Artlandish

Linkedin: @http://www.linkedin.com/pub/jung-yoon-huh/3a/b91/282 Flikr: @http://www.flickr.com/photos/75333515@N07/sets/72157629687685927/
 * Jung Yoon Huh**

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/artlandishdzyn Twitter:[| https://twitter.com/#!/DougHeilman] Pinterest: https://pinterest.com/dougheilman/ (no official website yet)
 * //Artlandish//** dougheilmandzyn@gmail.com

This week I found some more people to follow on Twitter and sent my client the sample of Tweets. Doug picked tweets among them and told me what could be the best for raising the product awareness, since Doug has launched the business pretty recently. Additionally, he has not tweeted before, which is why I thought providing him samples can be useful for him to tweet after the course project. However, the problem is that the product needs to be acquire safety certification and it is quite difficult to tweet or update some pieces on social media, without selling any product in the market. Now his Facebook page is available. but I need a guide from you, Karl.
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 * Hi Jung Yoon! Looking good. I can't open your link to Facebook here. Make sure the video he shoots is well done. Does he know a student or someone who knows how to shoot and edit video?**

__****__ Besides Skype, we discussed through emails. This week we were still working on (trimming) his Facebook business page before publishing (Just a few minutes before our Skype meeting, he said he would publish his business page within 12 hours). First, we changed his business page name from 'Doug Heilman (his name)' to 'Artlandish'. I think this change gives him overall idea about what business page should be like. Secondly, we changed profile picture, which did not show the whole logo with company name. He modified by putting company name on top of the logo. Additionally, we have new cover picture. Before, the picture was composed of a couple of his past drawings, which looked kind of jammed and was little harmonious. Now he picks the picture of one of his artworks called nautilus table; this conveys more artistic professionalism. I also find some more galleries in Lansing that he might be interested in and contact to have business with. Doug will meet some of them in person first, and we can introduce and update Artlandish news to other galleries through social media; many of them have Facebook page but not Twitter. Since FB page is going to be published soon, he also wants to use Twitter to promote and build network. He hasn't tweeted before, and I don't know exactly what he wants me to tweet, so I will send some tweet samples and he can choose what he would like to talk to his followers or how he would like to be seen to others. Finally, we discuss YouTube video. The basic idea of video is describing the philosophy about lamps, and explanation about the species of the woods used. These are all about what we've done and discussed this week.


 * Hi Jung Yoon!**
 * You're very thorough in your explanations. I look forward to the launch of his FB page. He still has not tweeted, and I know that is not your fault. He really might enjoy it once he gets into it. You mention that "he has wide interests in artwork" which would be one thing he could tweet about, perhaps sharing links to things that inspire him or that he loves that give people an appreciation for his aesthetic tastes. Same with a Pinterest board. he could repin things he loves.The Pinterest link above is missing an 'e' in Pinterest, so be careful if you share it with others. I had to add it.**


 * Good job! (a two hour skype talk! wow!)**
 * Karl**

__****__ My client liked the first Ninbo Art Museum picture. He responded that the picture has good lines, perspective and sense of scale. In terms of picture, Doug (my client) has better idea, knowledge and experiences as an artist and designer. He told me that pictures are generally too dark and need some cropping for balance and more impact with composition.
 * 1. Photo Project**
 * Why?)** My client is a very versatile artist & designer. He produces 'treebone light', makes greeting cards, paints pictures, does interior design, etc. He uses 'adjectives' such as organic industrial to describe his work. Which means he highlights the unique mixture, integration, and harmonization of modern/hi-tech/ industrial elements with, natural, organic and geological elements. Besides, **philosophy of Artlandish** is "a realm of artistic harmony lingering between the divergent and juxtaposed. Artlandishness is an effort toward serenity and spiritual transcendence through art and nature. Lift-up, nurture, create. Confront and vanquish that which suppresses and destroys. The ever looming threat of the profoundly absurd will be met here with harsh language, name calling, and laughter. Save the planet – iciness." As such, he has a big value of harmonization of nature and modernity, which is why I tried to capture the harmonization of modern subjects and non-artificial environment or subjects that demonstrate its value with stylish but organic way. Along with his/Artlandish philosophy, I took several pictures. Briefly introduce the pictures, following are the title of pictures: Ningbo Art Museum 1,2/Modern Asian (bamboo in the middle of city) 1,2,3/ juxtapose/firewood. The concept of these pictures are taken based on his/Artlandish philosophy. (You can see the pictures with more detail explanations on my Flikr page.)
 * Reaction?)** I had not got his response until March 29.

