Brand name, or generic term? And why?

I recently worked on an exhibition catalogue that listed the materials and techniques of the quilts shown. One aspect of copy-editing it was to decide whether to use the brand names of the products that the contributors listed.

This was hardly a dilemma as it's totally unnecessary to do so - we weren't getting any financial contribution from the manufacturers of these products, nor were these tutorials on techniques that depended on the performance qualities of a certain product rather than something similar but not identical.

So any material that started with a capital letter got a very suspicious look. Here's my list of trade names, and the generic terms to replace them. It's not a complete list by any means.

Brusho colour - concentrated watercolour

Egyptian cotton - cotton

fabric dyed by a named company or a named individual = commercially hand-dyed fabric

Inktense pencils - water soluble ink pencils

Lutradur - non-woven polyester 

Manutex - dye thickener (Procion dyes thickened with Manutex = thickened fibre-reactive dyes)

Markal sticks – oil sticks

Pima cotton – cotton

Procion dye – fibre-reactive dye

Superior Razzle Dazzle thread (or any named thread) = thread

Thermofax screens – screens

Transfoil – transfer foil

Xpandaprint – expandable printing medium

One that gave me trouble was

Angelina - heat bondable fibres? synthetic fibres? (some are not heat bondable)

Any suggestions?

In the art-gallery world, labels for drawings, prints, and photographs seem more and more to be stating the type, ie manufacturer, of paper used. No doubt different papers have different qualities, but you don't see "2B pencil" or "Golden watercolours" along with "Hannemuhle archival paper". I cynically wonder whether this is a kickback to the paper manufacturer, in return for a bit of generosity towards the artist. But maybe it's just the artist or gallery being reassuring to their customers that the artwork is made with best quality materials?

At the craft fair

Starting to set up

The doors open before I'm ready

Friends, visitors, customers

My display included a tablecloth (mis)printed with Travel Lines

Thanks, first of all, to blog readers who sent good wishes - and to friends for coming along. Although it was only six hours, the fair was fairly quiet and time passed slowly. I did ok in terms of sales and the day produced a profit of (let's not be coy) of about £200 - which of course is risible in terms of hourly rate, given all the work involved not just in the making but in all the peripherals, an hourly rate in pence rather than pounds. Anyone who has ever gone the "handmade" sales route will recognise the situation, it's a common problem.

This was definitely a learning curve, so what have I learned? It was a question of "sight unseen" both in terms of previous craft fairs at this venue and the venue itself, so Lesson 1 is: be prepared for anything, be flexible - and make sure you have a setting-up toolkit with you. (I'll be adding those to my product range!)

Nothing could be done about the lighting level, and it was chilly. Lesson 2: wear warm clothes, bring extras, keep moving.

Nor could anything be done about the position of the table - the pillar at least was useful for displaying the price list! There was space behind the table for one or other of the sellers with tables on either side of the pillar, and on balance it was better to have the chair at the end of the table - fortunately I was at the end of the row, not in the middle. Lesson 3: if possible, request "table next to wall" or "table at end of row".

The display itself gives you lots of options. To get some "vertical impact" I used small wooden cabinets, opening the drawers for display - with storage in the closed drawers. For a screen that gave hiding places for untidy items like a coffee cup or notebook, I used A3 pieces of foam core, cutting them carefully so the backing would act as a hinge, and mounting examples of the Travel Lines, as well as a few short paragraphs giving "the story". This elicited no interest whatsoever - hey ho! 

I was able to use the Lines printed on the tablecloth as a talking point, but feel that the pattern made the tabletop look too cluttered. it could be "reconfigured" to go around the sides only, to be pinned in place.

As for talking points - I was taking this opportunity to practise telling people about the Travel Lines, what they are and how they came about and all that, but haven't got it right yet. It's an ongoing project… I did get to write some "soundscape lines" during a bout of singing - the young ladies in the barbershop quartet were really good, but their words were lost in the hubbub of general conversation.

Lesson 4, then, is along the lines of "less is more" - things will be more eye-catching if they have space around them. (The table alongside me was piled high and spilling in both directions…)

All in all, it was a good atmosphere at the fair, with mulled cider and tasty cakes and freshly-made sandwiches, and sellers with a range of goods. Very child-friendly too. I hope that next year there will be more publicity and more people will come!

To end, the seasonal decorations of the house across the street from the venue (photos by Tony Wallis) -

Small business Saturday, 7 December

Small Business Saturday is all about encouraging everyone in the UK to support small businesses, both on the day and beyond.

This year will see the first Small Business Saturday in the UK, held on one of the busiest shopping days of the year - the first Saturday in December.

(from the website)

This is a movement to rally people to shop at local businesses - an entirely laudable aim. (I'll be taking part in a small, even tangential, way by setting up my stall at the Christmas Fair at St Johns Notting Hill on that day, even though I don't consider myself a business. But hey - it's good to be part of things, isn't it?)

