MUTO: An ambiguous animation painted on public walls

Photo by Kimberlyfaye on Flickr

An open letter to clothing designers & retailers

Dear fashion folk,

I want to give you money. If only you would let me.

(Did that get your attention?)

Recently I went shopping for new clothes: I’d heard about some great jeans available on Main Street in Vancouver. Unfortunately, like so many other occasions, the store was out of stock in anything resembling a size large enough to fit me. In itself this is not so tragic of course. But, we’re talking fashion here, so please bear with me.

Main St., if you’re unfamiliar, has a stretch of stores selling wonderful indie designers’ fashions and vintage stuff. Stuff I really, really like in many cases.

Unfortunately, that store with the skinny-only jeans was not unique among it’s competitors. None of these stores had much in a size Large. Most had no designs in Extra Large. Don’t even get me started on how many of the designs were styled for twiggy bodies to begin with, as if flat-chested women with narrow hips are the only ones who want interesting clothes.

Did I mention that I want to give you money? I’m not alone.

According to a report on the plus-size apparel industry in Canada:

• roughly 30% of women in Canada wear size 14 and over, and
• we are one of the most under-served markets in the fashion industry.

My experience that day was, sadly, not unusual. At size 14 I am continually frustrated while seeking clothes that fit. Many “normal” lines do not go large enough, or are not cut to flatter a curvy figure. (Like, if I can get a shirt or jacket zipped up at all, it’s “Hello, monoboob!”)

Yet if I do find a section of “plus” sized clothes, these are typically too big or cut to hide figures more than I’d like.

So, I keep heading back to Reitmans who are in the minority of Canadian retailers who understand there’s both an underserved and (with the aging of the boomers) a growing market in plus-sized fashions. They have it so figured out, in fact, that their regular line has sizes large enough to accommodate me with room to spare. Their website is even useful (gasp!) with a sizing chart that goes so far as to include bicep measurements. (Since I’ve been lifting weights, biceps are another problem area for jackets. *sigh*)

There is a point, and that is this:

Get away from the runways. Leave your studios. SQUISH whatever it is that’s making you design as if women will look like teenagers throughout adulthood until they suddenly fit the grandmother niche (oh, excepting of course the profitable maternity phase of course). Have a look around. Notice all the beautiful, curvy women who want to give you money. Design cool, flattering clothes for us. Get ‘em out there. Then tell me about them. I’ll not only buy some, I will sing your praises from the rooftops and help you spread the word.

And I promise you, I’m not alone in that.

Thanks for reading.

- Tzaddi

In my case, to some degree, “Why should I blog?” is a rhetorical question. As someone who pretty much lives and breathes WordPress development & design these days, I shouldn’t even be uttering this question aloud.

“It’s good promotion.” “It’s good for SEO.” “It allows potential clients to become more comfortable with you.” All of these things are true. But.

I admit it, I’ve been stuck. I’ve been self-editing before I speak, to the point of not speaking (both here and on twitter). I’ve been having conversations in my head about where to take this blog, “finding my voice”, beating myself up about how sadly neglected my websites are in content, design, structure, the whole shebang. (What does shebang mean anyway?)

This blog was started in 2003, before blogging was cool, before there were 10 million sites telling you to “define your niche” and “create a publishing schedule” and “have a commenting strategy”. Before most people knew what a blog even was. I started it because I could, and because it was a way to learn (Movable Type at the time), and because I was inspired by the blog of a brilliant programmer I worked with. At that point I could talk about whatever randomness inspired me in whatever way I felt because pretty much nobody read blogs. Essentially blogging was just for me.

Fast forward some years and I’m fumbling my way through a new life of being a full-time freelance designer, and becoming more self conscious about what I publish in the blogosphere. Not that I was ever raunchy or overly personal, despite the porn-worthy words of my first post, but I began to feel like I have to present myself as An Expert. That I have to be writing for My Audience (which one?).  That I should be writing more and more for my clients. Trouble is, that’s not what this site is about.

