Sunday, March 01, 2009

Designer/Artist/ or just having fun?

I have been scrapping for over twelve years now and, for the past 6 years have been submitting to magazines both paper( and pubbed enough to keep me happy) and on-line and have been on, I think, eleven different DTs over that time. Three of those have been ezine Dts and the rest were on-line and brick and mortars. Some have been great, some have been not so great but I've always tried to do my very best for them all. Doing my best was my job. They provided me with product and, in exchange, I provided the owners with layouts that (hopefully) sold product. That is the purpose of a DT. From time to time, I was paid in cash which is always nice and, when I got published in a magazine, I would get money from the company and the magazine which was also very nice.

I am currently working with some of the best women I could ever hope to work with (KNK club.com) and have just gotten my first manufacture dt (Genuinely Jane Studio) which looks like it is going to be a blast (and that DT isn't too shabby either! I've visited the blogs of everyone of them...and wowzer!).

To those who have aspirations in this industry and in this economy, let this old gal share some of her hard earned wisdom (and I am far from an "expert"...and, as they say, free is advice is worth what you pay for it).

1. Don't bite the hand that feeds you (if you think owners of both manufacturers and on-lines don't talk to each other, you are nuts!)

2. Look at what you get as a DTer as a challenge not a restriction (a true "artist" or whatever you want to call yourself, can make a purse out of a sow's ear and have everyone wanting to buy 3).

3. To paraphrase JFK, 'don't ask what your DT can do for you, ask what you can do for your dt"

4. Establish a style but be adaptable. Experimentation is good.

5. Don't overestimate yourself.

So, stepping off this month's soap box and moving on down the road.

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