Keeping A Promotional Campaign Fresh

Thinking up new ways to continue to engage with an audience as an artist is very time consuming. There are lots of strategies to think about and new skills to learn. This all takes time. But this time is necessary as making art that has no audience seems ultimately fruitless and frustrating.

So far I've used a number of strategies to promote awareness of my exhibition. Firstly I began by make updates on social media about my progress towards the exhibition. This involved images of my work in progress on individual pieces, making bases for props and the acquiring of items such as plinth bases. I feel that showing how an artist puts an exhibition together would be of interest to the viewer and also help to build and sustain interest throughout the campaign.

 Making a base for a prop

Plinth bases for props

Another line of promotion I am about to utilise is to link my exhibition with various events and things to do in Margate. I propose to post to social media a different aspect of Margate every week. There is a lot of choice in this seaside town such as the newly refurbished Dreamland amusement park, the old town quarter, Margate Pride, the Turner Contemporary, the beach and the harbour arm cafes and bars. I learned how to make GIFs with Photoshop. The steps are fairly simple and there is a number of videos online explaining the process. As with anything the time comes in designing a GIF that looks appropriate and getting the feel of it right. Here is my first effort that I pushed out to social media yesterday:

BE BY THE SEASIDE (Dreamland) promotional GIF

Once I was satisfied with my newly created GIF I attempted to push it out to social media. I soon realised that although Facebook and Twitter were fine, Instagram did not support GIFs! After all my efforts that was really frustrating! I investigated and found a third-party app that purported to have a work-around but it corrupted my GIF. Eventually I had a brainwave and realised that Photoshop could export my GIF files to a small movie format that Instagram would support. This blog also has trouble displaying one of the images correctly but it works fine on all my other SM formats now.

When designing my GIF I tried to keep it basic and used the strapline "BE BY THE SEASIDE" which I will use for the other GIFS too. The intention is to raise awareness of other activities that could be done by a visitor that may be considering travelling to Margate for my exhibition. As with all marketing attempts it remains to be seen how effective this strategy will be. This is the conundrum. How much time do you spend learning new skills and putting together new campaigns against all the other numerous tasks that need to be completed for the exhibition deadline!

BE BY THE SEASIDE (Turner Contemporary) promotional GIF

BE BY THE SEASIDE (Harbour Arm) promotional GIF

BE BY THE SEASIDE (Shell Grotto) promotional GIF

I need to continue to promote my Kickstarter campaign by providing updates on my progress. I have just finished a new collage piece 'collage 3' and will write about that. One idea I've had to get more engagement is to ask for suggestions for a title for it. All the Target Practice photographs are numbered 1 -- 11. The three new collages will have names. It will be interesting to make a Kickstarter post about naming one of the collages and see what (if any) feedback this generates.

Collage 3

Spray Mounting Test No. 2

Yesterday I spray mounted my second test piece. This was at the larger size of 40x30 inches. It went fairly well apart from an initial panic about bubbling. Luckily I could re-lift the print and squeeze out the unwanted air pockets without too much trouble. I have to be really careful as there is a trade-off between thoroughly rubbing the surface to remove air and damaging the print surface. I've been using some acid free paper and a sponge type thing I borrowed from Gerry's art supplies. It seems to work quite well.

I am much happier with this print. The first one came out too dark. This is much closer to my smaller assessment pieces. Cutting the foam board wasn't too difficult either. I learnt a few tips along the way that will make the process much easier when I batch order the rest of the prints next month.

Kickstarter

I've updated and finalised my Kickstarter page today. I have asked for £500 towards printing costs for my exhibition. As a reward contributors will be offered one or two digital prints dependant on level of contribution. The project is currently with Kickstarter admin to assess that it fits their fundraising rules which should take a few days. Once it has passed I can begin to promote my project on social media.

Edit 24th April:

My Kickstarter page is launched! I had to make a few amendments to ensure that URL's to all my social media are embedded into all my sites. Now visitors should be able to navigate between my Kickstarter page and my personal website or Instagram. I was quite excited to launch my page. I already have some very generous donations via the Kickstarter site and my personal Facebook page. I just need to advertise my campaign more widely now, something I will be doing over the next few days.

my Kickstarter campaign

I began publicising my exhibition online today. I began with posting my flyer to my Facebook account and other small FB groups that I belong to. Most of these contacts are fellow OCA students and FB friends. The post has been shared a number of times already so it is good to know that the publicity for my exhibition will begin to spread further than my own small circle. I've also used WhatsApp to send the flyer to friends that are not necessarily on FB but inevitably some people will come into contact with my flyer through a number of channels.

I also posted on the OCA discussion forum's coffee shop and photography sections. That is it for today. Tomorrow I will use MailChimp to mass email my flyer to my contact database. I began this list early on in the SYP module as directed and it is surprising how quickly it grows if you keep on top of it. The database will allow me to personally invite art contacts that may wish to be informed of my work and the dates. Once that is done the next task is to use Instagram and Twitter to broadcast to a wider audience.

The plan is to publicise the exhibition twice. One for people to put the date in their diaries and another much nearer the opening as a reminder.

Two New Pieces

Two of the three new pieces designed for the gallery space are now finished. Like the Target Practice photographs I'm mounting them onto foam board so the gallery presentation is cohesive. Twenty sheets of A0 foam board is quite expensive! But nothing compared to the cost of framing.

The first piece I made involving the pink triangles with the bullet holes is now complete. I initially experimented with a textured surface on which to place the triangles. This resulted in the bowing of the foam board. I tried a few variations of textured paint/paste but ultimately the foam board does not appear suitable to much manipulation. It is so easily damaged.

Target Practice No.2 (working title).

