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This issue of The Inspired Studio marks the beginning of our second year producing the ezine. Are you ready for 2012?
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January 5, 2012 Published every Thursday. You are on our list because you signed up and opted in. To change your subscription, please see the link at the end of the email. To subscribe, click here.
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Hi ! Welcome back! We hope you had a fabulous holiday season. Are you ready to meet 2012 head on? We are! This year, we've signed up with Ali Brown. We're very excited to be working with her and James Roche and can't wait to get started. Over the winter break, we've also had plenty of time to come up with new goals and projects for Blue Sun. We're looking forward to revealing these to you over the course of the year. One of our newest additions is design critiques at the Blue Sun Studio site. Check out the featured article below for more information and for our first critique participant. If you'd like to have your cover, website or other design project critiqued, email us and we'll feature you too. We're so happy to have you join us on this journey into the new year and would love to hear what your plans are! Love, |
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Tip of the Week: Don't make resolutions. Make goals. Map them out and make them attainable. Around the Network
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They took my "do-it-yourself" attempt at a flier and created a wonderful communication piece that not only spoke to those that I wanted to reach, but through their gifts of design reflected my heart and showed me in a beautiful light. I'm thrilled with the result and will work again with Wendi and Deb as this new venture develops. Thanks so much!" Mary McCann, From Me to You, Handmade Gifts and More (Click here to view a case study of Mary's project) |
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New Blue Sun Feature: Design Critiques!
During the time off, I had a chance to make some new friends on Facebook with a couple of excellent Indie author/publisher groups (click here and here to visit them). In keeping with my theory that there is no such thing as accidents, I'm sure the Universe played a big part in leading me to these folks. What I noticed is Indie authors are truly independent in more ways than just writing. They're bold pioneers, moving forward into this new frontier of self-publishing and in that spirit, want to do as much of their own production work as they possibly can. No one starts out as an expert. We all begin as...well...beginners. Sometimes we're lucky enough to find a kind-hearted mentor who takes us under their wing and points us in the right direction. Other times, we muddle through countless hours of frustrating trial and error to learn what we need to know. I've done both and now it's time to give back a little for all those times I did find a teacher. One of the biggest topics for Indies is cover design. Today marks the start of a brand new feature on Blue Sun Studio: Design Critique. How does this work? You send us your book cover image, or website address, or that ebook you've been working on, or whatever design project you've got going on and we'll give you a critique. Keep in mind, we don't hold back here at Blue Sun. We give the good with the bad all to help you improve. We'll even give technical advice if you're stuck and want to know how to get a certain effect in Photoshop, or how to fix that wonky spacing on your website. Just ask. And what if you just have a question? Write to us about that too. We'd be happy to include it in a post. Now, let's have some fun... Dralin by John H. Caroll Our first cover is for a fantasy novel called Dralin, by John H. Caroll. The summary of the book is as follows:
The font suggests fantasy, however, the title is a little hard to read with the wispy flourishes, especially when it gets reduced down to thumbnail size. Adding some space between the letters instead of having them so close together would help. The "r" is fine, but the "alin" after that needs some breathing room. We took a look at John's other covers as well. He has a lot of them. Someone's been busy writing! Throughout his work as a whole there's a tendency to place the text a little too close to the top and bottom of the book. The same thing happens here with Dralin. One suggestion would be to move the background image down a touch, maybe the same amount of space between the bottom of his name and the bottom edge of the book. The idea is to get that much space along the top. If that's where the image cuts off, we would do a fade to the darkest color in the image. Then the book's title could be brought down, and centered, to give it some breathing room without having it layer over the woman's head. We could take that a step further and move the woman down enough to include the subtitle in one straight line under the title. If John does that, we would also suggest using a sans serif font for it so it's more readable. I'd also play with a solid color on the subtitle, maybe a shade of gold pulled from the main title. The outline effect may not be needed anymore either. That's one of those things you'd have to see to decide for sure. Now, what to do about the battle between the metallic effect and the woodsy background? Removing the gradient effect would decrease the busyness going on with the text. A solid color would be easier on the eye and help to create a focal point. Choosing the brighter gold in the letters would work well. For the most part, John's done a good job of choosing colors that grab the eye. That red on the hood will catch someone's attention for sure. This cover also does well creating a specific mood, it's definitely mysterious and secretive. You can feel the woman's desperation. We want to know if she's running away from danger or running into it once she gets past that door. Which will it be? You'll have to read Dralin to find out. **** About John:
