Today’s shared story comes from Sonam Sapra, a textile designer based in Fiji, who shares the truth about doing what you love can sometimes be hard work (but never hard).
ENTERPRISE + INITIATIVE Page 13 of 21
Winner of Print & Pattern Design Scholarship announced
The standard of entries for our second Print & Pattern Design Scholarship was so high that we decided to give away TWO full scholarships, each worth nearly $1000. And the winners are…
GAVIN RUTHERFORD and GENINE DELAHAYE (Check out their work in Issue 3 of MOYO!)
Congratulations both of you! We will be in touch with details of your prize – a place on all three modules of The Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design. We cannot wait to see what you create, and watch how the course helps you take your careers to the next level.
Huge thanks to Marie Perkins of Print & Pattern for supporting this scholarship and finalising our winners!
Issue 3 of MOYO Magazine is here! Get your FREE copy of ‘The Fabric Issue’
Our third (and biggest ever) issue of MOYO Magazine. Issue 3 is out now! You can see it here. It includes:
- Amy Butler on the business of design
- Talking fashion and fabric with Josephine Kimberling
- Behind the scenes at the Home Show
- A new DIY column from Lil Blue Boo
- Announcement of the winner of our Print & Pattern Scholarship
- …and much more!
Please help us spread the word about this free magzine by sharing it on Facebook and Tweeting about it (@surfacepatternd #moyomagazine). Please also feel free to blog about it or share it in your newsletter and inspire even more people to dive into the exciting world of surface pattern design!
Get your free copy HERE!
Honoured to be awarded a place in the ‘Top 42 under 42’ entrepreneurs in Yorkshire!
Just found out I have been awarded a place in the ‘Top 42 under 42′ entrepreneurs in Yorkshire! This is a real honour in a region buzzing with start ups and exciting new businesses. These awards recognise ‘rising stars of business’ in the region, so I am looking forward to meeting all the other winners soon!
Thanks to my awesome collaborators Kelly Rae Roberts, Rachael Taylor and Lilla Rogers for their part in Do What You Love’s explosive growth, which has allowed us to help thousands of women all over the world to do what they love!
Behind the scenes of the making of an e-course (Make Art That Sells with Lilla Rogers)
This brand new course is particularly exciting for us because we get to work with industry veteran Lilla Rogers, who is sharing what she has learnt over three decades as an illustrator and top agent. Lilla is an incredible woman – so knowledgeable and savvy, yet so philosophical and kind. She cares for her own artists like a mother hen, and I am thrilled that we get to expand her virtual nest through Make Art That Sells!
Filming Make Art That Sells with Lilla Rogers
There are more and more e-courses popping up all over the internet and some are better quality than others but generally I think this democratisation of education is fundamentally a really good thing. Gooodbye restrictions of location, timing, access etc, hello flexibility, anytime/anywhere availability, and international connections. Do What You Love has come a long way since we launched our first e-course two years ago, and we make it a priority to keep learning, researching, trying new things. When you have delivered courses to thousands of people in more than 50 countries, you soon realise that technology can be scary, but it is also fascinating, and is absolutely your friend if you can take the time to understand it, or find someone else who can!
We are often asked for hints and tips on developing e-courses, so I thought I’d share some behind-the-scenes images from the filming of Make Art That Sells with top artist agent Lilla Rogers, which opens for registration next week (we already have a massive waiting list to get on it if you are interested!)
I travelled to Boston last month to film with Lilla and our professional cameraman Kevin Balmer, who joined us from Portland. Prior to the trip we had spent hundreds of hours developing the curriculum, drafting the content, selecting images, building the virtual classroom, planning the production schedule etc all via the miracles of email and Skype. By the time we all got together at Lilla’s studio for four full-on intensive days of taping, we were so excited to get going with the filming piece. Fortunately Lilla is a natural in front of the camera, and was able to share her insights and knowledge eloquently, generously and often humorously on film. Her studio is a colourful, visual feast, full of real products that feature her artists’ licensed work, and we can’t wait to share the videos with participants when the course launches.
Here is a sneak peek of us at work!
Make up (always worth getting a professional on the case when you are filming in HD – thanks Maura)
Getting the mic on
Talking through the talking points!
Lights, camera, action!
Me in Producer Mode
Always time for some art from the illustrator in Lilla!
I hope you enjoyed that little behind-the-scenes tour! If you have ever wanted to learn how to make art that sells, directly from someone who has sold art for products worth over $100 million, then check out Make Art That Sells.
Stellar contributor line up for Make Art That Sells!
