Gypsy chic e zine issue 14 editor lorraine stylianou

the magazine dedicated to greeting card publishing and entrepreneurship

Gypsy Chic

magazine Issue 14 - 2017

Stationery Trends

ARE YOU ON A MISSION?

INVESTMENT

PITCHING

COLOURING

PAGES

anagh & John v a K ra u a L h it w iews ise McGinty u INSIDE!!! Interv o L d n a y r r a B La!, Orla Higgins of Go La of Impack Art

BOOK NOOK

CONTENTS 3

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

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INTERVIEW WITH... GO LA LA!

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INVESTMENT PITCHING

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10 INTERVIEW WITH... ORLA BARRY 13 COLOURING PAGES 14 INTERVIEW WITH... IMPACK ART

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17 BOOK NOOK 18 STATIONERY TRENDS

20 WHAT VALUE ARE YOU ADDING IN YOUR BUSINESS? 22 ARE YOU ON A MISSION? 23 GYPSY CHIC QUOTES

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LETTER

from the Editor

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elcome to Issue 14 – another Gypsy Chic milestone. In the past month we’ve celebrated Spring Equinox, the UK’s Mothering Sunday, St Patrick’s day, St David’s day and International Women’s day to name a few – all great card designing/sending opportunities.

I’ve been working fast and furious on a number of projects including my architectural sketches, more animal designs, and writing for this ezine.

In between, I’ve been packing boxes, and decluttering ready for my next house move. A rolling stone gathers no moss – just racks up a lot of chiropractic bills to alleviate the strained muscles and back pain from humping heavy bedframes and chests of drawers up and down flights of stairs. I really ought to buy a Gypsy Caravan some time and take to the road for good.

That would teach me not to hoard so much stuff. The removals guy who has helped move everything designed a series of Facebook memes inspired by me which gives you an idea of just how much I have. They had me laughing out loud: “Only a few boxes, she said” and “It will only take 10 minutes, she said”.

In this issue I’ve tried to include topics that I think will be of interest around pitching, knowing one’s mission and how to add value to your service offering. I had a lot of help with these things during my six months in Belfast Hatchery and want to share some of that here.

But back to greeting cards. It is my pleasure to introduce you to some more great contributors, all hugely talented in their different ways who have greeting cards at the heart of their product offering. Dynamic duo Laura Kavanagh and John Higgins of Go La La, Louise McGintey of Impack Art, and Orla of Orla Barry. So as always, grab something pleasant to drink (my pick of the month is Twinings Popcorn green tea) and enjoy the read.

Lorraine www.lorrainestylianou.com

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Interview with .....

Laura Kavanagh & John Higgins

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Go La La!

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these answers are being read by you. We also work many more hours than we expected; 7 days a week, early morning, late evening and weekends; sometimes it is hard to switch off….but when your job is enjoyable this isn’t a problem.

1. GO LA LA! IS A FAIRLY NEW KID ON THE GREETING CARD BLOCK. TELL US WHO MAKES UP THE TEAM, AND HOW DID THE IDEA TO PUBLISH CARDS START. WHAT HAS LIFE BEEN LIKE SINCE THE LAUNCH? lll Go La La! comprises of husband and wife team John Higgins and Laura Kavanagh, with help from our 2 rescue cats Alf and Freddie. When Laura found out that she was going to be made redundant from her role as an area manager for a Housing Charity, she felt that she needed an outlet for creative talents that were not being fully utilised, and after throwing several ideas around, we came up with the idea of Greeting Card publishers. We went to the pub and brainstormed our first range (Dramatic Paws). This range is the most time consuming to make, as each character is hand sculpted from clay, painted, dressed, posed and photographed in a scene, before being photographed.

Each one can take several weeks.

When starting, in the background we also knew that John was going to be made redundant from his business broadband engineer role within the next 6 months, so we planned our new life around this, and officially launched at PG Live in May 2016 with 60 cards.

Since the launch, life has changed considerably. Neither of us has worked from home full time before, and adjusting to that has not been without some pain.

