When achievements from Love Is MADness are considered, “success” becomes a word of many components. To know of success there must be a comparison to assess the event between what was anticipated and what actually happened. I took inventory of what was bought, but also of people influenced. I must take into account both to predict what sales will be in the near future and plan accordingly. It becomes my success to become a more accurate forecaster of my products’ popularity based on my experiences when selling my brand of graphic design.
Success is also a transitory word because, if achieved, will lead to a “succession” of other opportunities. MAD Design progressed from a very small to a slightly larger audience. As a result of a certain type of success, I predict an increase in commissions after having been able to talk to students about my freelance operation.
During Love Is MADness, many students asked how “sales were.” Considering that I made 300% profits on each set of stickers sold, sales were very profitable. For post cards, I got back what I put in and made 0% profit for each post card sold, sales were not profitable in a monetary sense. However, students were very impressed with my graphic designs, usually reacting with a surprised response, “You designed these?” when I said that the valentines are self-designed.
It would have been a sign of an unknown audience to make a profit during the 5-day solicitation period, but was not predicted. My purpose for Love Is MADness was to put a face to the names MAD Design and Musicanator. I predict that through distributing my merchandise to places like Avenue Art & Company, selling online at Etsy, and meeting students, that my next art exhibit in spring term will be more popular because of associations made with Love Is MADness, and turn a profit. There are steps before hitting it big in sales. I do not want to be a fad, but a consistently growing operation.
A object as the product of a fad would dismisses the fine graphic quality that my artwork possesses. It would make people “crazy.” Which, now that I mention it, would be a great idea for a MAD Design poster. MAD Design is not short lived, but I hope will continue to build a customer base over the next year.
IHRTLUHC
Ian Wallace.
5 comments:
I really like that many of your posters have a hand drawn quality to them. It gives the design a quasi-viral aesthetic and makes me wonder, "Who is creating this design?"
It looks like you are now in the phase of public promotion. Maybe by aligning the design and the designer you can reach a wider audience-- Hopefully an audience that is aware of your poster as product, and not just as an anonymous image.
Congratulations! it sound like you are stepping on productive path in your career. I have seem your posters and some of the sticker around and i might admit, they are great and would edge you to look into the commercial art sectors you never know something greater would come out of it.
I agree with what Zachary said that " it looks like you are now in the phase of public promotion". It is also good that you are expanding your sales and marketing through various mediums. Keep up with the good work and the pace at which you are moving. you have a bright future with your work.
I have seen that the lawrence campus is a very great environment to show your work as students are very eager to check out other students' work. Have you thought of expanding your horizons on to websites like etsy or just putting up posters around Appleton to get people to give you commissions? Students are a lot less willing to pay and you would be surprised how many people may in appleton may be interested in getting a well designed poster made for them.
Glad to see you posting your stickers on etsy. Does anyone know of other online retail outlets? Please check gotprint for reasonable printing rates if you are able to upload your designs as .pdf files. It takes about 2 weeks from upload to delivery.
farihali...there is a link to my Etsy account in this post! You should read a little better before making a comment...lol
Post a Comment