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An idea…

Posted on February 16, 2012 by charis

I have had an idea and I’d like your thoughts on it, please leave a comment below to let me know what you think.

I am wondering whether to start offering my personalised designs as a digital file rather than as a finished canvas or print.

The process would be very similar…

1) You’d choose the design you like from the website, let me know the name you’d want in it and a personal message for the bottom (or a date of birth for the corner). This would all be smooth and easy on the website.

2) You would enter the size you want the image…this could be anything…so you could buy the frame first or measure the space for a canvas and the measurements would be your own choice…they could even be rectangle rather than square.

3) You would pay for the design on the website…it would be just £25 – regardless of finished size.

4) I would email you a small jpg proof of the image which you would then approve (as I do now). In this email exchange you can also confirm the size you would want to receive your file.

5) I would then email you the file and you’d take it to a local printer (who could advertise on my site?) to get it printed and fitted into your frame or made to the canvas size you require.

I so often have people requesting different sizes or trying to find frames…I thought it could be a really good solution for the customer.

I thought it also supports small, local printers and…

…it puts my focus back on designing rather than all the logistics of printing.

I’m sure there are lots of on-line printers that one could also upload a file to.

But what do you really think? Please tell me below…!

P.S. Mugs and tablemats & plaques would still be available as they are now :)

P.P.S Maybe there is an on-line solution for printing that I can direct people to if they can’t get to a local printers…

Posted in New Products | 6 Comments

An update on Name Art and *me*!

Posted on February 15, 2012 by charis

Sorry I have been so quiet, life has taken over somewhat!

You’ll remember some time ago that I wrote a post about teaching and it had a very strange effect on me. It made me quite nostalgic and reminded me just how much I loved teaching. I honestly thought that post-children I would never have the confidence to return to it. However, soon after writing the post, I offered myself as a supply teacher at the lovely school that my boys go to. What happened next was quite a rollercoaster! I was invited in for a chat with the headteacher which resulted in me being offered an afternoon a week. I was so excited about the opportunity to regain confidence and get back into school.

Over the summer holiday a member of staff sadly became unwell and I got the call and was asked if I could cover the Year 2 class until she got better. I was given time to think about it, but I spoke to my husband and rang back to say ‘yes’ within 20 minutes (before I could change my mind)!! What had I done?! I said ‘yes’ because it is an amazing opportunity to properly get back into teaching, it’s a lovely school with hard-working, friendly staff. No one knew how long the lady would be off for and I am still teaching year 2 now – 3 terms in to the school year. I am *loving* it but it is really hard work juggling 5 days teaching with Name Art and being a mummy.

I have neglected Name Art a little bit…but amazingly profit is up on last year…less effort, more profit – perfect!! I will not continue teaching this much forever and I look forward to giving Name Art a little more time. Thank you for continuing spreading the word whilst I’m in this bubble of manicness (I know that’s not a word!!).

I think the biggest challenge is that I love social networking and yet my life has been filled with teaching and I have to be so careful what I say and what I share. I want to talk about my days…my successes and my frustrations…as I have become so used to doing. But that is not appropriate…so I have been a little quiet.

So, as it’s half-term, I just wanted to say: hello, thank you for remaining interested in Name Art and continuing to order and that I haven’t forgotten about chatting and sharing with you all….this arrangement won’t be so full on forever and so I WILL BE BACK!! I have so many exciting ideas up my sleeve…up both sleeves and trouser legs too!!…that’s my main frustration as I can’t wait to get designing again. But for now, I have 24 lovely 6 and 7 year olds who have to be my priority…oh and a gorgeous 5 and 7 year old of my own who have just been so patient about all the changes.

Enough for now, but thank you,

Posted in Family Things, Latest News | 2 Comments

Blowing My Own Trumpet…

Posted on October 21, 2011 by charis

I don’t think I’m alone when I say that I am seriously rubbish at blowing my own trumpet! I think lots of lovely makers and artists struggle to promote their own work…mainly out of politeness…perhaps, I don’t know. My frustration is, I have an idea and I execute it…I make a little bit of fuss about telling people about it…then someone has a similiar idea and is better at blowing their trumpet louder. I fear this is making no sense…

So… can I just have a little moment to say how incredibly proud I am of my #Addict mug.

 

At first, I called it a #TwitterAddict mug, but then thought I should check out the legalities of it. I had this lovely email from twitter:

Thanks for checking in.  We don’t allow for our marks to be used on merchandise, but I think the bird you’re using is different enough that it shouldn’t be confusing.  However, because it’s not ok to use “twitter” in the name of your product, please do not use #twitteraddict.  More about our marks can be found at www.bit.ly/twittermarks

I felt thrilled that my design had been approved. From then on, it became the #Addict mug. I had a local man printing the mugs for me, one at a time, but it quickly became apparent that it was going to make financial sense to buy my own press and print them myself…a product that I was then in control of from start to finish. I read all about mug presses and researched for a while. I’ve bought a top quality one which produces dishwasherable mugs with a fabulous print on them. The first mug I printed remains on my desk as my pencil pot…it was a magical moment peeling off the paper the very first time!

Since then, it has gone mad…so many orders. I’m going to have a self indulgent moment… more than 2000 #Addict mugs now sold. Amongst the proud owners are Theo Paphitis (pic below), Sarah Brown, Kirstie Allsopp, Emma Forbes, Dannii Minogue, the cricketer Matthew Hoggard and many other lovely, lovely people. I have just printed a mug for Mr Gary Barlow @GBarlowOfficial as he now seems to have got the ‘Twitter Bug’.

Thanks to many blog posts – including a lovely one by Emma Forbes here and many other lovely blogger competitions, an inclusion in the NotOnTheHighStreet catalogue, I think we can safely say that ‘word has got out’.

Other people have grabbed the idea and blown their trumpet about it (and, who knows, there may have been others I hadn’t heard of before mine) but as far as I’m concerned…for over 2000 #Addicts, the Name Art #Addict mug is the original and the best :)

As you know, I am *mad* about twitter, it has made ALL the difference to Name Art. I am @CharisNameArt if you’re not already following. It’s an amazing community of (generally) encouraging, lovely people…I wish the world was like twitter! The #Addict mug can be ordered here.

I shall now put my trumpet back in the case…and return to my designing LOL! Thanks for listening!

Posted in Latest News, PR & Twitter Adventures | 2 Comments