Additionally, at this early stage our home is now full of cards, envelopes, boxes, cello wraps (the pull off strips get everywhere) and other assorted card related stuff, although hopefully this will lessen as we will be asking our printer to despatch straight to retailer probably by the time

2. I LOVE “CONGRATULATIONS! YOU GOT THE JOB. NOW TRY NOT TO GET THE SACK”. WHO THINKS UP THE HUMOUR, AND ARE THERE SOURCES YOU REFER TO FOR INSPIRATION. l l l Humour is a joint effort, we both have a sense of humour that is a little left field and so thinking up stuff is not a problem; many of our ranges are joint efforts, but we do like to do our own thing too. Sometimes we get too carried away and have to rein ourselves in, just because it makes us laugh it won’t necessarily make others if too obscure. We do find things like early morning walks, and meetings out of the house help us to come up with new ideas, and we currently have a plethora of designs to put into new ranges, but of course with just the two of us we have many other roles and responsibilities, and while card designing is the fun part, it isn’t always the most important (which we probably didn’t consider fully at the outset).

3. ALTHOUGH EARLY DAYS, DO YOU PLAN TO STICK WITH CARDS FOR THE TIME BEING OR WILL YOU INTRODUCE OTHER PRODUCTS. l l l For now, while we are becoming more established, we plan to concentrate on cards alone, but from the very beginning our plan has always been to introduce other products into our portfolio; t-shirts, tote bags, badges, tea towels etc. as well as some other more unusual things that we are working on, so they will follow, but probably not for another year.

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in style diversity, and we are hopefully a more attractive proposition for them. We currently have one agent we are extremely pleased with, even though he has only started working for us recently; he approached us rather than the other way around and is very experienced in the industry, as well as well-respected by his peers and customers. He is already getting some good and valuable leads for us. Of course, we are still on the lookout for more agents, so if any of you are reading, please get in touch.

4. DO YOU ACTIVELY KNOCK ON DOORS TO GAIN STOCKISTS, OR DOES YOUR MARKETING EFFORT CONCENTRATE ON OTHER WAYS TO GET ORDERS. lll We have undertaken some face-to-face contact, but to be honest, nowhere near enough. Neither of us are natural salespeople, so we find this the hardest part of our job.

The first thing we undertook when we got back to work after a few days off over New Year, was to revise our marketing strategy, and as such we will now be out on the road concentrating on getting our name known to retailers in the local counties. Until now our marketing has comprised of sending out cards, brochures, samples etc. to shops, as well as engaging in all facets of social media: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest etc.

This has worked to an extent, but we feel we need people to see and know the real us.

6. IT’S 2020. WHERE DO YOU HOPE GO LA LA WILL BE IN THE NEXT THREE YEARS? l l l Good question. I think we have achieved a lot in a short space of time, and we would obviously like to see ourselves in some of the bigger chains: Paperchase and Scribbler are two of our current favourites and we hope to achieve that sooner rather than later. We do have a licensing deal for cards in USA, and would like to expand on that and into other areas, although we want to take our time and ensure that we aren’t overstretching ourselves. We’d like to be employing staff and distributing into other parts of the World, and have a brand that is instantly recognised by many. We are attending Spring Fair (Stand 3K43 in the GCA Debut area) in February, and then back at PG Live in June, and we are hoping these will bring us many new customers to help us start realising our goals.

5. WHERE ARE YOU CURRENTLY STOCKED AND WHERE WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE YOUR CARDS IN 2017?

HAVE YOU ACQUIRED AN AGENT YET? lll We are stocked in several shops in the local area, as well as further afield, with London and East and West Sussex being particularly good areas for us. Card publishers obviously want agents, but need agents that work well for them. In the early days, we were quite green to the idea of agents, so a couple of initial ones didn’t work out. Looking back on it, I can appreciate that this was in part our own doing. We were trying to attract them while having a very small selection of cards, and of course as many agents only have a handful or so of publishers on their books, they do require plenty of options for their customers. We now have many more ranges and an increase

GO LA LA! Website: www.golala.co.uk Email: info@golala.co.uk @golalacards on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest Tel: 01458 830913

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INVESTMENT PITCHING the idiot’s guide to raising funds

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here will be times in business when you need to raise funds. I’m sure you’ve already heard of the Bank of Mum & Dad, or the FFF Club (Family, Friends and Fools). You could also re-mortgage the London home [I’ve done that numerous times]. If these have been exhausted one method available to businesses of all sizes is pitching directly to bankers or angel investors at Chamber of Commerce events, enterprise days laid on by Government bodies, national competitions online (e.g. Virgin), or in smaller “dragon” themed events. But you don’ get investment without giving away a slice of equity - unless you go down the crowdfunding route. So know how much of your business you are prepared to give away.