I am satisfied with the overall result and once in the gallery space I think it will add a much needed splash of colour to the mostly green and brown landscape pieces. It also gives the viewer the opportunity to see some of the triangles close-up.



The second piece of collaged triangles was made to resemble a portrait of Josef Kohout. From the one available photograph I began experimenting with folding and manoeuvring the image to bring out the different facial characteristics in Josef's portrait.

Josef Kohout

Paper folding experiment No. 4

I based the triangles in this piece on the convention of the portrait format. I toyed with the idea of placing a picture frame around the finished piece to further highlight this but decided it would look contrived. I prefer the simplicity of the shapes and the piece better fits with the rest of the exhibition on foam board and without frames.

Josef Kohout (working title).

I have just one more piece to make. I still have the mounting of the prints to do once I've ordered them from my online printer. Some plinth bases to make, A base for one of the large props and signage. Still lots to do!

Assignment 4

This post represents assignment 4 and will be presented entirely in blog format. This will enable me to pull together all the work I have done designing a flyer, the exhibition handout, making a maquette and a video of the gallery layout. In addition, by selecting the 'Assignment 4' label on this blog all preparation for the work I've done for each individual piece can be viewed together.


As mentioned I made a maquette of the Pie Factory gallery space. I then spent some time placing my images in the space and working out the layout. Here is a video I made of the current layout:




Assignment 4 SYP from ammoniteM on Vimeo.



As can be seen in the video I have made the decision to make further work to spatially reflect an exhibition in the Pie Factory location. These changes are ongoing and I hope to finalise the new work during April. One aspect of the gallery that is not seen in the maquette is the fact that only two of the rooms are white spaces. The other rooms are tiled or brick, reflecting its former commercial identity. I really like the space and I feel its visual aspect is a good fit for my body of work. Of course visualising my work against different backdrops rather than an all white setting presents further challenges.

Pie Factory, Margate

For my exhibition flyer. I did some research of designs and decided what I did and didn't like in a design. It is important to provide all the relevant information clearly and simply. I feel I have achieved this with my design. I presented the first draft to the Level 3 student hangout group and taking their advice I made some changes - this is the final draft before my presenting to my tutor Clive White.

Exhibition flyer

Here is the exhibition handout that contains the relay text for the eleven images in the Target Practice sequence. It is a very simple design printed in landscape format, slightly smaller than A4, and folded in half to present as a small card sized piece that can sit in the hand easily.
  

Exhibition handout

For the exhibition I've adapted my artist's statement by cutting out and condensing certain elements. I am aware that too much text on the gallery wall is off-putting to the viewer. I fully expect to re-edit this version a few times before the opening.

Artist's statement

I've also updated my website www.michaelmcolvin.com with my Artist's Statement and bio. I will publish the flyer on the site ready for promotion once it has been cleared by my tutor.

Artist's bio

I am currently working through my project list and April and May will be my busiest months with mounting prints, completing new work and sculptural pieces taking up most of the time. I also frequently promote my work via Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Trello project plan

I have put together a Kickstarter page where I am asking for backers to contribute towards the £500 printing costs for the exhibition. Backers will receive a digital HD print of one of the pieces. I am unfamiliar with this type of promotion and I understand if the financial target is not reached then no money is received. This is why I decided to just ask for the printing costs rather than the whole exhibition cost as I thought it was a more achievable goal. Even if the target is not reached then I guess Kickstarter can still be seen as another avenue for promotion. I am waiting for admin confirmation for my profile I.D. before I can launch the campaign next week.

Kickstarter campaign

Edit 15th April:

Following my Zoom hangout with my tutor Clive White today the following points were discussed:

• Flyer is approved for distribution with a small amendment made to image placement.
• Discussed timing of flyer distribution: agreed to publicise one now to allow time for people to add to diary and another as a reminder a week before event.
• Layout of exhibition discussed and I spoke about not worrying too much if some of the exhibition’s elements are not fully realised (sculptural elements). Agreed they are a bonus but not necessary to complete exhibition.
• General approval given by Clive of project management of exhibition
• Spoke about issue of pricing work and the ethics of this concerning the Holocaust subject matter. As discussed I said that I did not want to place a pricing schedule on the work but if anyone spoke to me personally about a piece I could assess if I wanted to sell.
• Check out Vistaprint for use of postcard giveaways - check budget for this.

It looks like I have covered most of the essential tasks necessary for Assignment 4 and the forthcoming exhibition. Now I need to focus on finalising some of the art pieces and getting my prints ordered and mounted onto foam board. At the same time I need to ramp up my publicity campaign starting with my e-flyer to all social media channels. I expect the next few weeks to be quite intense.

Designing an Exhibition Handout

Unlike the fancy Christmas card design handout that I made for assessment of my BoW, my exhibition handout will be much simpler. This is because of the potential issue of having to make many copies for gallery viewers and the time involved in making them. I settled on a piece of landscape format A4 folded in half. To mitigate this familiar shape I will be cutting off a strip to make the folded paper feel smaller in the hand - more like a small card. The relay-text for the Target Practice images is printed in order on all sides including the front. This is purely to fit it all on and allow enough space not to crowd the text.

I had experimented with some different style of folds that would not be too time consuming to put together but this one feels like the best fit. The problem with my two earlier designs below was once the paper was unfolded the big block of text seemed off-putting to me. I probably wouldn't want to plow through it either.

This third experimental handout was folded smaller and the texts were discovered as each section was unfolded. Too fiddly and ultimately when completely unfolded the block of text issue was still there.

Finally, by using a landscape format the blocks of text looked a lot less chunky and crowded on the page. I may want to add more detail once I've had a chance to think about the handout for a few days but at least my main texts are all laid out.