10.23.2009

Event Promotion Step 1

Create a flier ...


I created my flier using Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator. Photoshop and Illustrator are essential tools for graphic and web designers. But they are also expensive.

There are at least two (perfectly legal) ways around spending money you might not presently have:
* download free demos at adobe.com/downloads
or
* create presentations for free at docs.google.com

Easy and Fun Event Promotion!

Question ... What do artists do when they have tiny houses that hold too much furniture, too many toys and artwork that needs a new home? They have a yard sale, and that's precisely what I'll be doing tomorrow morning.

But before I sell everything, I'm going to need to promote my sale.  I'm blogging it because everything I'll do to promote my little sale is based on marketing and promotion ideas that can be applied to any event, large or small.

I began by creating a work flow that's manageable and fun, based on the following goals:
  • Promote event without spending a dime.
  • Sell as much stuff as I can part with.
  • Plan to bathe in the cash rewards.
Check subsequent posts for details on each of those goals!

10.14.2009

Brain Wrap™

I shall now politely ask you to wrap your brains around the following basic concepts that drive my interest and participation in the visual arts. More accurately, these ideas drive me. Period. Full-stop.

Everyone is creative.
Sadly, you will never get an "A" in life.
Happily, there is no such thing as a grade book for your life.
Art is craft and craft is art.
The right tool is essential.

The process of wrapping one's brain around new idearz requires time. You are now dismissed from the computer. Perhaps you should turn it off entirely. Go lie down in a comfy spot such as the bamboo floor of a yoga studio which is enveloped in the relaxing sounds of mysterious chimey music from an equally mysterious foreign culture.

Then, mull over these simple ideas. Let them soak into your gray matter like spilled milk into a sponge.

Soak soak soak.

If you soak and relax and meditate on these ideas and you say, "I do not believe that I can agree with all of these silly tenants from this silly person" then you will be bored senseless here and you should go find a blog about serious matters such as stock portfolios and legal documents. If, however, you used your time to dream about puppies and kittens and horsies in green pastures and lollipops and gumdrops and clouds shaped like duckies, you have properly soaked up your brain-milk.

Good job.

10.13.2009

Take a Moment to Explore the Cloud


Pop Quiz on Cloud Computing ...
What is Cloud Computing?
a. It's a lame excuse to post a photograph of a cloud.
b. This is how angels communicate.
c. Providing computing services provided online by businesses like Google that are accessed from a web browser, while the software and data are stored on the servers.
d. difficult.

The answer is C! Although I would have to accept A since I did, in fact, post a photo of a cloud.

Cloud computing allows you to store your information "out there" in addition to on your computer. And then you can link to this information.

Speaking, as we are about cloud computing, one of the greatest things in the world besides Vladimir is my Google account. With this one account I can do things like:
  • access free email
  • create a blog, or two, or seventeen
  • store photos
  • create a presentation
  • word processing
  • create mailing lists
  • keep track of your life with a calendar
  • so much more!
So go get a Google account so we can talk more about computing in the cloud.

Wikipedia, Missions, and the Ubiquity of Tools

The purpose of this web log is simple. There's a tool that exists for pretty much anything you need to do. Whether you want to start your own blog, embed high quality movie play lists into your website, or simply make someone a fantastically unique birthday gift ... There's a tool that will help you accomplish your goals.

My plan is to blog about the tools I use every day. Oftentimes I had to quiz a myriad of people and search through four kabillion useless Web sites for the answers I'll give you here, and for freesies. I'm bringing
many years of experience as a media and web designer, craft specialist, and all-around doer of mysterious things and all I need from you is a certain interest in the DIY ethos and a bit of DIY ability.

Don't know what DIY is? No problem! Your negative knowledge allows me to feel smart! I mean, it allows me to teach others! So let's get right to ...

Topic 1:
The Wikimedia Foundation
Sample of their work: DIY EXPLAINED!

What it is
They Say: "The mission of the Wikimedia Foundation is to empower and engage people around the world to collect and develop educational content under a
free license or in the public domain, and to disseminate it effectively and globally."

I say: This is what would happen if you mixed
the Tower of Babel crossed with Ptolemy's Library of Alexandria. Basically, it's massively super-dope.

Wikipedia and the Wikimedia foundation relies on user input and feedback to define everything requiring a definition in this whole entire world / universe as we know it. Everything you want to know about is probably explain here, but sometimes there definition problems. Not only do they typically note those little problems but they also ask for your input on improving their entries, which I think is lovely of them. Just look for a notation that says something like "The examples and perspective in this article may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please improve this article and discuss the issue on the talk page."