I know at least two colleagues of mine who’ve successfully pitched their business on Kickstarter or Indigogo and succeeded. I also have one or two colleagues who failed and didn’t get the backing they sought. I’ll save why I think the latter failed for another article but in this piece I want to give you my two pennies worth on the things to think about when pitching.

To be successful, you need to know what a pitch is, what investors are looking for, and what they are not looking for.

of greeting card manufacturers – tell them about the 24 carat gold leaf added to every card. If being an eco-friendly, environmentally-focussed business is your raison d’etre then show what you have done to stand out as the Body Shop of your niche – a business so big on recycling you print a handy 5 step infogram on the back all your cards illustrating how they can be recycled when finished with.

Show your potential investors the magic behind your designs – Interesting manufacturing processes. Share any efficiencies you are proud of – stats and figures that show you have made your process more competitive than your peers.

Show samples in different colourways and sell them the psychology behind your range/techniques.

SO NOW YOU ARE IN FRONT OF THE VENTURE CAPITALIST OR BANK MANAGER - WHAT DO THEY WANT TO HEAR? Firstly, they want to learn about 1) Your people – the team 2) Your market and 3) The technology used in getting your product to market.

Outline your team briefly but don’t overdo it. If the investor likes your products they will get to know your team – not vice versa. Give them a quick resume of your relationships with printers, outworkers, your accountant, couriers, agents, distributors, and your printer.

Know the greeting card market size, and, for example, the percentage your Wedding designs share in that piece of the pie.

They’ll look specifically at your track record: partnerships you have already forged with retailers, licensees etc so blow your own trumpet if these are genuine. Mention celebrity endorsements, your 24 million followers on Instagram, and the industry

SO LET’S GET STUCK IN A Pitch is simply a drone’s eye view of your business where you, the expert, paint a broad picture of what you do that everyone understands. You then need to focus in on what specific problem you solve, and by what means. Start pitching with some energy – don’t make listening to you a heavy experience for your listeners.

Your goal is to make yourself memorable in the minds of your potential investors by giving them a hook. So let’s say you design luxury cards, you need to be remembered as the Ritz

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awards you have acquired. Show them how your presence in your area helps the community via charitable involvement etc.

“Angels” love community focussed initiatives.

WHAT DO THEY NOT WANT TO HEAR? They don’t want FAKE NEWS – no hyper-inflated market sizes, or non-existent partnerships.

Their BS detectors are finely tuned.

Start your pitch by telling your audience exactly what you do early on. Smile and engage with them, delivering your information fluently and as believably as possible. If you have qualifications relevant to the product tell your investors – they will be thinking: Why should I listen to him/her? Qualify your expertise.

Be succinct, to the point. Make sure you have practiced, and fine-tuned your material – Don’t just wing it. Know the solutions you are proposing, what the biggest issue you are solving and how you plan to do that.

If you choose to use a slide presentation as part of your pitch format DO NOT READ the slides. Know them off by heart.

Look animated and passionate about what you do. If the material sends you to sleep, you can bet it will send the “angels” to sleep too.

business. Grant exclusivity – AT A PRICE with large minimum orders. Know what you are willing to accept. Dare to be different.

One of my fellow chicklets on the E-spark programme designs a fashion brand of luxury leisure wear (Kimono style dressing gowns and pyjamas) made from a mix of the finest wool and silk. The New Zealand sheep who supply the wool are the only two remaining types of this flock on the planet. Now that is scarce.

REMEMBER SUPPLY AND DEMAND? Why not introduce some scarcity into your product offering. Prices go up when raw materials are in short supply. Think carefully what component in your card can be leveraged to create the idea of scarcity. .925 Silver components? Know about marketing – you are not selling sea salt – you are selling Himalayan sea salt blessed by Buddist Monks.

