May 19th- How important is branding to your business?

How important is a logo to your business?
How does it represent you and your company?
How can I find a good designer to create my logo and brand identity?
What other things are involved in branding?

Beth Bacon (Zoyo Branding), Corianton Hale (Zoyo Branbing) and Michael Ellsworth (Dumb Eyes) will come answer all your burning questions about branding!

Zoyo Branding is a Seattle-area company that helps organizations define, articulate, and visualize their brand identities. We look at companies’ current attributes and future goals and synthesize them into functional, concrete brands. The principal at Zoyo Branding is Beth Bacon whose clients have included some of today’s brand leaders including Apple Computer and Procter and Gamble. Beth a graduate of Harvard University (magna cum laude in Literature) and has a Master’s in Media Ecology from NYU. She recently returned from a year-long, 50-state trip in an RV. The designer at Zoyo Branding is Corianton Hale, whose work has been featured in six years worth of Print Magazine’s Regional Design Annual, as well as multiple graphic design anthologies in the USA and overseas. In addition to six years at the Seattle arts weekly The Stranger, Corianton has worked in France and the United Kingdom, and left his position as the Stranger's Art Director in 2006 to focus on his freelance career.

Dumb Eyes is a full service design studio that assists everyone from individuals to corporations in differentiating themselves from their competition.

As a creative team, Dumb Eyes excels at bringing their unique talents to bear on all projects. From branding to creating dynamic web applications to developing entire marketing campaigns, each project undertaken by Dumb Eyes is treated as an original work of art, and is executed with the attention and creativity it deserves.


If you are a member of GBA this is a free event. If you are not a member it is $5.00 at the door. Or you can become a member by signing up online.

Find out more here

Send out newsletters?

Here is a good article on things to think about when sending out newsletters.  I use Constant Contact and really like it.  I am not computer savvy so this is the perfect way to communicate with my customers without taking all day to make a newsletter look snappy.

The Succession Planning Crisis

Good article on how to plan for your future as a small business owner.  Read it here

Art Star Craft Bazaar

Applications Due on March 23rd. All info can be found here

Review your goals from January!

We met back in January to start off the year right by setting goals for 2010. At this meeting we will review your goals and see if you met your challenge of attaining what you set out to accomplish by April!

We will continue to set new goals at this meeting, see where we might have fallen down if we did not meet our challenge and find new ways to meet goals for the remaining part of 2010.

If you did not attend our first meeting no worries you can still join us. Set a few goals now and work to attain them by April!

The beginning of this session we will have an open discussion on how to set some practical goals for yourself, some of the obstacles that might get in your way and how to overcome them to see your goals through. Then we will break up into smaller round table groups to have a more intimate discussion on what goals you sought to accomplish by April and if you attained these goals. Hearing each other and offering up tips to get things done can be very useful to succeeding in the items you set forth for yourself. We hope you can join us!

If you are a member of GBA this is a free event. If you are not a member it is $5.00 at the door. Or you can become a member by signing up online.

New York Times Article

The New York Times has a great article on turning your hobby into your full time job.  I especially liked this quote although I would change the Etsy to Schmancy.  Read it here

Urban Craft Uprising Craft Show this weekend

Urban Craft Uprising's Fifth Annual Winter Show!!!

December 5th & 6th, 2009
11:00a.m. to 5:00p.m. both days
Seattle Center Exhibition Hall

Be one of the first in the door each day and get a swag bag full of goodies!!

Urban Craft Uprising was started in 2004 to showcase the work of independent crafters, artists and designers - to provide a unique, high quality, hand-crafted alternative to "big box" stores and mass produced goods.

At Urban Craft Uprising's shows, fans can choose from a wide variety of hand-crafted goods including clothing of all types, jewelry, gifts, bags, wallets, buttons, accessories, aprons, children's goods, toys, housewares, paper goods, candles, journals, art, food & much, much more. Each Urban Craft Uprising show is carefully curated and juried to ensure the best mix of crafts and arts along with originality and uniqueness.

www.urbancraftuprising.com