Image courtesy of the Chicago Bluegrass and Blues Festival

It has been a while since I have given a comprehensive update on how the “business” is running, and I figured now would be the perfect time. My first announcement is that I will be a vendor at the Chicago Bluegrass and Blues Festival this Saturday. It is being held at Congress Theater from 11am to Midnight. I will be selling the “Chicago 2010″ poster, and a poster called “Cube Man”. Tickets are still available. I am not sure what to expect as a vendor selling my artwork to the “masses”, but it is the logical second step for me. This will give me a good idea about how successful I might be outside of my circle of family and friends. If all goes well, it gives me more incentive to hit the art fairs and festivals in Chicago over the summer. Or, I could try to hit other music festivals like Pitchfork. This festival is perfectly timed for me!

Speaking of “Chicago 2010″…I have been very happy with how my poster has been received. Us artists can be relatively sensitive, but at some point, you have to just take a leap of faith. I think it has helped that I picked a subject matter that is instantly recognizable. I was concerned that it might seem too “cartoony” for people, but the style seemed to be the right choice. It has given me more incentive to do other work in that style. Although, I will not be doing something as recognizable. I have thought about doing other cities, but I do not want to get stuck doing just cities. The Chicago poster was pretty personal to me, so I’d like to stick to subject matter that I have a personal attachment to. If I do work on another city, I’d probably do Sydney. Finally, if you ever do want to get posters made, I would go with Large Format Posters. They are somehow linked to another company called UPrinting. I was extremely happy with the results of the poster from a production standpoint. For someone who has never gone to “print”, I was understandably nervous. Designing on a computer screen and designing for print are two different animals. Yet, when I opened up that box, I was floored.

And lastly, my one bit of promotion so far has been my joemills.com sticker. If you are ever in the market for some inexpensive, “quick” stickers, I would go with Sticker Giant. They do produce 4 color stickers, but I was not ready to jump in that far just yet. I just wanted a little something to put in my poster sleeves with my web site on it. These stickers did the trick. Which reminds me…I had a hard time finding poster sleeves, but came across Clear Bags after some searching. They have poster sleeves of all different sizes. It is amazing how many unforeseen costs exist when you are trying to make money away from a 9 to 5 job…

I’ll give a post-festival post later…