…One of many.  Neurotic peeps that we are 😉

Unless you have a deadline, imposed by the Art Director, Publisher…..’HOW DO YOU KNOW WHEN TO STOP?’

I had already finished my latest creation ‘A Solo Dawn Chorus’ for My Fine Feathered Friends range, and here it is……

And I thought I’d finished, BUT, Oh No!

I couldn’t place it but there was something, ‘incomplete’ it about it. I kept returning to it, looking for that something. I knew it wasn’t finished. ‘Finishing’ a work of art may removing as well or as adding! On this occasion it was adding something. I knew that at least. But, what was it?

I wanted the bird to enjoy being alone, singing at the top of its voice, fine, that worked. Maybe it was the background, the sky. Too bland? I had added a small sun in one version to the right of the picture, but somehow that didn’t work, just floating there!

Even while it was in our gallery it was still niggling me. So I took it down and added a bigger, warmer sun, behind the flowery lettering and that did it for me. I added a few fields at the bottom of the picture, to ground the image, literally, and it worked.

It also managed to bring out ‘Happy Birthday’.

NOW, it’s finished …..or is it?

                                                 ……..IN A STRICTLY TIMED 10 MINUTES!!!???  

My first pitch was with the lovely Catherine Laycock of Belly Button Designs , she was very encouraging, loving the colours and styles. ‘All That Jazz’ was Catherine’s favourite range. Being the first it’s a bit worrying that one may be forgotten by the end of the afternoon. But hey, who would forget ‘Miko Greetings Cards’

Secondly, I was invited to show retailer Brent Milburn Rhymes with Orange! What a totally brilliant name! Love it! He was pleasantly surprised by the number of different styles in our ranges. My studio of many years was in Gt Titchfield Street, just around the corner from him. Really pleasant and nice guy. He was very interested and I do hope we can work together.

My third pitch was to wonderful Sarah Bertram, buyer for the major retailer Scribbler. I have to say I did wonder if our ‘warm smiley’ cards were suitable for their ‘gag’ taste. Sarah was keen on our ranges and said they were now looking for the more gentle humour to interest new customers and therefore is very interested in Miko Greetings. Phew 🙂

I was deeply interested in Bianca Mastrodomenico, card buyer for all National Trust’s Properties. Our cards would be just perfect for the National Trust customers. Especially ‘Artistic License’ pointing a gentle finger of fun at some famous art and artists. Then there is ‘My Fine Feathered Friends’ and not forgetting ‘All That Jazz’ Oh! and ‘The Cat’s Muse’, ‘Just Look at You’ etc etc….

I took the liberty of telling Bianca that I would love to have had the opportunity of showing her our ranges. Alas there wasn’t the time available, but she eagerly accepted a Miko Greetings sample pack. Fingers crossed…

Friday was an exciting day as 36 Publishers were invited to pitch to only 3 of 18 Major Greetings Card Retailers. Arranged by Sharon Little of the ‘Greetings Card Association’ and held at ‘The Business Design Centre’

We brought along our sample pack to leave with the Retail Dragons

How about that for Recycling?

Read about who we were lucky enough to pitch to at Dragons 2, in the next blog.

Thanks to all our lovely editorial peeps in Progressive Greetings, our Greetings Card industry publication.

We are showing off our latest range ‘The Cats Muse’.  Giving you ‘that warm smile’ again.

They have headed our piece ‘Feline Good’ …….If only I had thought of that:)

Well, this lucky guy for a start……..

Getting on for 3 hours of fact finding, inspirational Marketing on a Budget! Given by Claire Scaramanga and Ruby Plenderleith, respectively Managing Director and Marketing Executive of Scaramanga Marketing.

A menagerie of 20 or so new businesses gathered at The Start Up Croydon Premises.

Tim Higham, Film maker. Thowheetha Shaah, Family Solicitor and Mediator. Simon de Cintra, helping presenters to confidently present etc., too many to mention apart from Miko Greetings aka Miko Cartoon…of course! 🙂

We learnt about memorable branding and getting your business brand out there! Twitter being useful for up to date brief conversations, facebook for more detailed news. Drip feeding information, consistency and building trust. Etc Etc Etc.

What I thought so impressive, was that Claire and Ruby took time out of their very busy schedule to share their knowledge. Scaramanga being a very major player in marketing companies. You should see their list of clients! Phew!

So my advice is to look out for their next Marketing on a Budget Workshop. In the meantime check out their wise words.