In the beginning of my freelance adventures I threw together a quick portfolio site. It does the job, barely, but enough that I’ve hobbled along for far too long. I don’t much like it so I rarely update it and cringe when I hear new clients say they’ve been reading my site. Of course they have. And to them, it’s probably fine - they contact me, after all. But to me, it’s a sorely dissatisfying representation of what I can do. It runs on WordPress too, but I blog over here. The silliness of this does not escape me.

And here is where I often find myself when I write: wondering how I can get to the end of the post with a nice ribbon tied up around it. *sigh*

Before I wrap up I will say that there’s some clarity at the end of the tunnel. I’ll be relaunching with a new webdesign portfolio soon. Then I will be able to blog with my different hats in different places and feel so much more comfortable in them. Maybe I’ll wear a silly hat here more often. Maybe I’ll get over my self-editing a bit more. We’ll see.

Wondering why YOU should blog, and how not to make an ass of yourself in the process?

…she says, putting her Expert Hat on.

You’re not alone. Here are some links I recommend on the subject.

• Blogging Therapy series by Havi Brooks (see bottom of the post for links to topics like mean comments, what if nobody reads my blog, etc.)
• Why you blogging? and Why you hiding? by Karen J Lloyd
• Sonia Simone’s Remarkable Communication - perhaps Slow Blogging or The Sweeney Todd Guide to Blogging.
• Skellie. Especially this recent a-niche-isn’t-required post… there’s hope for me yet.

If you have any thoughts or related links to share on this, I’d love to hear them in the comments. Fire away!

You’re invited to join her for The Ivy Project this Saturday Feb 28th (and the last Saturday of each month until Nov/09) at the Stanley Park Nature House. There’ll be much weaving of ivy and joining of previously woven pieces.

This project is in cooperation with The Ivy Busters. Sharon says:

Since 2004, Ivy Busters have removed over 3.95 hectares of invasive plant material from Stanley Park. Now the public is invited to work with me in exploring English ivy as an art material, re-purposing this invasive weed into sculptures that will be returned to the forest as artificial nurse logs, bird habitats and crocheted anti-erosion bio netting.

The Ivy Buster’s efforts have turned Ivy deserts into a more natural forest state. I have a patch of Ivy desert in my property… wonder if I could convince them to come over?

If you’re interested in other works like this, check out MOPARRC. Sharon, Lois Klassen, and Madam Beespeaker are an artists’ collective working in the Means of Production Garden in Vancouver. It’s a communal garden with the aim of growing materials for artists to work with. Cool stuff!

I also enjoyed Chris Heuer’s session on “Death of Advertising” which Ruth Seeley covered better than I could at this late & tired hour. The most memorable thing for me was discovering Blentec’s Will It Blend campaign. It’s mainly videos of their CEO in a “lab” testing their blender’s ability to make “smoothies” out of iPods, lightsticks, and so on. Apparently since this campaign launched their blender sales have gone through the roof and they even get paid to do blender demos as entertainment at events.

On the one hand I want to cheer them on - way to go! Leverage new media creatively! Make it work for you!

On the other, I was so sad to see the toxic waste-filled innards of the iPod mulched and fuming into the atmosphere for the purpose of selling more stuff.

This is at the root of my discomfort around so much branding and advertising: the despair I feel for our overtaxed planet and our underfed souls… some of us at times spending and spending to fill an emptiness that traditional advertising has worked so cleverly to enlarge.

So I guess I have to give Blentec kudos for this campaign; regardless of my conflicted feelings they have created something remarkable.

**OK, so it’s not really sordid, but that sounds catchy doesn’t it?

• She likes to mix her kick-ass marketing advice with a lotta swearing and mentions of sex/nudity/alcohol.
• This leads to much humour for her readers and high rankings on her website for bizarre search terms. I suspect this has taught her a thing or two about Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Which brings me to…

A quick review of SEO School

I got my hands on a review copy of this ebook so that I could hopefully recommend it to my clients. Pretty every web designer in the universe has been asked “How do I show up number one in Google?”. Upon hearing this, every web designer in the universe cringes. To even begin to answer that question you’d have to be more specific, like “How do I show up number one in Google for ‘cheese biscuits’?”. The short answer is:

• Nobody should promise that you’ll rank number one in Google for anything except for, maybe, your website’s name. (See SmashLabSucks.com - there’s always the possibility of somebody bigger with more SEO juice affecting the results.)
• SEO is complicated.