As a child, John spent most of his time wandering through the Mojave Desert in an attempt to avoid people. He would stare at the sky, imagining what it would be like to explore different worlds. One of his favorite memories is watching his dad build the fuselage of Evel Kneivel's skycycle in their garage. One of his least favorite moments was watching that skycycle fall into the Snake River. (Not his dad's fault and he has documentation to prove it, so nyah) As a teenager, John spent most of his time driving wherever he could in an attempt to avoid people. He would stare at the road, imagining what it would be like to explore different worlds. He was the captain of the chess team and lettered in golf and band while in high school and wasn't beaten up anywhere near as much as one might imagine. As an adult, John spent most of his time staring at a computer screen in an attempt to avoid people. He stares at the monitor for hours, imagining what it would be like to explore different worlds. He has been married to his wonderful wife for 14 years and they have three obnoxio . . . wonderful children who always behave . . . when they're asleep. John is surrounded at most times by emo bunny minions. He is their imaginary friend and they look to him for guidance. At one point they took over the world. No one noticed because they left everything exactly as it was. They gave the world back after a week because it was depressing. Dralin is available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Smashwords
WANT TO USE ANY OF THESE ARTICLES IN YOUR E-ZINE OR WEBSITE? Go ahead and share the inspiration! All we ask is you include the following credit in its entirety: This article reprinted with permission of Blue Sun Studio, Inc. Are you ready to start living your passion? If so, The Inspired Studio is for you. This is a weekly ezine with news, inspiration and special offers you won't get on the site alone. Visit any of the Blue Sun Network sites (Blue Sun Studio, Life's Little Inspirations, Creative Clarity Coaching or Behind the Words) to sign up!
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Blue Sun Studio, Inc is a Coaching and Design Studio. Through the process of in-depth consultation and strategic coaching, we help you to define your vision, marketing lifestyle, strategies and communication plan and then assist you in creating the products, brands, logos, images and designs that help creative businesses tell their unique story. Our services include coaching programs for the business, design and writing clients as well as websites, logos, banners, marketing materials, book covers, e-zines, Facebook pages and any other design products you need to share your message with the public. About the Blue Sun Studio Team:
Deb and Wendi are also published authors who coach and assist writers and business owners with fine-tuning their writing skills and messages, both in fiction and marketing, taking them from first draft to a finished book or product they can hold in their hands. Their first novel, Bonds of Blood & Spirit: Loyalties, is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble in both hardcover, paperback, Kindle and Nook. Wendi and Deb are hard at work writing the sequel. Contact Us Since Inspired Studio is for you, we would love to hear from you if there's a topic you'd like us to cover, including anything from personal inspiration to coaching, marketing, building your business, the world of writing and publishing or anything else you are curious about. If you are interested in discovering more about being a coaching or design client of Blue Sun Studio, we would love to hear from you! Please contact us here: Blue Sun Studio, Inc. The Blue Sun Network: Please add "info@bluesunstudio-inc.com" to your email whitelist or address book in your email program so you'll keep receiving The Inspired Studio! We'd love to hear your comments and include them here. If you'd like to share your stories and inspirational experiences, send us an email to inspiredcomments@bluesunstudio-inc.com. For more information on how we can help you bring your passions to life,
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"I contacted Wendi and Deb when I needed a flier for a project I was working on. And as they say "the rest was history". Wendi and Deb are definitely the experts! Working with this dynamic team was fabulous and truly a pleasure. They have an uncanny ability and expertise to listen and evoke the emotion that is inside of you to produce the most wonderful product!
There is no better cure for depleted creative stores than to take a little break. We hope your winter respite was as refreshing as ours and that you find your new year beginning with a burst of fire.
John H. Carroll was the youngest of seven children and was born in Atlanta, Georgia in 1970 where he was kept in a dresser drawer with the clean socks. Luckily he wasn't kept with the dirty socks or else he might have grown up to become slightly warped.
Wendi Kelly is the International business coach behind Creative Clarity Coaching, a division of Blue Sun Studio. Wendi is devoted to coaching creative entrepreneurs who are ready to take the leap into clarity, happiness and success in business and life. Her creative clients move away from the splatter, chaos and overwhelm of the typical creative entrepreneur by learning a new approach to peaceful, creative and successful productivity.
Through one-on-one coaching, workshops and motivational speaking engagements, Wendi inspires people to take the leap into the life they have always dreamed of.
Deborah Dorchak has been a graphic designer for more than 25 years and an artist since she could hold a crayon. Deb got her start in Illustration, and her passion for telling stories through images hasn't wavered yet. She is the designing force behind Blue Sun's graphics department. As clients gain clarity through Wendi's coaching, Deb has the uncanny ability to intuitively design just the right look for these budding businesses.