Why your LOGO isnt about you!

Ok as i have been trying out different ideas for company, the biggest challenge i have found has been deciding on an image or 'look'. I am an artist so i want to make everything art, however i am learning that the best way to sell your product is to K.I.S.S (keep it simple silly) The other thing is the logo is very little about you wanting to express your creativity and more about your customer and their needs. In other words selling your art is great but if people don't know what to do with it, or can't relate it to a tangible need in their word having an eclectic ad will serve little except make you feel accomplished. The point is to get the sale. If you are selling an ideal or a theme, like buy my invites and your be savvy and fashionable, that's one thing but the issue still brings you did you make the sale. Thoughts?

Love this

Source: anthropologie.com via Luce on Pinterest

Search for the Authentic

Musings on how to find where you fit.I was researching small companies and found a lot of people trying to find out who they were and i found that there wasn't a unique America athestic. Alot of people were angry that 'their' creations or styles unique to them were being copied. My question was what 'belongs' to you. Is it copying when you see someone's work that strikes you and then you incorporate those styles into your work. We know this is wrong, the question is what is your aesthetic? I was on Pinterest and noticed other looking at designs to do themselves.  We all have things to learn from one another, but when does this go to far? I particular for African Americans who I have seen working designs of Africa and sometimes offend those who live on the continent. My question is in searching for you unique voice are you stealing from Africa? Do these patterns 'belong' to you. Can we rise above this and seek our own voice? thoughts?

Who are you, what is your company

African Textile, Shaire Productions, Courtesy Flickr 

I have had looked at business after business loving how everyone is using thier talents and when i look at my pitiful shop i wonder what to do. Finding your NICHE or brand is sometimes a difficult thing to do. It is especially hard when you dont know who your are or where you fit. So i am on a searching journey, one thing i have figured out is you know who you are when you see it. that thing that you dont have to think about that you like, that's totally authentic, no-one had to MAKE you like ice cream, some you like and some you don't I think its the same thing in Business. There are some things you love to do and some you hate. So when coming up with a business idea be careful not to get side-tracked by great ideas of others. remember its wonderful to glean advice and that's important, but if you spend so much time getting to know how they did it your never figure out how YOU do. Thanks.

Mocada

is having a curatorial fellowship, be sure to check out their website for details...

Martin Luther King Jr memorial

Im sure youve heard the King memorial will be dedicated on August 28 this coming Sunday, given Irene not change plans. It is a blessing an long overdue. It was completed by a Chinese artist and I believe is one of the few monuments to any African American in Washington. The irony, as a Telegraph article stated was that the memorial was 'Made in China' too! Anyway, it would have been nice to see and African American or an American create it; but I'm not complaining he did a good job. I hope to see it one day since we are close to DC.

Hopefully opportunities for American artists will improve in the future, and the memorial will not allow us to forget. King and his legacy was not just a 'blip' on the America landscape but intergral to the make- up of this Nation. But i digress..I hope you get a chance to visit the site. GBLESS.

NO News is good NEWS

I am working on some new pieces which i hope to upload soon. I have been swtiching gears to focus on sewing so I will let you know how that goes, wish me luck. 

Bogolifini Cloth(mudcloth)

I fell upon this great workshop and video on how to prepare mudcloth. Mali cloth is created in Mali in the Bamana culture. This from the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History http://www.mnh.si.edu/africanvoices/mudcloth/index_flash.html  check it out!!