Thankfully Naomi’s SEO School contains a long answer in her non-complicated, sailor-worthy language. At $19 on sale, it’s the best deal of the bunch. (Use the coupon code “wood”, without the quotes.)

While I don’t specialize in SEO I’ve been building web sites long enough that I have a good handle on this subject. I was therefore pleasantly surprised to learn a few new-to-me things in this ebook. In the many online tools she highlighted there are some I hadn’t heard of such as one by Microsoft which gauges commercial intent of a website or a search term. It shows for example that etsy.com has a .87 probability of commercial intent whereas unicef.com has a .98 probability of non-commercial intent. Or that “sexy boots” has a .97 probability of commercial intent. (That one’s up for debate, I think.) Another tool to check the age of a website, and so on.

What could be improved?

• Naomi’s already told me the graphics are soon to be re-done, so if you value style as much as substance you might want to buy later when the new version comes out. The current version is fine though.
• A beginner’s glossary of SEO (and/or an index) would be useful. She covers some really ninja-worthy stuff but in a few spots jumps past some basics on the way. For example she first mentions backlinks without explaining the term. Later there’s really awesome detail about what kind of backlinks you want, but at first mention this is probably confusing for a newbie. (Backlinks are the links coming into your site. Like that “web designer” link above? That is a keyword-rich link to my own portfolio I threw in so I could explain it just a bit.)*
• The section for bloggers has some advice I might handle differently or expand on. For instance there are plugins for WordPress that help with some of the issues and tasks mentioned. But I suppose that’s why there’s WordPress SEO Secrets for the really keen bloggers out there.

Conclusion

This part’s short & sweet because I’ve blabbed on enough and my honey is watching the Long Way Round and I’m kinda distracted.  So here you go:

• If you’re an SEO newbie, SEO School is a fabulous place to start. You’ll get an excellent grounding in the basics in a short time and walk away knowing some of the top tips to improving your rankings. Note, she doesn’t get into *how* to do some of the more technical site tweaks. She reckons either you built your site and know how, or you’ll ask your web guy/gal to do it for you.
• You should check out Naomi’s other goodies before you go to bed Thursday night. I’ve  got her Online Business School and you won’t be disappointed if you need an introduction in this area. There’s also a brand new e-book on how to launch your e-book. You’ll need to get the discount codes from her sale page.
• Ewan McGregor is one amazing dude.

*Tip: if you get stuck understanding a term, try using Google as a dictionary. Enter define: followed by your term and you’ll get a summary of definitions for the term. E.g., “define: backlinks” without the quotes.

1. My dear friend Jody MacDonald has her first solo show in Campbell River until February 27th. (See her amazing sculptures in situ on her blog.) I just learned she’ll be interviewed by Sheryl MacKay of CBC’s North by Northwest. Yay, Jody!! I’ll update the air time once I know it. UPDATE: the show will air Sunday January 31st, 6-9 a.m. Guess I’m getting up early this Sunday!
   
2. Pam Slim, who I’ve gotten to know a little bit by hanging out on Twitter, has been getting a lot of press lately. She’s shared 5 ways to get media exposure on her blog.

photo credit: ODHD

Once upon a time I bought a shiny new MacBook Pro. I bought it because although I’ve been a PC user for over 20 years, I needed a laptop and also to be able to test how my websites look on a Mac.  I didn’t believe all the Mac-lover hype - in fact I find the whole love-in kind of obnoxious - but I do agree Macs are well-designed things of beauty, so I figured, why not.

That was almost 2 years ago, and I’m still not comfortable using the darn thing. I didn’t take a full plunge into adapting to it and so it only gets used quite occasionally for testing sites and travel. But even then - when I travel I don’t do the kind of work (neither type nor volume) I do at home. Kind of a chicken-or-egg thing, really. I never took the time to settle into the machine so it’s unproductive for me, hence I expect to be unproductive with it. I don’t go to internet cafes and do the modern mobile worker thing as much as I could if I slogged through the set up and studied the envious, mysterious ways of a Laptop Bedouin.

