Business and Marketing Monday - Branding Jocelyn Grace

In an effort to make sure I blog regularly,* I came up with a few weekly post ideas- one of which is "Business and Marketing Monday." So, here's the first one- branding.

Branding is how you present your company to the world. It sets the tone for your brand's personality. It includes your logo, stationery, packaging, print and web materials, graphic design, writing and merchandising- it's your image. And it all needs to work together to create a cohesive story. A story that makes the customer want to buy your product and that sets you apart from oceans of competition. Big or small, you need to carefully consider your branding choices for your company.

As I get closer to fully launching Jocelyn Grace, I've been working on different branding concepts and I've finally decided on my business cards and banner for my shop. From here, I'll design everything else (a website, stationery, ads, etc.).

So, without further adieu and because I need some sleep, here they are (you'll also notice they match the little picture on my blog's sidebar that links to Jocelyn Grace on 1000 Markets.)

(Note: Right now, the only blog I have is this one. Ideally, I should have one for Jocelyn Grace. When I figure out how to clone myself, I'll get right on that.
Note 2: I took out my name on the business card and replaced it with "First name Last name." I'm sure you get the idea.)



















*That sounds funny to me. Like I should be making sure my diet is rich in fiber or something. Is it just me? Yes? OK, I'm off to bed.

My entry for the Etsy Beagles Team March Challenge

The Etsy Beagles Street Team is currently running our March challenge. In true spring (and beagle) fashion, our theme is Beagles and Blooms. We'll be running a contest like we did for the last challenge, so check back in a week or so for information about how to enter. Until then, check out my entry. :-)

My In Bloom necklace features gorgeous artisan lampwork beads by Serena Smith (pink dahlia focal) and Deanna Chase (three pink and green floral accent beads) linked together with Vintaj findings and green and clear Czech glass beads. How could I not be inspired by such beautiful lampwork beads? I had them custom-made especially for this necklace. Click the picture for a closer look at them.

As always with my Beagles Team challenge entries, I'll donate a portion of the proceeds to a local no-kill animal rescue, Castaway Critters.

Fifteen percent of the sale of this piece will help an animal find a home! I rescued my little beagle, Lucy, when her owners couldn't take care of her anymore and I want to help more animals find homes. If I could take them all in myself, I would, but since two furbabies is enough for now, I'm content with donating to the cause.

A little bit obsessed with artisan lampwork glass

I really love artisan lampwork beads. Really, really, really. I stumbled upon them a little less than a year ago while perusing for jewelry supplies in the pages of Etsy. I was immediately captivated by the intricate, swirling colors and designs created by such talented artisans. So, of course, since I was on a supply hunt, I snapped up a bunch of these delicious beads (see a small selection from my collection in the picture to the left).

Since then, a large percentage of my work is created with lampwork beads. I love them so much that I launched Jocelyn Grace, a brand new line of jewelry inspired by these beautiful beads. Jocelyn Grace is still in its infancy, but my vision for the line is to create timelessly modern pieces of jewelry with lampwork, gemstones, pearls and metal. As I continue to learn new techniques as a jewelry artist, I plan to incorporate forging and metalsmithing into my work.

Most of the lampwork beads I use for Jocelyn Grace are borosilicate beads. Borosilicate, more commonly called boro beads, are made of Boron, a very hard glass that can also include a variety of metals. Boro glass creates extraordinary bright colors and it appears especially saturated in natural sunlight and less bright indoors. But whether in natural or artificial light, boro beads are fantastically beautiful and talented lampwork artisans bring out their most vibrant shades.

For more about boro beads, visit the Artbead Divine Jewelry blog on 1000 Markets where Mary of Sandcastle Jewels writes a very interesting explanation. For a history of lampworking, visit another blog post on the Artbead Divine Jewelry blog by Sharon of Bijoux Jardin.

Kreativ Blogger Award

Neat! Sandi at Sassy Glass Designs awarded me the Kreativ Blogger Award. Sandi is one of my go-to lampwork artists- her beads are just stunning- usually, I love them so much, I keep them for myself. :-) Visit her Etsy shop. She makes very cool jewelry, too.

So, here are the rules:

List 7 things that you love and then pass the award on to 7 people...tagging them and letting them know they won! You can copy the picture of the award and put it on your sideboard letting the blogger world know you are a KREATIV blogger.

Things I love:

1) SuperD (and the fact that's he tolerates me referring to him as SuperD on my blog)

2) Thing 1 and Thing 2- coolest dogs ever

3) Sushi

4) LOST

5) California

6) Friends (mine and the television show)

7) Weekends

Now, it’s your turn- here's my Kreativ Blogger Award list:
Beachcombers Cove
Martha Horman
SuzyQJenn
Artistic Detour

Inspiration

I'm a blogging maniac today. I guess I'm feeling inspired to write.

Right now, for one of my grad school classes, I am working on designing a ready-to-wear collection. We're in the target market and finding your inspiration phase. For me, the first thing that inspires my creativity is color. Even if I'm inspired by a place, chances are the colors of that place are the root of my inspiration. My Pineapple Sugar spring 2009 collection, Love Color, was inspired by, of course, color.

But, as I've been working both on my ready-to-wear collection and looking ahead to more collections for Pineapple Sugar and Jocelyn Grace, I realize that color is not inspiration enough to create a cohesive collection. It's just one part of it.

That said, I truly find nearly everything inspiring- art, nature, cities, fashion, music, words, even my vintage milk glass finds. And the thing about inspiration is so random and hits at the weirdest times. Today, as I was working out (yes- my new elliptical rules!) I was struck by inspiration lightning bolt for my ready-to-wear collection. And it began with milk glass (see picture). And from there, I started thinking about some of the scrapbook papers I collect to use as backdrops for jewelry product photos and few of those came to mind. Then I jumped to vintage surf boards and surf culture and Paris. And voila! My collection is inspired! And it didn't even start with color.

I'm patting myself on the back for growing as an artist and designer today. This grad school program definitely gave me my creative groove back.

Once my collection and story board is complete, I'll post those on my blog.

Lighting a fire under my Artfire studio

So, I really need to get off the stick here and pay more attention to my Pineapple Sugar store on Artfire. I've been hearing really good things about traffic and usability there and I'm intrigued.

Apparently, you no longer have to register with the site to buy something from an Artfire studio. They have a new feature called "Rapid Cart" that lets buyers check out without the hassles of signing up for an account. Just click and buy! This is great feature because I've had some confused buyers with the checkout process at other sites. It even allows sellers to add their rapid cart to outside websites so buyers can click and buy from there (see below). I'm thinking this will be super helpful for me when I finally get around to getting my own site up and don't want the hassles of shopping cart when I first get the site running. Yay for e-commerce!

They also have an awesome social media and hit tracking feature- the MarketHub. It lets sellers link to their sites outside of ArtFire- website, blogs, indiepublic, myspace, facebook, etc. It lives inside the product pages on a seller's ArtFire site and actually tracks the hits each site gets from each product page. Neat! ArtFire is really doing a lot to help with analyzing site traffic and e-commerce. Definitely time to step up my game over there.

*Sigh* Just when I get my Etsy shop up and running smoothly, I decide to jump into another endeavor. That's so like me. Constantly adding more fun to the creative mix. But it keeps things interesting.

Here's my current Rapid Cart (more items coming soon):

pineapplesugar

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