Artsfest Photos and more news...

Here are some photos I took at Artsfest 2 weeks ago. Sorry for the late update, but I will fill you in with an explanation further down the page...

My space at Art on the Railings:


The Hall of Memory in Centenery Square on the gloriously sunny Saturday:























The fireworks display on Saturday night:


Now for the explanation...

I am going to be leaving the UK for 3 months from the 3rd October, to do some travelling around South America. I'll be visiting Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina and Brazil, all on a big yellow truck with a group of people whom I've never met, but hope will become good friends.

In that time, I hope to pick up some good inspiration for future work and will have my camera at the ready at all times!

I will have a sale on in my etsy shop next week to celebrate my leaving. While I'm away a friend will fulfill any etsy orders, but the stock may be limited so if you're looking for anything specific, please get in there quick!

I'll also be at Moseley Market this Saturday so hope to see a few of you there.

Bye for now!

Special Offers on Etsy

A fellow member of the Etsy Midlanders, Phillisb, will be leaving the UK for Zambia soon and so is adding special offers to her site over the next 2 weeks. She has some great cards and modern cross stitch designs on the site so go over and check them out:

http://phyllisb78.etsy.com

Artsfest this weekend

I will have a space on the railings in Centenery Square at Birmingham's Artsfest this weekend. Come and see me between 12 and 6 on either Saturday or Sunday. I'll have prints of different sizes available, framed and unframed. There will be lots of other entertainment going on in the square with live music and dance so well worth a day out!

In other news, I will be leaving the UK for South America on the 3rd October and won't be back in the country until the 4th January. Artsfest and the September 22nd Moseley Arts Market will be your last chance to see my work before I go, so if you are thinking of buying anything from me, please try and make it to one of these.

My etsy shop will be run by a friend while I'm away but stocks may be limited. I shall post further details closer to the time.

Hasta luego amigos!

Bank Holiday Study Trip

I took a trip to Ikea yesterday (I know, bank holiday horror!) to buy lots of new frames in preparation for Artsfest, to sell to the Cherry Tree in Bearwood and to put up some photographs in the Warley Woods Cafe.

On the way there I got a tip off that Ikea has recently changed it's display font from the elegant simplicity of Futura to Verdana, mostly used as a screen font. So a seemingly simple trip turned into a reconnaissance mission, a typographic study trip...

Ikea Coventry hasn't yet completely finished the branding excercise, most of the display material was still written in Futura, but there was the odd hint at the rebrand. I took a photo of one of the offending posters:



The supposed reason behind the rebrand is that Ikea want to use the same font throughout it's branding, from web to print material. To me, this seems like lazy typography. You need to choose a font based on it's end purpose, and Verdana just doesn't cut it when used at a large scale. I'm a bit confused as to why Ikea would spend the extra expense licensing the new font when the old one worked so much better. If it aint broke, don't bother fixing it.

I'm assuming they will be using the font on their instruction manuals too, items that are meant to make the headache-inducing process of putting their furniture together as simple as possible. Keeping the typography simple is key to a document like that.

The type debate is hotting up on the typophile forum, check it out here if you're interested in hearing more type geekery:

http://typophile.com/node/61222

I ended up buying far too many frames than I could carry yesterday; 19 to be exact, and when I came out of Ikea it was raining and had to carry them back to the train station and back home to Brum. My shoulders actually have dents in them this morning. Who says I don't suffer for my art!

In other news, I sold a Moseley Dovecote print to a lady in Sacramento, CA through Etsy. Very exciting.

There are lots of other exciting things happening in the world of becky at the moment but I shall drip feed these to you over the next few days.

Hope everyone's having a fabulous bank holiday!

Etsy commission is finished!

I was commissioned through Etsy's alchemy tool to create 3 magnetic bumper stickers for a rug hooking company in the US. I've thoroughly enjoyed the process of working with a company so far away and feel we worked really well together to reach an outcome that we are all pleased with. Here are the final designs. Look out for them in a car window near you!

New Commission through Etsy and a Beautiful Kent Wedding!

I've been commissioned to design 3 bumper stickers through Etsy.com. The commission is from a company based in Minesotta and is a rug hooking and wool supply business. Check out their website here:
www.lavenderwool.com

The designs are coming along nicely and I'm enjoying the opportunity of working for someone so far away, and the idea that my design will be on cars travelling through the US! I shall post the designs once they have been finalised and agreed.

In other news, I attended the lovely wedding of my friends Hannah and Conor Costigan at the weekend. It was set in the beautiful Kent countryside and it was great to get away from the smog and catch up with friends.

I had designed the wedding invitations and table plan for the wedding and even got a mention in the speeches, which was totally unexpected and made me blush. I'm not sure if any photos were taken of the table plan and my little handbag was too small to fit my camera in, but I shall ask around and post photos if I can find any. In the meantime, here's a screen grab of the front of the invitation, which was designed with an illustration of a sweet pea to complement the bridal party's flowers.

Handmade Saturdays at the Custard Factory

I shared a stall with a fellow Etsy Midlander Phillis B:
http://quiltgeek09.blogspot.com/
last Saturday at the Cuatsrd Factory in Birmingham. It was a great day, and I got to meet some lovely crafters and it also resulted in my first sale on Etsy!



The Market is organised by COW (Creative Open Workshops) who run a range of creative workshops from their studio at the back of the pool in the Custard Factory, Digbeth. They will be running the market every Saturday in June and I will be there again this Saturday. For further details on the event see the COW blog:
francine.posterous.com

I've been chosen in a treasury!

Treasuries on etsy are collections of fellow etsian's favourite pieces or pieces that fit a particular theme. One of my 'In Shadow' posters has just been selected and used in one. It's my first treasury so I'm a bit excited!

Follow this link to see my poster and other lovely Etsy items:

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=64469

New Etsy Shop!

So I've set up a shop on etsy.com. It's very new at the moment and I currently only have my posters displayed, but am planning on photographing my cards at the weekend and getting them up too. Then it'll be time to get marketing!
Here's a link to my shop:

www.beckyismyname.etsy.com