Idea Cafe: Jorge Quinteros ⇾
Recently he introduced a new type of product to Idea Cafe: Prints. Each month a new artist is featured and I have the pleasure to announce I’m the new artist for December where 4 of my photographs are up for purchase.
Jorge’s prints are stunning. Check them out for yourself.
It was a pleasure to finally launch a new personal project on Tuesday. A big reason for my lack of posting here, this project was an absolute blast. There is so much pleasure in taking a mere idea to a full fledged implementation. Hopefully one that will be a success at some point as well. And if it’s not, there was a metric ton of learning along the way, so I will consider it time well spent regardless.
The biggest lesson I took away from Idea Cafe was this: involve others. Especially in a personal project like this, having the voice and opinion of others is vital. When you are responsible from everything from the branding to the design to creation of business processes, you will lose perspective. When you are knee deep in domain names, product pictures, shipping costs, web store software, and vendor agreements, nothing helps you regain a sense of the big picture like quality feedback.
As the old Proverb says:
Without counsel, plans go awry, but in the multitude of counselors they are established.
Thankfully, I’ve been blessed to come in contact with so many talented folks around this big world we call the internet. And so I say a big thank you to Noah Stokes, Phil Coffman, Sean Sperte, Shawn Blanc, Michael Mistretta and Patrick Rhone for their spot-on feedback and criticism. When these people talk, you listen carefully.
An even bigger thank you to two other folks who had a big part in the creative items. Aaron Mahnke was the creator of the gorgeous logo and a handful of other graphics. The logo itself goes so far to establish the brand. Thanks Aaron.
And a big thank you to my good friend and photographer, Dezene Huber. Dezene was responsible for all the product photos used in the store. Dezene has said before that the problem with amateur photographers is that they have no stamina. I can attest to that when it comes to taking a myriad of photos of notebooks sitting in one spot. Way to pull me though Dez, and thank you!
And so, while I’m happy to finally launch the store, there are a lot of improvements needed. I’m never satisfied, but that’s part of the joy of creating — and improving — your own brand. It never ends.
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Just a little taste of a personal project that should be launching early next week. Follow on Twitter for more details.
