turning what was a hobby business into a real business. I was so ill for the last few years I wasn't able to run a proper business but now that I'm better health wise I'm eager to do this properly.
To start I need a real logo. Then I need to create a brand. I did some branding designs a few months ago but I wasn't happy with them and I still didn't have a logo. Here's one design, it was very specific for a certain kind of doll I was making at the time. Cute, but this doesn't solve any of my problems.
I really liked the color palette I originally had, it was whimsical and bright without being too childlike, so I decided to keep it. Since I'm starting a new venture with new dolls I flirted with the idea of changing my business name. I wondered if I'd outgrown it? If it was still me? I started on ebay with this name almost 10 years ago selling vintage toys. I did some research and discovered I have a really good google presence with this name so I decided to keep it but tweak it a little. My original name was four words which I found to be unwieldy, so I decided to make Packrat one word and it became cleaner and simpler, much easier to work with.
So I dusted off
my graphic design skills (such as they are after all this time) and sat
down, thought, researched, sketched and came up with some ideas that I
liked. Here are four versions of one design I thought had some potential.
The logo will need to cover a couple of different style of handmade dolls, plush and possibly some paper goods too. Once this is finished I can move on to doing a selling site (I'm leaving etsy), changing up my blog, business cards and other promotional materials. I may just be talking to myself at this point but if anyone finds any of this interesting leave a comment.
Want to read more about this? PART 2 and PART 3 can be found here.
...to this blog. I really want to make this blog a big part of my social media family, engage with people and hopefully provide interesting content. So that being said I'll be making changes on this little blog.
Some of the ideas I have are to bring back my Friday Favorites. I really enjoyed showcasing wonderful things I found out in the world.
Another idea is Artist Profiles. This will be difficult for me as I'm an extremely shy introvert but I think pushing myself to do this will be beneficial. I'm going to start with artist friends and work from there.
I'm also going to breakdown my doll making experience. I'm starting on a new doll making journey and a complete change to my business that other makers, beginning makers and/or customers and others might enjoy seeing the whole process. So I'm really going to over share about my doubts, insecurities, issues, pattern problems, forays into positioning my brand on social media etc, branding my work and what that means.
And if no one reads it but me then I have a written history of this process which is valuable to me in it's own right. Stay tuned!