Now on top of all that, my PC really needs an upgrade and TLC. And I’m planning to move my home office, but don’t want to make my sweetheart pull any wiring, so that got me looking at wireless gadgets for the desktop… and well, I figure I really should have a proper go at adapting to this machine.

I spent time today arranging file structures, looking for software options, etc. I’m slowly getting better with the shortcuts and interface differences. I find “Finder” confusing sometimes; like how to move folders around to very disconnected spots (like the cut and paste in Windows). I seem to have lost one folder that displayed a “poof” and I’m not sure where it ended up. Probably something that’s uber-obvious to a Mac user… But this is the kind of thing I point out when people rave about how eeeaaasy Macs are vs. PCs. Macs take learning too, and if someone who’s very comfortable learning new software on-the-fly like myself can have trouble, that claim is too simplistic.

So if there’s any Mac-savvy readers among you, I’d love your input on software and tips.

Here’s what I have installed

• NeoOffice - just today, we’ll see how it goes
• CyberDuck
• TextWrangler - not sure how I like the integration with Cyberduck, maybe need to configure better or something
• Photoshop of course
• Parallels to run Windows

I also need some time tracking software. I’m used to TimeSlice for Windows. I’d like a desktop app so I can track time when I’m offline too. I downloaded TimePost and discovered it’s really ONLY meant for integration with online services like FreshBooks. I might go there, but until I do it’s kinda useless.  I installed Time Trek and it seemed confusing. Now I’m looking at Fanurio and OfficeTime. Any suggestions?

Hardware-wise, I need to attach the MacBook to a keyboard and monitor for when I’m at home. Or maybe just put it on some kind of riser that keeps it at a better angle for typing. I hate typing on this thing with the edge of the laptop pushing into my arms. Any tips on external monitors or docking stations or really, anything that might make a person love their Mac are most welcome

Actually, it’s about a club. Hmm, that could also be taken wrong.

Allow me to introduce the KITA Club.

Recently I resurrected a concept that I and  some friends started after we graduated from art school. At the time we kinda missed all the deadlines and accountability which came from the structure of school, so we formed a small group to collectively kick each others’ asses. In the nicest possible way, of course.

What I get out of it (and how it works):

• Increased motivation and focus - Each time we meet I have to share some goals with the group. This forces me to take some of the ideas swimming around in my head and condense them into workable goals for myself.
• Increased results through support and accountability - by sharing goals with the group, I’m more likely to achieve them. Their job is both to support me (ideas, feedback, referrals to resources, etc.) and to kick me in the ass. I sometimes refer to this as “calling bullshit”. If I’ve been saying I want to get to something for ages but I haven’t, they can call me out on it. Either I have an issue that needs resolving around it, or it’s not important and I should drop it.
• Fun. It’s really a lot more fun to be working on your “stuff” together than alone.

It is what you make of it.

When I suggested starting this with new friends on the Sunshine Coast, Charlene (event planner and big ideas gal) drilled me for details. “How often did you meet?” “What was the format?” “How did it work?”

I don’t really remember how it worked the first time round (maybe it was the beer/wine drinking we enjoyed in our downtown-eastside Vancouver studio). But it doesn’t matter - the point is you make it whatever works for you.

This time round, we’re meeting monthly. Yesterday was our 3rd meeting and each one so far has been different. (Note to self: don’t start new groups in November. Waaay too much going on for consistent attendance.)

Yesterday at KITA I shared my Goal Words for 2009:

• Balance (life-work, working IN vs. ON my business, etc.)
• Zen (be in the moment)
• Growth (personal, professional, relationships)
• Joy (all in the name of Joy)

I also shared some specific goals that I’ve made along those themes. Charlene and Wendy (the biggest loose leaf tea lover I know) really liked this idea and we agreed to email each other weekly with our goals.

And lest I forget, the new planning tools I’m trying out from Charlie at Productive Flourishing also intrigued the group. Way to go, Charlie!

There’s my KITA club in a not-so-small nutshell. Have you done anything similar? How do you work on your goals and stuff? I’d love to hear about it.