What about limited Editions? – check out Caroline Gardner for ideas on that. What about private commissions and personalisation – with the original artwork included in a bundle for £500+ and upwards. Your original signature on all card designs (for a premium)? Study the art of limited edition prints (runs of no more than 25) and see if that can be adapted to your

AS YOU WRAP UP, REMIND THE AUDIENCE WHAT YOU 1) are known for, (e.g. skyrocketing your stockists’ turnover, uniqueness, luxury) 2) how you make your customer feel (elated, valued, amused, uplifted, delighted, connected, enriched) 3) Most importantly know your ASK - whether it is money, mentorship, partnerships, help with distribution etc.

Know what amount of money you need and why - Don’t be modest - Think BIG.

Happy Pitching!

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Interview with .....

Orla Barry

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1. I REALLY ENJOYED SEEING YOUR LOVELY ART AT THE RDS DURING MY SECOND VISIT TO SHOWCASE IRELAND. HOW WAS THE SHOW FOR YOU IN TERMS OF LEADS, ORDERS, AND LEARNING EXPERIENCES? lll Thank you very much! It was my fourth year doing Showcase and I’ve always enjoyed it as a way to make connections with buyers. Its great way to get feedback on your art and see what will work commercially which is always unpredictable. You’re always learning more; every year and show is different.

The fact that it’s in January really helps motivate me for the year ahead too as there can be a lull after Christmas.

One of the best things about Showcase though is meeting the other creative entrepreneurs who are exhibiting and seeing their amazing work.

3. TO GET A WIDE RANGE OF ARTISTS’ WORK INCLUDED IN A PRE-CHRISTMAS POP UP NEEDS LOTS OF PLANNING, ENERGY AND CONNECTIONS. TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT WHAT IS INVOLVED IN SECURING PREMISES, PARTICIPANTS, AND WOULD YOU REPEAT THE EXPERIENCE? l l l Myself and ceramicist Sarah McKenna are both based in Bridge Street Studios in Dundalk. We run a pop up shop of designer art and craft at Christmas time in the town centre.

As is the nature of a pop up shop most of the work can’t be done until right beforehand. You never know until a couple of weeks before the pop up what will happen as everything depends on what premises are available. We’ve been very fortunate so far and have run it 4 years in a row. We usually have between 30 and 40 artists and makers work which ranges from wall art to jewellery, ceramics and textiles. It’s wonderful to promote and sell other people’s work. There’s a wealth of creative talent in Ireland which I think is very impressive for a relatively small country. It’s important to encourage people to buy local.

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2. I NOTE THAT YOU ARE VERY INVOLVED IN THE ARTIST COMMUNITY WHERE YOU LIVE AND HAVE WON PRIZES, TRAVELLED THE WORLD TAKING PART IN ARTIST RESIDENCIES AND ORGANISED AND CURATED POP UP SHOPS. HOW DO YOU PRIORITIZE WHAT YOU GET INVOLVED WITH? lll I have more than one diary, a calendar on the wall and make a lot of lists! Usually the priority is the next deadline and it’s good to remember that you can only do one thing at a time. The run up to Christmas and then Showcase close after is the busiest time of year for me. It’s good to have a variety of projects on the go to keep things interesting.

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4. DO YOU HAVE LOCAL ACCESS TO A LASER CUTTER WHERE YOU CAN PRODUCE THE PARTS NEEDED FOR YOUR JEWELLERY. lll The main focus of my work is my acrylic paintings on canvas which I have reproduced as prints and cards.

I also have a new range of brooches which are watercolours that I get printed elsewhere on laser cut wood. I’m inspired by animals, nature, symbolism, surrealism, fairy tales and a search for perfect colour combinations.

6. WHAT BIG DREAMS DO YOU HAVE FOR YOUR BUSINESS FOR THE REMAINDER OF THIS DECADE? l l l I have lots of dreams for my business and art! Painting is my main love so I like to create a new body of work each year to exhibit. I’ve been on some lovely residencies over the years and hope to partake in more both in Ireland and abroad. My last one was at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre in Monaghan in 2014. I also want to continue wholesaling and expand my number of stockists and my collection of work for that avenue. This January I started a Certificate in Art Therapy which is fascinating and I may study that more in depth in the future. I also have a mock up of a children’s book I wrote and illustrated a few years ago that I plan to get back to working on.

Plenty of things to keep me busy!

