The Obama campagin is holding a national poster competition to promote his jobs act. I am one of twelve finalists. Three winners will have their posters sold in the official campaign store.
Please go here to vote for my poster below.
Vote for my poster today at http://artworks.barackobama.com.
The Glory:
For freelance artists, social media is an important tool for marketing. Visit any designer's website and you'll probably see links to Twitter, Facebook, Dribbble, Flickr, Google+, blogs and so on. The conventional wisdom is that you must leverage as many social platforms as possible to increase exposure to your work.
There is truth to that. If you’re successful in marketing online, your networks grow. People follow, like and friend you as they show interest in your work, and often you reciprocate. It really does work for marketing!
The Fatigue:
I’ve been growing tired and overwhelmed by social media. As a freelancer, I only have so many hours in the day to balance my work and personal life, both online and off. According to Dunbar’s Number, a person can socially keep up with around 150 people. I find this to be fairly accurate.
Currently I have:
For the social networks, those are actually low numbers (except my Twitter followers.) Overall, it’s an overwhelming amount of people to be connected to online (regardless of overlap between networks). I just can’t keep up!
When am I supposed to be making artwork, creating the next great thing I’m passionate about, or spend time with my wife? Honestly those things do come first in my life. Social media is not a priority but because of the social demand, it feels like it’s trying to be one.
The Release:
I’m culling my social. I’m going to abandon many of these networks, and choose one. The winner, unsurprisingly, is Facebook.
If you want to follow me and my artwork, I now have:
I will not be posting to Twitter and Dribbble, except for trying to migrate followers for a little while. I’m shutting down LinkedIn, Google+ and my photo blog.
As I said, social media marketing works. But I believe there's a balance to be struck. I don't think that means trying to leverage every network for maximum exposure. It means being smart about how you use them, whether you're active on one or ten networks.
Less distraction = More execution. It's time to create!
Since moving to Colorado nearly a decade ago, I've built a freelance career in illustration and design. I like being my own boss and I like working on a multitude of projects.
In the spring of 2010, I designed a logo for a local startup called Nudgems.com. Their original concept didn't take off so they pivoted their early company into a marketplace for greeting cards - real ones made of paper. It was renamed CardGnome.com.Naturally, Card Gnome needed a new logo. They also needed a better looking website if they were going to compete with other online card shops. That's where I came in.
I did some initial design and illustration work for the site, but was pulled away toward other important commissions, including the large Whole Foods Mural.
The founders of Card Gnome appreciate the value of good design for their customers, so they convinced me to take a job with the company. I took a part time position so that I could continue freelancing and support my ongoing clients. It's a good balance and I'm having fun being creative in new ways with web design.
And of course, you can find some of my artwork on greeting cards here.
Nearly every day that I painted the Whole Foods mural, the store's social media specialist, Ryan, set up a camera. It shot a photo every two minutes, which over ten weeks must have been 1,000s of photos. He edited those down into a time lapse video.
He also shot a short interview of me talking about my creative history and my inspiration for the mural. Enjoy!
Check out the mural progress photos here.
Click photo to enlarge it.
Besides painting the mural for Whole Foods, I also designed a series of 13 banners that now adorn the lampposts of the parking lot. Each depicts a Boulder or Colorado lifestyle scene. Seven of them illustrate the company's corporate values, which are written out on those banners.
They look good across the large parking lot. (Click photo to view larger.)
If you don't get the reference in the headline, check out the funny Whole Foods Parking Lot rap on YouTube.
The most time consuming part of painting the mural has been the downtown scene with its many complex buildings and other structural details. It is now finished! With the exception of a few minor details, the entire mid section of the mural is complete. Here are a few closeups of the buildings.
Click image to see larger.