We are so thrilled to announce an incredible line up of top industry talent as contributors to the upcoming new course Make Art That Sells. Not only do you get access to Lilla Rogers, one of the world’s top agents, you will get industry insight and advice from a host of art directors, senior designers and others at the cutting edge. These include:
ANTHROPOLOGIE: Lauren Graham, Producer
CHRONICLE BOOKS: Kate Woodrow, Senior Acquisitions Editor
PAPERCHASE: Gemma Parris, Card Buyer
EK SUCCESS BRANDS: Deb Tagtalianidis, VP – Creative Direction
ROBERT KAUFMAN FABRICS: Evie Ashworth, Design Director, Retail Division
REAL SIMPLE MAGAZINE: Alexandra Mooney, Senior Designer
OOPSY DAISY: Carly Gray, Creative Director
… and more to be revealed soon!
We already have a MASSIVE waiting list for this course, so if you want to be among the first to be notified (and bag an exclusive discount) then get on the waiting list now. Registration opens next Tuesday February 26 2013 when all course details, price and date info will be released.
I love business trips – wandering Boston
A few days ago I got back from a fantastic trip to the US, where I filmed a series of videos for this exciting new project with Lilla Rogers (more on that in the coming days!). When we had wrapped up filming I had a couple of days to myself in Boston. I love having a bit of down time in a new place after several days of work, to explore it and be inspired whilst gathering my thoughts before plunging back into my life back home.
Boston is a particularly good city for walking, and for sitting in cafes, and I did much of both those things. I wanted to share a few photos from my wanderings, so here you go… I just love the wreaths hung on so many of the brick buildings and lampposts, even though Christmas is long gone. They are so pretty and welcoming, and bring a warmth to winter.
I stayed at the lovely Encore B&B, a very cool little place inside a beautiful house owned by a former architect and theatre director. It is in the heart of South End, and I loved having the attic room with a balcony looking out over the snowy city.
The Encore B&B – My home from home for the duration of my stay in Boston
I feel very lucky to have this kind of business trip!
Want to reach way more people and make significant profits? This helped me and it could help you…
Doing my own marketing ‘work’ on my iPad from a cafe in Kyoto [Image: Takeshi Kohari]
A couple of years back I took Marie Forleo’s ‘B-School’ online class, and I can say hand-on-heart it was a major part of helping me move from someone who didn’t know what a blog was, to someone who was a finalist in Digital Entrepreneur of the Year, in under three years.
It is an online marketing programme aimed at women who are doing it for themselves, and it offers detailed strategies and great advice for online marketing whatever your business model. Marketing is a massive part of any business, and has been crucial to allow me to do what I love.
I don’t often single out other people’s courses to share in this blog space, but I truly believe in this one as I have taken it myself and seen the results. If you want to learn more about online marketing, to grow your audience exponentially and boost your profits along the way, B-School is for you! It has launched today – check out this link to find out more!
Featured in Where Women Create!
I have just got back from Boston (more on that soon!) where I was thrilled to walk into major bookstore Barnes & Noble and find the latest copy of Where Women Create, with a 10-page Do What You Love feature in it! It is always such a special moment when you see your writing and photography in a magazine, and especially when the publication is as beautiful as WWC. I have long loved this magazine, and am truly honoured to be included.
In this article I shared my experience of spending six months in Japan, where I was surrounded by inspiration, and had luxurious time to think, but was without my studio all that time. I talk about how I came to realise that you can be creative anywhere, and sometimes it is worth leaving behind all the bits and pieces of a full studio to head out into the world and create wherever you are. It was quite an unusual article for a magazine which is filled with stunning photos of women’s physical studios and creative spaces all over the world, so I must send my grateful thanks to Jo Packham for including it, and recognising that a creative space can be different things to different people, and different for each of us at different moments in our lives. When I was in Japan my creative spaces ranged from temple gardens and paper factories to the riverbank and a bamboo forest.
You can download the first two pages of the article below, but I would encourage you to get the whole magazine if you can (from Stampington here), because it is filled with inspiring articles and delicious eye candy.
Download the first two pages here: BethNicholls_WWC0213
PS A four-page sneak peek of my new column (co-authored with Kelly Rae Roberts) from the new publication Where Women Create Business was included in the back of this issue of Where Women Create. What a treat and a lovely surprise!
Thought for the week (5)
This is really really true. Are you taking steps to build your own dream or are you spending all your energy building someone else’s? This doesn’t mean you have to be an entrepreneur – it just means you have to know what your OWN dream is, and be sure you are spending your limited resources working towards that!