5. CAN YOU SUPPORT YOUR LIVING COSTS THROUGH YOUR ARTISTIC ENDEAVOURS OR DO YOU NEED TO SUPPLEMENT THINGS, LIKE SO MANY CREATIVES, WITH OTHER WORK? lll This is the number one question people ask me most often! I love working for myself and doing my own thing. Every day is different. I am very lucky to do a mix of things and I like that variety. This includes painting pictures and exhibiting them, selling originals and prints and wholesaling prints, cards and brooches to shops. I also work on commissioned paintings and teach part-time as well.

ORLA BARRY Website: www.orlabarry.com Email: info@orlabarry.com Facebook: www.facebook.com/orlabarryart Instagram: www.instagram.com/orlabarry

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Colouring PA G E S I certainly haven’t been cat napping this winter. No time for hibernation here at cat central.

I’ve put together a 16 page collection of colouring pages based on my cards of the same range.

My next step is to work out how to make them instantly downloadable – and when I do, I’ll share the process.

If any of you already sell digital products like this feel free to email – I would be happy to shine a light on your designs, process, and e-commerce sites.

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Interview with .....

Louise McGinty of Impack Art

1. YOUR DESIGNS ARE CONTEMPORARY, ENERGETIC AND UPLIFTING. TELL US WHICH ARE MORE LUCRATIVE FOR YOU – PRINTS OR GREETING CARDS AND WHY DO YOU THINK THAT MAY BE? lll Both prints and cards work for me as I design and print from my home office.

I began with framed prints which have been well received and I have extended these into greetings cards This is quite a new venture which began in a busy tourist giftshop and I am only just finding my routes to market elsewhere. It is great to have large framed prints for those who want to fill their walls, I do smaller framed prints and I also offer artwork in mounts, and the more affordable greetings cards for those with a limited budget.

was an invaluable experience as it made me focus on all elements of making my products ready for market. Ironing out delivery, making my trade and RRP prices attractive and all the POS and order forms ready for potential stockists. I made so many contacts and received feedback and advice from other exhibitors. I took several orders on the day and I have several potential ones - I hope to grow this network in the coming months.

2. WERE YOU DEBUTING AT SHOWCASE IRELAND OR HAVE YOU ATTENDED PREVIOUS YEARS? DO YOU CONSIDER THE EXPERIENCE VALUABLE AND WILL YOU BE REBOOKING? lll Showcase has been a great springboard for Impack Art, this was my first year and I was lucky enough to get a stand through Fingal Enterprise Board. It

3. WHAT IS THE TECHNIQUE BEHIND YOUR COLOUR SPLASH ART? l l l I am a graphic designer so my images are created in Illustrator and digitally printed - they are like logos so I can design in any shape or colour palette offering flexibility and bespoke artwork to interior designers or custom designs to tourist/gift shops who require something specific to their locality.

4. HAVE YOU THOUGHT OF PRODUCING REPEAT PATTERNS AND LAUNCHING GIFT WRAP OR PERHAPS TEXTILE PRODUCTS WITH THE COLOURFUL SYMBOLS YOU CURRENTLY SELL? l l l The possibilities are endless, I haven’t tried gift wrap (yet!) but my designs have translated well onto hoodies, t-shirts, mugs, bags F and keyrings.

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5. ARE YOUR STOCKISTS PRIMARILY BASED IN IRELAND AND DO YOU SELL IN NORTHERN IRELAND OR UK? FROM THE VISITORS AT THE SHOW, DID YOU HAVE ANY INTERNATIONAL BUYERS VISIT YOUR STAND OR ARE THEY PRIMARILY FROM R.O.I? lll I have had international buyers through my website www.impack.ie and etsy store (Impack Art) but at the moment all of my stockists are based in Ireland, some of which service the US market, my initial designs were irish gifts (Map of Ireland/Claddagh/Celtic Cross etc) aimed at the Irish diaspora.

I have created further nautical options to appeal to a wider audience and my variants are growing all of the time to include the UK and the rest of the world.

6. GIVEN YOUR LIVERPOOL CONNECTIONS DO YOU SEE POTENTIAL FOR GROWTH THERE, AND OTHER UK CITIES? lll I took part in a Christmas shopping event for a corporate in Liverpool last year which went really well and sold out of my Liverpool Skyline and Liverbird designs. I will be there this year with

several more suitable designs and have interest from a high street store so fingers crossed I will have UK outlets shortly!

