpriced which gives new businesses with a fair profit margin a hard time competitively (although, granted, all is fair in love and crafts!). After hundreds of browser bookmarks and notes to myself in my "business plan" binder, along with hours of calculating out different formulas to see which really works the best the most consistently, I've come to realize there is no definitive answer. It's a matter of personal preference (which sort of puts all of us back at square one, eh?).
I guess my point in this preface is that this post is not meant to provide you with the Golden Rule for your pricing, but give you some options for formulas I've accumulated over the past months. Since this all comes from a notebook I've kept but (silly me!) did not attribute to anyone in particular, I'm not sure where I found these specifically; however, in my experience, the following formulas are generally commonplace and only differ in the wording rather than the core math itself.
When you're ready to test these formulas, my suggestion is you set aside some time to actually start producing the product in question. Carefully time yourself and determine how long it takes to make one item (if it's something like candles or soap, which is generally made in quantity, divide the time it takes to make the batch by how many were in the batch). I generally find that charging about $8-10 an hour for labor usually creates a fair price range for most products. Itemize exactly how much of all your supplies you used and determine how much money you personally spent making the product to the penny. If you have your own domain name, use overhead to account for your hosting fees and registration fees, as well as any other paid fees you have. If you use Etsy and PayPal, use overhead to account for what you pay there. Make sure you write down all those monetary values, then plug them in to the different formulas. Whichever one comes out with the price you think is the most reasonable should be tested again with another product. If it still comes out with a reasonable price, you've found yourself a winner!
Assuming you have no intention to sell wholesale, or you only plan on selling consignment, this formula is pretty basic and can get everyone started quickly. Note the base formula as well as the consignment formula. The consignment formula adjusts slightly higher to compensate for the normally 40% fee taken by consignment shops, giving you a similar profit to what you would normally make. Don't feel frightened to do this, or to adjust slightly off of the consigment formula - the high volume of traffic and shoppers usually generated by consignment shops makes slightly higher prices justified.
This one isn't that much more complicated. If you're looking to build a price with a wholesale base in mind, it's always good to consider what you're willing to sell your product to resellers for while still making the sales worth your while. You may decide to go for less money on the wholesale side simply to get your name out, or more because of the time and love put in. Whichever end you choose, plug it into the "Desired Profit", and you've got yourself a wholesale number.
It's important to also note here that while doubling wholesale is a generally accepted method of getting a retail price, I've also seen some multiply by 1.5 and 1.75, depending on the product. Just make sure to give enough markup room for your wholesale accounts!
The Fixed Wholesale to Retail Conversion
(Supplies + Labor + Overhead) x 2.25 = Wholesale Price
Wholesale Price x 2 = Retail Price
Instead of assigning an arbitrary profit amount to the item in question, this gives a fixed margin and can be applied to multiple items without having to toil over what you consider to be "fair". Like the previous formula, your wholesale can be multiplied by either 1.5 or 1.75 to suit your business.
So everyone loves Paper Source, right? If you're there as frequently as I am, though, it starts to add up - particularly if you're buying in bulk for business purposes. For paper crafting businesses, Paper Source stock means quality, but depending on what you're buying, it can make the end product a little less profitable considering all your hard work.
Luckily for you, there's a way around it! (Or perhaps, it's through it?) Enter Waste Not Paper, Paper Source's wholesale division (thanks for the clarification, Jan). You'll need to provide a retailer number of course, but if you've followed standard legal procedure, you should already have your EIN (unless it's your Social Security number) and other documentation to prove you're authorized to buy wholesale.
There's a lot of questions on everyone's minds about how to take the plunge... and start an Etsy shop. I've been surfing for a while to research these things and found a great library of tutorials that can hopefully help some of you out!
