Ban Comic Sans

Hate Comic Sans? Well, you're not alone. There is a whole website dedicated to hating this lame font. I stumbled across bancomicsans.com today, and they have tees, stickers and stats on the evil that is Comic Sans. Good stuff. I think I love the pink girly tee... might need to pick one up.

Hotlanta gets SNOW?

Yes, it's true... for the second time this week, it's Winter Storm Watch 2008! If you can believe it, the snow is coming down again today. There was high anticipation of everything closing down on Thursday – work included – unfortunately, there wasn't enough snow/ice for that. Here is a pic from Wednesday evening.

Today, however, it has been sleeting and snowing since about 9am, and the grass is actually white. Took the dog for a walk, and this is what it looked like around 11:30.

It's quite a novelty here when it snows... we're afraid to go to the grocery store for fear there will be nothing left. My husband and I (as well as Ellen) are all from the north, so this very humorous to us. The entire city is convinced they will be out of power and snowed into their homes for days and days. Meanwhile, we're going to make reservations to dine out this evening!
Wish us luck in our Winter Wonderland...
Tamara

Bad Design...

While checking out HOW magazine online today, I came across this great post on their blog... downloads from Design Police of bad design stickers! Hilarious. I think that every designer needs these to make notes on bad designs they see! Something for just about every scenario... check out the image to the left for a small sample. Great job Design Police... may you make this world better looking, one design at a time.

2008 Will be Great!

So... as we mentioned before, we had our first annual planning meeting a couple weeks ago. It was a lovely, warm Sunday in Atlanta, and we plopped down on some couches at Aprés Diem for some coffee, snacks and planning – determined to make this business work! These are the '08 Goals:
Attend a minimum of two craft/art shows.
Looking at Indie Craft Experience and some other random ones around town. We'd love to do Summerfest or something, but most of those are more "fine art" versus just selling cool stuff you make. Having a hard time finding a good list of ones to attend that are appropriate to what we do, so if you have suggestions, please pass them on!
Expand our exposure to a national level...
through online advertising, joining online communities, blogging more, and doing some PR with industry magazines – both graphic design and craft/stationery.
Create a Design Studio.
Since we both already do freelance on our own, we are hoping to combine efforts and start Jinky Wink Design Studio. It will be above and beyond the custom work that we currently do – less cards and invites, and more brochures and posters. We'll expand our website to include our portfolios and info on how to hire us!
Get into a minimum of three retail stores.
We had this as a "goal" last year, but we're for real serious about it now! We really want and need the exposure from retail outlets. If you want to see us in your favorite store, go tell them! If you get us into a store, we'll send you a "Thanks for Getting us into a Retail Store" Gift!
Introduce new products.
We're always coming up with great ideas, and we're hoping to be able to roll lots of them out this year! Of course, cash is always a factor, so we do need to think things through. We're hoping to have a few new things as soon as next month. As always, we'll send out an announcement. Get on our mailing list if you're not already!
So, that's our list. It seems small, but everyday we come up with more things that need to happen to make the goal happen! Our ultimate goal throughout the year is to have enough product (and cash!) to make it to a trade show in 2009. Ideally, the National Stationery Show however, we'd be happy with the Gift Mart in Atlanta!
WHEW! Wish us luck...
Tamara & Ellen

Motivation

Just have to say, we've been compiling ideas and thoughts and we're bursting with stuff we want to do in '08! We're hoping to show everyone a sneak peek of things soon – once we figure out what will and won't work. The plan is to have some crafty things, new cards, and things that will hopefully involve the new sewing machine I got for Christmas (thanks mom!). I'm a tad bit scared of the whole sewing thing, but I promised myself I'd figure out how to use it.
If you have an idea of something that you'd like us to create, let us know! We'll put it into our giant idea pot and see if it comes to fruition...

Hey Ya'll!

Hooray! More press for us! And not just a blurb this time... a real live article. We're big time now ya'll!

Ellen had the opportunity to talk with Piedmont Review (for you non-ATL people, it's a local mag) a bit ago, and we're in the Winter issue that's hitting stands now. We are so excited to be featured and see our mugs in a mag. Actually... that part is a little weird... all I have to say is glad we know Photoshop! Anyway, if you would like to see the article a little bigger so you can actually read more about us (because we really are that fascinating), click here or rush out and find a Piedmont Review of your own!
In other news, we had our "Annual" (aka, our first real) Yearly Planning Meeting on Sunday. Check back soon to see our goals for '08. Once it's on the web there's no taking it back, right? Okay, there is, but we'll use it as motivation anyway.
Cheers!
Tamara

2007: A Year in Review (a.k.a. Lessons We Have Learned)

With 2007 a whole day behind us, the lovely girls of Jinky Wink have been reflecting. Reflecting on clients gained, and monies lost -- ideas sparked and projects extinguished -- and all the ups and downs of our first year of this little business venture. We'd like to share with you, our loyal readers (all two of you) the lessons we have learned in Oh-Seven.
1) Starting a business is hard.
2) Keeping it running is way harder.
3) Money does not, in fact, grow on trees.
4) You think you know what you need to know, but you don't know anything until it's too late.
5) Never, ever include shipping in your estimate! (Read: paper is heavy)
6) Bartering for ads: will the loss of profit be worth it?
7) Tons of visits to your website are great, but visits that turn into sales are what you really want.
8) Sometimes, random last minute decisions are good ones. (www.thesampler.com)
9) Late November and early December will be busy.
10) Getting product into brick & mortar stores requires a secret password or handshake. (If anyone knows what this is, please send an email to info@jinkywink.com.)
Thankfully, when you love what you are doing, the ups outweigh the downs. We've learned from our mistakes, and are looking forward to a great 2008!
Cheers and Happy New Year!
Tamara & Ellen