Unlike what we planned, we could not publish Artlandish FB page last week; my client could not reach me as well as work for himself, since he had some technical problems, and I just had to wait for a while. Additionally, he would like to use timeline design for his business page, we adjusted our plan to have more complete form of timeline, explaining his past artistic/designer career and awards that contribute some credential to his professionalism. The provided information (by Doug) supposed to be for FB timeline description, however, it contained too many information with unclear explanation as well as detail events that irrelevant to his career. Considering his self-employed artist/designer position, I also agree that it is inevitable to some extent that his business feature can exhibit his personal characteristics. However, it seemed that he weighs both personal and business aspects equally, or even more on personal side on his FB business page, and I had to find out only core and critical points that can support his work. We had a pretty long conversation (around 2 hours) on Skype, and trimmed down the contents what to add and what to delete for timeline. The next obstacle was, I had some impression that he wanted to complete FB page with lots of posts, before publishing. For instance, he has wide interests in artwork that has led him to create many different things such as lamps, greeting cards, paintings, etc. Although his interests vary, it is important to focus mainly on 'treebone light (lamp)' -which was original plan, to save time and promote the product immediately. Consequently, I thought we need to set the first priority -what kind of pictures we need to post, and how we re-arrange pictures. Furthermore, he has some small issue with his (kind of) partner -who is supposed to give him grant for the business; his partner is somewhat skeptic of social media usage. And we also discussed whether we had to send short statement or not, and I am going to send Doug email during this week and he will pass this to his partner. His business is on starting level, and I can feel that he has real difficult times. Doug says he is technology phob, which could be one of the factors that we have slow progression. Although, it is slow to see some development, Doug says he has less fear of using social media. We try to establish firm foundation by searching the organization/people/source through social media, and to keep the proper pace for ourselves.
 * 2. Biz with social media project**


 * This is a very thorough report, Jung Yoon! I can understand why Doug doesn't want to sell on Etsy so that he has enough for his gallery show. Shipping these huge things would be troublesome, too. I wonder how he plans to do that. China blocking parts of Google is rough. But all you can do is what you can do! Don't worry about participating in the Google Hangout. It doesn't sound possible! You're doing great!**

__****__ As my client Doug has started his business recently, we are in the stage of establishing and settling all social media platforms that we plan to use for promoting and selling the products. Also, my client is quite a novice in social media (same as me, though), we try to lay a firm foundation by focusing more on **Facebook** and **Twitter** first. For this week, we have especially a big plan to **launch Facebook page**. To have professional appeal, we looked through his personal and business profile. His personal artsy characteristics support his artwork, however, some of the description seems less appropriate to the business page. Whereas ‘about’ on his personal profile explains many details, which actually may give him credential for his work. By switching those contents, we try to trim and update Facebook pages. Additionally, he has some pictures of his product, and these are going to be the main pictures on his Facebook page. We also think posting pictures and videos of ‘Doug’s working process of producing treebone light’ can attract his target audiences. For Twitter, we are looking for the people to follow and **make a list**; categorizing the followings into his interests accordingly. Functional, contemporary design, etc. are his major interests, and influential factors that inspire his work as well. We are still looking for more people to follow and create a list. Our **difficulties** we are facing now is that he has limited productions to sell, moreover he needs certain amount of time to produce each item- approximately 10-30 hours or 2-3 weeks. He wants to have sufficient samples to show gallery people, and this is one of the reasons that he is not willing to sell ‘treebone light’ through etsy.com. We are considering to get ordered first with some amount of deposit, supposedly that we use easy.com, but this issue has not been decided yet. Finally, I am in Shanghai and have some problems to access Google, although proxy server allows me to use part of Google. However, Google docs and Google+ hangout is not accessible, and I am still struggling to figure out the way to use in China. Thus most of our meeting is through Skype.


 * __  __**

Since my client Douglas has registered his business, //Artlandish,// recently, we set social media accounts such as Twitter, Facebook business page, Etsy, and Pinterest last week. And this week we decided overall social media strategy and tactics for each medium; To visualize our plan, we used bubbl.us.

First of all, our social media strategy is integrating all social platforms to attract traffics to each other, and reaching as many as our target audiences; mainly retail and hospitality industries. Additionally, Douglas will step into blogging about his artwork in near future, user-friendly interrelated media can contribute //Artlandish// to be a network for interior/furniture designers’ and art lovers’ playground.