Interesting to see the eligibility criteria (do any of your local businesses have a turnover approaching £10m?) -

ELIGIBILITY
We founded the Campaign to promote and support small businesses; accordingly, you should only download and use the Marketing Materials if you fall within these criteria:
 Your turnover (for all outlets and other business locations within the UK) for the 2012 calendar year must have been ten million pounds (£10,000,000) or less
 You must not be:
o involved as a principal course of business in the manufacture, promotion or sale of pornography, sexual aids, firearms or other weapons
o involved with the promotion or advocacy of any sensitive or controversial topic, or otherwise participate in activities that we determine to be inconsistent with our values.

Costing and pricing

In the season of degree shows, an article in Crafts magazine (May/June, issue 242) setting out points to consider when preparing work for sale -

When it comes to good photography - they suggest putting together a linked group of products and getting them photographed  in the best possible way - "good photos are the key to getting into fairs, press and on blogs".

"Are you charging enough?" - cost the work to include materials and overheads, and go to the Design Trust website for a detailed cost calculation (thedesigntrust.co.uk). To price the work, research the market - "it's a question of finding the correct balance. If you charge too little you will not necessarily sell more and won't make any money; if you cahrge too much you will not have many sales." 

From the Design Trust link (which has lots of info): "The wholesale price would normally be double the cost price, and then double again for recommended retail price." This post lists (and explains) 14 different categories of price.

Make your own business cards

Why pay ££ for a batch of hundreds of cards - when you can easily make them at home as needed?

Sarah needed some business cards to give out at her market stall, where she's selling her etchings - so she cut up an unsuccessful print and simply wrote her details on the back. (The paper is too thick to go through the printer.)

I have a template ready and printed the back of some "journey lines" screenprinted pages, then did a little snipping and interlocking - the "fish" flatten down, and the cards show the back side of the page as well as the contact details.

Each card is a unique little artwork. The etchings especially.

ps - it's been brought to my attention (thanks, Judy!) that Thomas Heatherwick, the designer, made his own business cards for his MA show thus:
Using his kitchen stove and a specially created branding iron, he branded his name and details onto the wooden sticks used by doctors to depress your tongue.  Then he made chocolate-dipped icecream lollies on the sticks.  It took him four weeks, working overnight at a local icecream factory.

Art resources on the web

Some UK-based resources mentioned in the professional practice seminar at college last week -

http://www.artquest.org.uk/ (arts council - membership of the site is free; lots of "how to" articles and legal info)

http://www.a-n.co.uk/publications/shortcut/408712 (there's a "toolkit" for artists, but you may have to pay a membership to access it)

http://www.jotta.com/jotta/ (has free newsletter)

http://www.artsthread.com/ ("the world's only creative graduate website")

http://www.axisweb.org/ ("the online resource for contemporary art")

at the moment www.artindustri.com ("the largest art portal on the net") isn't coming up on my computer, but it too was mentioned in the seminar and is listed, with other potentially useful sites, here: http://www.xmarks.com/site/www.artindustri.com/

http://www.isendyouthis.com/opportunities.aspx

Chinese dancers, 7th-8th century, at Guimet museum, Paris

And also...

Thinking to find an image to go with this list, instead I found a random selection of further resources - again mainly applicable to the UK, but in any country a search for "art opportunities" and/or "art resources" should turn up relevant sites.

If you're an art historian - http://www.aah.org.uk/jobs and http://www.aah.org.uk/resources

http://www.thecreativesociety.co.uk/about-us/  ("New Deal of the Mind is a coalition of artists,entrepreneurs and opinion formers who recognise the economic, social and cultural value of Britain's creative talent")

http://ixia-info.com/ ("the public art think tank")

http://www.artslant.com/ew/main (local and worldwide -"the #1 contemporary art network, has comprehensive calendars for openings, exhibits and events, a worldwide community of professional artists, and local city editions for the art lover")

A business plan for art?

Available as a print here (no affiliation!)

Even if you aren't making your living from art, a business plan might be useful for helping you focus on the work you're setting out to make, and help maintain motivation. Somewhere, research has shown that when people write down their goals they are much more likely to achieve them. 

This post on the artbiz blog called for 200-word business plans, to include 1) your art or product, 2) audience, 3) promotions, 4) money, 5) how you will overcome challenges or obstacles, and 6) how you will know if you’ve succeeded.

OK, it's worth a try...

1) My product is my exhibition in the final degree show, to be ready in three months from now.

2) Audience: invited and casual visitors to the show - these are people who have an interest in student work.

3) Promotions: writing about my work, and mentioning show dates on this blog; invitations sent out; mentioning show on various online groups

4) Money: the show usually has a shop to sell books made by students

5) My main challenge is to produce innovative work of a high standard, which requires focus on my project theme and critical evaluation of the work as it develops, and copious amounts of studio time

6) One measure of success is a course grade better than just Pass; another is sales of items in the shop. Most valuable, though, would be further opportunities arising from the show.

That didn't require as much thinking as I thought it would, because having the categories helped with focus. It does leave out the immediate thing, which is ... making the "innovative work of a high standard" - and the way that ties in with my hidden agenda, of developing some strands or themes that I'll be able to draw on subsequently. Probably that requires a plan of a different sort.