The versatility of my designs means I can create designs for iconic buildings / places / emblems in each area.

7. WHERE WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE IMPACK ART IN THE NEXT 5 YEARS? l l l I am moving from Dublin to Achill Island, County Mayo on the west coast of Ireland this summer, where the idea for my first design (a map of Achill Island) came from. I hope I will have more time and be inspired by the land and seascapes to continue to develop more designs and ideas. I want to print onto canvas and try new styles. I want to grow the business and have stockists worldwide and to offer my existing stockists more variety and continued value for money.

IMPACK ART Tel: 01 822 0361 Mob: 086 8548 375 Email: louise@impack.ie Website: www.impack.ie Dublin: 3 Burnell Park Green, Castleknock, Dublin D15 Y73P. Mayo: ‘Inish Rua’ Askill, Bunnacurry, Achill Island, Co. Mayo F28 X744

THE BOOK NOOK 20 STEPS TO ART LICENSING:

HOW TO SELL YOUR DESIGNS TO GREETING CARD AND GIFT COMPANIES

BY KATE HARPER l Updated this year (2017), this title is definitely worth a read. Kate is one of the most prolific writers in the greeting card industry and is well known for her card focussed blog (Greeting card designer).

This book explains how to earn royalties from your images – taking you full circle from original designs to submitting them online, finding agents and submitting them to your publisher.

The gold comes in the 100+ card and gift company contact list to which you can submit your work for evaluation and getting them ready for market.

Not to be missed – for the break the bank price of £4.10 on Kindle.

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A s we are all too aware,

stationery trends mirror what is happening in the world of fashion. Trend reports consider the themes used by designers in several ways – the mood they evoke, the colour palettes employed and the print direction across the industry. Fashion designers show their mood boards along with their Pantone references for colour matching in

production. In addition to 1) Typography 2) Wild animal print 3) Blossom on dark backgrounds the themes we will see on our notebook covers and pencil cases in 2018 will incorporate the following: n microscopic imagery showing intricate anatomical sculptures and symmetrical cellular patterns n 3D Fibre art and paper sculptures and n The solar system – galaxies filled with

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stars and constellations.

Some of the leading designers have acquired cult status for their wizardry in creating entire worlds created from folded paper, and increase their following by placing a leading brand in the artwork itself. Surely we can emulate that?

These three emerging themes give us massive scope as greeting card publishers – imagine all the gorgeous foils we can

incorporate to imitate starry galaxies that light up the midnight sky. Comets and UFO’s whizzing past our telescopes and leaving a blazing trail of colour or wild gardens filled with gorgeous blossom full of mystery and opulence – teaming with flora and fauna juxtaposed in interesting ways.

So without further ado, it is time for me to get back to the drawing board and come up with some new ideas.

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WHAT VALUE ARE YOU ADDING IN YOUR BUSINESS? O ne of the most effective ways of adding value in a business is through COMMUNICATION: Talking about your work process, your products, and telling your story.

It is my guess that the vast majority of creatives in the card publishing world approach their communications in a very random way, with little planning, strategy or consistency.

We all tweet here and there, write a blog article every two months, and post to Instagram every other day. That’s certainly better than nothing but in this competitive game, it is not enough.

Unless your art is simply UNIQUE with collectors or stockists lining up before the paint dries on the canvas or your designs have been put in their cello bags, you won’t really get the recognition you need if your approach to communication is scattergun.

More is needed to make a massive dent in your universe, to be heard

above the noise of hundreds of other equally talented publishers. To be effective you need to know what your audience is looking for. Until you know who your market is you won’t really be able to tailor your message. To get agent representation or distributors interested in your designs you’ve got to up your game.

Attending trade fairs is, of course, the best known avenue to commercial success but not if you haven’t told people you are there, produced your best work, communicated your story loud and clear beforehand, and continuously afterwards. Interesting content will be part of your marketing play.

SO WHY HAVE A STRATEGY? It’s like the ladder that lets you take the photo other photographers can’t get. Once you’ve planned out the content you want to write, you then have to distribute it. The key is producing it consistently – so scale up your output!

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WHAT IS CONTENT MARKETING? It is that extra value that people look for from a business owner and designer. It is your message that raises awareness, builds a tribe of fans, collectors and stockists. It is a gentle form of selling and great for those who want to cast a light on their designs but find direct sales tricky.