On **Twitter**, we set a goal to acquire 100 followers for this month by tweeting 3 times a day during non-business time. Main topic will be #art, #furniture design, #interior design, #design for gardening stuff, #galleries etc. In the past, my client got awarded from interior design competition a few times, and this can be interesting and appealing to attract (potential) customers as well as can show his professionalism; this info can be a critical point on bio part. Besides, on **Facebook**, we would like to introduce Doug’s more detail past career on his business page. Plus, we will create individual album with different category of his art-pieces; our main focus is //Treebone lights// though. As timeline on Facebook enables to display his artwork all at once when visitors scrolling down their mouse, this could be a storytelling of Doug’s art that implying his personal history as well. We expect //Artlandish// Facebook page may function as mini gallery. Doug will post 1-2 pieces everyday during non-business time, same as Twitter. **Pinterest** will be filled with Doug’s personal interests, passion and enthusiasm towards art and interior/furniture design and help personalize his company //Artlandish.// Moreover, Doug would like to use Pinterest to suggest his know-how and easy-following interior tips to audience’s to solve their problems. **Etsy,** will be an supplement form of the business; we do not expect a big trading on this platform, but good channel for obtaining feedback.

To measure the traffic and analyze social media contribution to the business, we will employ Tweetdeck and Google analytics.

Lastly, we defer to use Google+ and YouTube, since we thought that it would be more important to manage and settle mentioned above first and move to next stage; for instance, we plan to broadcast easy-home interior tutorial on YouTube in the future. 

// **Artlandish** // is currently registered as an Interior and Garden Design company in Ingham County Michigan, by Douglas F. Heilman as a sole proprietorship. //Artlandish// creates art, functional art, home furnishings, and retail décor. The founder, Douglas F. Heilman is an artist and designer who produces and markets the artistically beautiful tree-lamps. //‘Treebone lights’// is one of product lines in his business, targeting to retail-, hospitality-, home furnishings- industries as well as art galleries, designers, decorators, art lovers and collectors.
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// ‘Treebone lights’ // have several unique features. The products are made with outfitting dead tree trunks and limbs foraged from several sources, with adjustable halogen spotlights. Each lamp is a work of art; each trunk or limb is selected for its distinctive characteristics or uniformity. //’Treebone lights’// look like real bare trees and create a tranquil park-like feel indoors.

// Artlandish // is ready to take advantage of a niche market opportunity within the retail industry. This opportunity can be synergic, since there are converging trends in retail design and visual merchandising industry; //‘Treebone lights//’ are appealing to this market because of their innovative, naturally stark, simple lines, and functionality.

__ Long-term goals __ 1. To sell enough //’Treebone Lights’// at a reasonable margin, and to maintain the business with a healthy rate of growth. 2. To profitably produce and market the ‘tree lamps’ as high-end functional art, retail display fixtures/lighting, and hospitality and corporate décor. 3. To established //Artlandish// as an innovative and distinctive business venture with an aura of enthusiasm and creativity

__ Short-term goals __ 1. To exhibit at regional home and gift shows. Particularly the Chicago Market Gift show July 19 – 24, 2012, and possibly another in Philadelphia or Atlanta. 2. To participate and exhibit in Art shows and festivals Summer, 2012. 3. To create buzz and gain exposure in the above industries

To determine the most effective marketing and advertising methods with a limited budget, 'Etsy' and 'Pinterest' are the proper and main social media platforms to promote the products, to increase exposure, to targets and to raise the product awareness. Since Etsy is online market for artists' work, besides Pinterest’s users can be huge potential target-customers in terms of demographic traits. Furthermore, //Artlandish// will use Facebook timeline since it fits to show the Douglas' history as an artists as well as to personalize the product with stories.


 * art·land·ish [ahrt-lan-dish] **

// noun // 1. Sort of a realm of artistic harmony lingering between the divergent and juxtaposed. 2. Kind of close to, butdeviating from, the generally recognized or customary character or practice. 3. Roughly, a physical expression of what is beautiful and of more, or less, than ordinary significance.

Synonyms artistically peculiar, eccentric , curious, -ish

Descriptors Viral, original, inspired, inventive, clever, deep, soulful, thoughtful, metaphorical, allegorical current, trendy, breathtakingly unique, timeless, ingenious.


 * Hi Jung Yoon! VERY good and well-thought out strategy here. It sounds like will be easy to work with. With Twitter, make sure you do more than just promote his work, maybe share other rustic furniture pieces that he likes. Give the followers more. Etsy could work more than you think. I just sold a painting there! -Karl**