Risograph Marginalia and Marketing Dreams

 


'Medieval Manuscript Marginalia meets Risograph Splatter'

This is 'Medieval Manuscript Marginalia meets Risograph Splatter,' a mock up that combines the inspirations for my next zine! Semi-transparent color shapes will be placed around the page to balance out the weight of clean text. 

Each of the pages will be both a poster and a social media asset showcasing quirky design and awareness of typography and page layout design rules. I want to combine hand-drawn lines with vector shapes and clean font as a delightful showcase of the zine's inspirational creative guidance. (Zine text in last post.)

Career development

I'm hoping to use this zine as a portfolio piece for marketing, as I shift toward a career that allows me to use what I have learned in my attempts to create art businesses over the years. Every time I've come up with a business or book idea I have researched more about marketing and communication - including illustration and visual design, website UX/UI, branding and storytelling. You trully don't know what you don't know! I've learned a lot on each pivot.

One real challenge of being neurodivergent is the sheer number of ideas that branch off of each other. I've worked so hard on so many ideas, only to abandon them when they didn't take off. I'm 35 currently and in the past ten years of pathfinding there are ideas I have returned to over and over again. I believe in a venn diagram of one circle being these recurring notions that overlaps with another circle that is "everything I knew when I was 12." In the middle of that venn diagram is the idea onto which I want to train my focus.

Finding - and maintaining - Purpose

I believe Journal Stew is that overlap. By 12 I had been consistently keeping sketchbooks for several years already, it was part of my identity to always have paper at hand - and also a helpful coping strategy when I was dealing with anxiety. So at this point it's been 20 years I've been self-aware about the power of drawing for my mental health.  It was at 16 that I discovered the power of sharing this healing creative practice with others, through an experience with an art therapist in a group setting.

I was witness to how these other adolescents transformed from being emotionally closed off into being emotionally expressive, taking out rage with colored pencils or using blue and black hues to express deep grief. Ever since, I have had a mission to share this same creative drive with others. Someone asked me recently if I was successful in this mission and I happily replied "Yes!" However, he was asking about financial success, social proof. 

What is Success?

My joy was a response to every individual whose creative fires I have been able to stoke with gentle guidance. Each of the zines I have made has brought me closer to being able to communicate tips and tricks to help readers explore with line and color, to adventure in the possibilities of a blank page.  No, I have not reached a wide audience - in part because I have rebranded so many times. But also in part because I need a more cohesive goal and better communication. And the way to get there is to just keep going with what I have already built, to continue to develop what I started in 2020 in response to seeing fierce need for these creative tools among adults and children alike.

Career versus Vocation

I listen to a lot of podcasts at work, while sewing. I hear so much about creating a soul-aligned business that fits ones passions and abilities. Then, a few months ago, it occurred to me I wasn't born to run a business. My vocation, my truest mission that I have described - the essence of Journal Stew - doesn't have to earn me money to be successful, to fulfill my purpose. Though I certainly do want the art encouragement to reach the people who need it, it might be better afterall to develop my ideas for creativity coaching outside of the pressure to perform economically.

With a career shift to marketing I can put my myriad skills to work for other people in interesting ways. And as I learn more through working with others to promote brands, I will be better able to help share the skills of journaling and making art easy to make. 

I love learning about marketing, about communication and storytelling. I hope to find an ethical company to work for, or to possibly work freelance for smaller companies who need help getting their own vocation on solid footing. In any case, I love Journal Stew in all its cringey sincerity.

Long live Journal Stew: The Art of Curiosity! 

(still working on the tagline lol)

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