Art students of West Chester School District have been given the opportunity to display their work at the Exton Square Mall during this holiday season. Opening night I was one of many proud parents of an aspiring artist, in a crowd filled room alive with music, visitors, friends and family.
Take the opportunity to see a group of dedicated students display their “Gift of Talent.” The exhibit will be open until January 6th, 2013.
Happiness lies in the joy of achievement
and the thrill of creative effort.
Warmest greetings and
best wishes for the new year.
Design6°
12/21/2012 won’t be the end of the world as we know it, but it sure could feel like it. If you’ve ever had a complete hard drive failure, lost a laptop, contracted a virus, or dropped your phone in a lake you will fear the end is near!
It’s about keeping copies of information that you didn’t even know you wanted until it’s too late. Thankfully it’s a simple process with several options to back up your content to separate locations.
1. External Hard Drives. Keep your data safe on a portable hard drive that you can keep in a fireproof safe, safe deposit box with your bank or credit union. Or simply store it in an unattached structure, such as a garage, shed or your office to prevent loss during a fire. A good rule of thumb is to purchase a external hard drive with twice as much storage as your computer’s hard drive.
2. Backing Up to the Web. Select from a number of cloud-based, hosted backup service you feel comfortable with. Some providers include Carbonite, DropBox and Mozy.
3. Back up Your Smart Phone. Storing information in the cloud means you can access them from any device that has an Internet connection. Your content will live online, available on a personal, password-protected website.
4. A Direct-to-Friend Back Up or Shared Hard Drives. Keep multiple copies of your data in the hands of trusted friends or family. If something happens to you, at least the people you trust will also have copies of your memories, to pass along to the people you wanted to have them.
Avoid your digital world from crashing down, Henny Penny. Don’t store all those eggs in one basket, back up to a hard drive or online. We all use different operating systems, look for the one that works best for you.
We all rely on marketing to tell us about the latest and greatest events and promotions. We constantly need to move forward, create new things through information, knowledge and, most of all, imagination!
1. Build a strong connection with customers. Know the customer base you want to target, and advertise in places where they frequent. Do you want to increase customer loyalty, boost brand awareness or sell products? Think of the three things that make you better than everybody else or what differentiates you.
2. Reach a large audience. Contact local magazines and newspapers to be considered for an interview regarding your business. You have a chance to reach thousands – even if you don’t have a budget to match. Two good examples in Chester County would be countylinesmagazine.com and chestercounty-life.
3. Join the Chamber of Commerce or local professional organizations. Then make your “connections count” by getting out on the street and talking to people. Even if your business is primarily online, you still need the support of your local community.
4. Push the envelope. Digital printing has put the FUN back into full color printing at a more affordable price than traditional methods. Drive traffic to your website with announcements, posters, banners of special upcoming events and sales.
5. No more boring websites. Creating relevant content attracts your target market and positions you as the expert in your industry. Expand your presence onto the proper social media sites, start a blog, record videos for your business and upload them to YouTube, or create a Pinterest account that showcases your products.
6˚ Creativity Rules! A highly creative idea will take you far beyond a limited budget. Great marketing is part science, part art.
And for the really BIG thinking go a little bananas with “Guerilla Marketing.” This type of marketing is primarily designed for small businesses–without layers of bureaucracy to go through.
Everyone takes more notice when things are well designed. A thoughtfully crafted invitation implies the event will be great. When you are creating an invitation for an event you are not just telling them about the time and address, you are conveying the event’s importance.
I created the below dinner invitation for Drinker Biddle, a Philadelphia based law-firm, representing Urban Outfitters, which also owns Anthropologie, Free People and Terrain. This was an easy task for me, since I shop at all their stores and love their brand.
The final invitation design consisted of a patternd box I felt represented the retailers, a tri-fold card outlining the details of the event and a silver fortune cookie – a dinner place card holder – which held the guests’ name and words of good fortune with their working relationship.
When sending any invitations they should always create a balance between hands on and heartfelt.
We live here. We work here. We shop here. Show your holiday spirit and support downtown West Chester’s small businesses on Small Business Saturday, November 24th.
Where we shop, eat and have fun makes our community home and many local shops have felt like part of our family for years. Shops such as Fairman’s, Taylors’ Music and Mad Platter have remained in business at the same location for some 25 to 83 years. West Chester boutiques’ have become the number one shopping destination for that unique homecoming dress, skate shoes or one-of-a-kind accessories. I’ll often find gifts here in town that I won’t find in larger stores. And my husband is sure to find the perfect gift at any one of West Chester’s fine jewelry stores.
All this shopping makes me hungry and we all have our favorite water holes and restaurants, but be sure to check out some of the new comers like Jack’s Steaks & Shakes. As my husband said in total satisfaction, “That was possibly one of The Best Cheese Steak I have ever had!”
As you make your holiday wish list, remember that your purchases make a positive impact. The money you spend here stays in the community. Local businesses support everyone by paying taxes that reduce local property taxes, and build strong neighborhoods by creating more jobs.
So think big, shop small and have a happy holiday.
Another deadline is approaching quickly for this year’s Christmas card. Friends and family have all come to expect and anticipate my holiday greetings. – Let’s face it, we all love mail that comes in a colored envelope.
As my son’s grow older in these days of technology, I still believe sending a hand made card and a written note should never grow old with them.
Below are a few of mine from over the years, the “Bobble Heads,” “Santa Claw is Coming to Town,” “Oh Good Grief, Not Another Christmas.” The year they stopped believing came with a parental warning label. Shhh … it was Mom who created the magic.
Good taglines do important work. They narrow down an entire company you know little to nothing about into one well-crafted sentence. The tagline often makes sense of the images or text which precede it.
If you are a small business owner, don’t think you’re off the hook as a far as a tagline is concerned. Your business has a brand, regardless of size – and a good tagline can carry even more weight in your marketing efforts as compared to some big companies that are already well known.
Invest in an expressive one-liner describing your brand and stick it on everything!
Click here to see a list of some of the more memorable taglines out there.
Looking for an original graphic tee? Or have and idea of your own? Then shirt.woot.com is the place to shop and create.
Every week Woot holds a design competition called the derby. After the derby theme is announced on a Thursday, submissions can be posted starting the next day. A week later the voting and posting of your comments begins, the winning shirt designs are then available for purchase the following week. By signing up for Woot’s Daily Digest you can see the latest tee for sale every morning in your inbox.
I have entered the race twice for fun. It’s very exciting when people from all over the world began casting their votes. While I wasn’t a winner either time, we have some other great winners hanging in our closets.
Last weekend we were among the 115,000 people at New York Comic Con 2012, which set a new record for percentage of attendees willing to cosplay. I had my camera ready at all times, while they strutted their stuff inside the Javits Center.
The event was packed and at times it was difficult to walk down many aisles, but they were by far the friendliest and most interesting group of people I have ever been crowded in with. From smiles to gritting teeth – everyone was happy to stop and strike a pose for my camera.
Down “Artist Alley” we were able to shake hands and get autographs from favorite creators and see new work from up and coming artist. All your favorite comics were in attendance, and everything in between – from graphic novels, fantasy, sci-fi, anime, manga, video games, toys, shirts, and more. It was an enchanting journey on every inch of the show floor.