As a rule, it is generally free.

It draws people to your brand, gives you a personality and adds flesh to the bones of what may otherwise be a weak brand idea. It makes you memorable. It is generous, and warms people to your message and brand. It helps break the daily boredom that a lot of people experience, keeps relationships going and helps optimize your website or blog with new content.

belly laugh, and the knowledge that someone cared enough to put the card in the envelope for them. So know your goal before you start.

WHAT CONTENT MARKETING IS NOT. It is not intimidating, uninformative and doesn’t interrupt. Your objective in creating content is to enlighten, entertain and help presell your products in the minds of your fans. It is not a get rich quick scheme and will not instantly sky rocket you to internet fame – unless you are extremely lucky and one of your videos goes viral, for example (Not impossible, but probably unlikely).

START YOUR STRATEGY 1. Dedicate x minutes a day to creating content 2. Get a calendar and pencil in your planned activity 3. Get organised Starting out you don’t need to pay for advertising. No buying space in a magazine, airtime on a radio or commercials on TV. But you will have to get some material together.

Know what problem you are solving with your cards, the gift wrap you are manufacturing or any other product you have in production. What message are you projecting and how does that resonate with the person who buys your products.

For example, if you produce cards with verses, and poetry (even sarcastic ones) you are helping someone express more humourously or in a heartfelt way than they may be able to themselves. You are helping to give the recipient a warm fuzzy feeling, creating a deep

SO WHAT IS CONTENT MARKETING FOR? • It builds trust • It builds authority • It builds fans • It builds customers • And keeps your nosey competitors on their toes!

Without preaching to the converted, you have many channels at your disposal: Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Facebook, Email etc Once you have a calendar or plan of activity the next step is metrics. You will know from the number of views on a photo, the country reach of your articles, and how much time are spending reading an article, for example. The statistics behind my e-zine for example are brilliant – they show me how many people have viewed the publication, what countries they comes from, how many unique reads, which issue has proved most popular and what content created most interest.

READY FOR SOME HARD WORK? So how do you share all your profound views, your radical ideas, your beautiful imagery: Videos, blogs, ebooks, printed books, talks, coaching, social media, magazines, slide shows, courses, white papers – and make that output CONSISTENT. No point in being a one hit wonder. It all boils down to DOING THE WORK. Produce the content, paint your pictures, take your photos, write your blogs and have a vision.

• In part 2 of this article I will continue with how we can form our vision and how you can tailor content to make it reality.

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ARE YOU ON A MISSION? Do you know your mission as a Card publisher? For any card business to succeed we have to be making something useful...

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So how useful are your cards?

1) Do your cards • Delight • Invigorate • Stimulate (through humour, touch, feel, colour, finish) your customer 2) Are your cards a force for good?

As publishers we are in quite an enviable position because we are influencers – we can affect peoples’ lives through the words we print, the images we design and how we make them feel.

Card publishers make an impact.

So why is this important?

Firstly you can inspire others through your witty sense of humour, you can influence people through

your political leanings or satirical commentary.

You are barometres of the society you live in. You can encourage people to be kind to each other, or introduce a little bit of magic into their day. You can also inspire people to take up environmental or charitable causes via your cards – showing how you’ve manufactured the cardstock in their hands and explaining what they are composed of. By providing information on the back you can encourage others to contribute to the recycling effort and champion lifesaving causes.

You take peoples’ minds off their daily grind, albeit momentarily, for the few minutes they think about the card they’ve received, or the card they are about to purchase. They know they are not alone.

As a card sender you are building relationships – showing humanity. You are encouraging gratitude, helping others to celebrate success, and maybe having a good laugh at someone’s expense. You are restoring someone’s self worth by reinforcing that they mean something. You are incentivising lives by expressing appreciation, saying thank you, sharing someone’s pain, and breaking down barriers.

So continue to build “Brand You” - keep designing cards that reflect the society we live in, poke fun at peoples’ foibles, put into words what everyone else is thinking. Above all keep being useful.

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To conclude this edition of Gypsy Chic here are three quotes to motivate and inspire you in the days ahead.

“Don’t call it

a Dream Call it a Plan”

“Nothing worth having comes easy”

“Work hard in silence and let success make the noise” 23

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