The Friday Picture (Number 8)

This is a canvas I created a few years ago now. It was just something really quick and simple that gave me chance to experiment with texture and colour.

It was produced on 30x30 cm canvas in a variety of acrylic paints and spray paint, which gives a great splattered effect to the painting!

I'd love to have kept a better record of where this ended up, but it was early days for me, before I started Entirely Art. All I know is that it did get sold to a happy home-owner somewhere!

If you've seen it hanging anywhere, let me know!!

Fans Eye View of Yesterday's Wakefield v Castleford Challenge Cup Game.

So we won't be going to Wembley this year :(

That's got to have been a great game for the TV camera's though right? I hope all the neutrals watching enjoyed it and helped to show Super League what they'd be missing without a Wakey - Cas derby in future years!

I don't often take my camera along to the game but I wanted to try it out at least one game this season, especially as its officially our last year playing at Belle Vue Stadium.

So here's my view of the game, from the balcony of the Trinity Bar.

The Friday Picture (Number 7)

A bit of my photography for todays Friday Picture............enjoy!

Interesting Things To Know When Writing Adverts and Product Descriptions.

Last Tuesday I was at the Cedar Court Hotel in Bradford for a workshop on 'The art and skill of writing promotional copy ...that sells.' The workshop was organised by Business Link Yorkshire and the speaker was Mike Kingston.


Basically, the event looked at the ways in which we write adverts and product descriptions. I have to say I came away with many fresh ideas on how to approach writing such adverts and descriptions in a way that can grab peoples attention.


I once heard a great quote that's always stuck with me since I set up my business.


"When I want to buy a drill, It's not because I want the drill. What I really want is the hole in the wall that the drill makes."


This workshop elaborated more on that theory. Basically, people aren't buying products they're buying solutions. The way we can engage customers is to make them aware of the solutions our products can give them.


We looked at examples of advertising and picked fault in them. It was agreed that too often when we're writing ads and promotional copy, we can fall into the trap of knowing our own products so well that we fail to tell people the basics. We forget that not everyone knows the product and they need to know in simple terms what it can offer them.


We talked about focusing our ads at one targeted audience. Basic things that work!


Chinese proverb: "A man who chases two rabbits at the same time, catches none"


I'm not going to go into major details at this point but it's great to increase my knowledge and I feel i've added another string to my bow, so to speak! So if anyone does want to know more, I'll be happy to talk you through it.


For now here's a few things to think about when writing your own promotional copy.

• Talk to customers as human beings - Pretend you're holding an interesting conversation with someone you know. Write naturally - the way your reader usually talks. Use the reader's words, phrases and speech mannerisms. Don't try to write a perfect essay.

• Use short sentences and short paragraphs - Listen to interesting public speakers. They use short phrases. Often incomplete. With breaks in-between. They say a little at a time. And leave time for you to reflect. They sometimes use single word as sentences. Powerful. Intriguing. Questioning.

• Use simple, familiar words - Imagine you're reading your copy out loud to a typical customer. Take it a paragraph at a time and check they understand what you mean. And while you're at it, check if every paragraph makes them want to buy.

• CAPITALS ARE VERY DIFFICULT TO READ - From the very first books we were reading as kids, we were taught to recognise word shapes created with lower case letters. Most people read several word shapes in sequence. When you write in capitals you force them to abandon word shapes and read character by character, word by word. IT'S TIRING AND UNCOMFORTABLE! 

Hope you've found this useful!


Thanks for reading.


Ric

The Friday Picture (Number 6)

Any thoughts?

The Friday Picture (Number 5 ...and it's my birthday! :-D )

Photography Calendar: May

This is the image for May on my official photography calendar for 2011. I took this shot on a day as sunny as it is today whilst out walking around the grounds of Temple Newsam in Leeds. I then decided to convert it to a black and white image to emphasise the brightness through the ranges of gray tones, producing this final photograph.

If you like the image, it's available as a canvas wrap in the EntirelyArt Shop
I've also got a few of the calendars left, so if you want to enjoy the rest of this years images for yourself, just let me know.