Once A Sell Out....Always?

May 13, 2008.

I am not dumb, I am not stupid and I do not run around with my eyes covered refusing to acknowledge design trends.  Sometimes though, I like to sit back and watch and wait to see if it is a fad or just a trend.  Othertimes I realize that if everyone is doing it, maybe I should not.  The fact still remains - I watch trends, whether I act on them or not I get it.

I knew the brown trend was here to stay - I love brown, I have brown all over my home - and with the pastel colors, fabulous for baby.  I love me some brown, I just had no need to add it to my line, and it felt everyone would think , oh there she goes, just like everyone else.   I assumed my work was classic and it was like the canvas art - everyone was already doing it, and doing it well, so why bother?  Until today that is:

Brown is the New Black

Which brings me to a few new designs......designs that were asked of me by others, um maybe more than once.  And, if I am getting paid to paint new designs for people, you better believe I am going to paint the colors they like.  My product is an accesorry, an add-on if you will - so I really should consider taking their suggestions.  A certain person I um, shared a booth with last July also was pushing for this color combination.  Again, I am not dumb - just stubborn.

Not Bucking the Trend

So here is my version of "Pink & Brown", I had to add some butterflies.  I also could not just do polka dots and stripes, not my style or my thing.  Wait, let me rephrase that - I don't draw those things, not my strong point.  Sounded like what my graphic desinger started calling me after she designed our ad last year "Jamie Hates Polka Dots". I don't know what it was, but the polka dots were not working for me.....yet they were for another person.  Anyway - here we are today.

I give you my first sample.  I like the colors, sort of kicking self for not doing this sooner.  However, I have NO idea what the Just Because Plaque should say or if it should be a new Name Plaque?  Thoughts? Advice?  Stuck in a pickle, so to speak.

Second sample with a brown ribbon you can see below.  Again, I can not decide which one to go with.  I always want to try a new ribbon color, however anyone in this industry knows pink sells, and pink sells well.  If pink is the predominating color in a product we know it will sell better than any other color combination.  Even though I continue to try other color combinations from time to time, anything with pink trounces the others.  Thoughts on the brown or pink ribbon

My Art History

When I was in one of my beginning art classes I made a self-discovery at one of our critiques (critiques are common in art classes, where you show the class your piece or work and they pick it apart).  I have found that these critiques (that were nerve wracking at times) have helped me to develop a thick skin when someone does not like my art.

Anyway - what I announced to the class as they were dissecting some piece or work, was I hated to have the art fall off the edge.  I could not stand it over to the side, not centered - made me crazy (can you say I had some control issues? Or have?).  For the rest for the semester I was forced to push my drawings, paintings, anything to edges.  I hated it.

So now that I am the boss of me I hardly never, ever push the art to the sides.  I like it pushed to edges, but not off the edge.  Oh well, now that I am on that I jumped on the brown train, maybe I will attack my "edge" issues.  I am feeling like a sell-out with the brown and pink color combinations for sure....oh well, takes one to know one, right?