In the novel about my life, words and images fell in love and made a family of diverse publications. Their brainchild came of age with creative content for platforms that cross between spoken, print, and digital. I love leveraging content against content with motion graphics and video clips and I tend to throw in positivity and as much fun as feasible. Here’s an example of a video (produced before my watch) that I leveraged for social with a creative edit. 

Brand-spankin’ New Logo!

The TCNA testing laboratory is growing and business is emerging outside of the materials science arena. To reflect this growth and opportunity for new business, TCNA formed an internal team to explore a new lab change to help encompass more testing capabilities that those related to ceramic tile. The new name — International Product Assurance Laboratories — was announced in January and my design for the new branding was revealed at our largest trade show of the year, Coverings.  

Throw Back

Cover illustration by Tim Davis.

Facebook memories are fun, especially when work I've done has hit the national stage. When working for Science, air time happened almost every week with the journal's significant scientific advancements making the newscasts. At Highlights, the on-air references were typically a good-hearted jab at the innocence of the publication. Glee, The Jon Stewart Show, The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, to name a few, were shows that featured Highlights issues I designed and art directed.

How I Created a 1M Pinterest Pin and Why You Shouldn’t Care

UPDATE 2/15/22: Pin is now over 1.5 million and the exposure significantly brought up reach and engagement on our other most popular pins (which have nothing to do with elves)!

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Don’t misunderstand, I absolutely bought champagne when we crossed one million. I sent texts with multiple exclamation marks. I interrupted people’s Sunday afternoon with excited phone calls. 

We hit one million with a ten-image idea pin showing simple Elf on the Shelf ideas posed with ceramic tile backgrounds. I am the creator and curator of a Pinterest channel for Why Tile, a public relations campaign to promote the benefits of using ceramic tile. The Why Tile initiative is more than just a bunch of beauty shots of ceramic tile but we certainly recognize that a strong vehicle for sharing the sustainability and durability advantages of ceramic tile can come in a beautiful package. Why Tile did not initially have a presence on Pinterest when I started working with them. I created the channel built on a strategy of sharing inspiring images of how to use ceramic tile. My singular goal was brand exposure that could lead users to WhyTile.com.

Why Tile’s first Pinterest boards covered rooms (e.g., kitchens), then projects (e.g., backsplashes), then more specifics (e.g., colorful laundry rooms) then trends (e.g., biophilic), and topics (e.g., sustainability), as well as related information (e.g., grout colors). I followed trends reports from Pinterest and other social channels, website traffic, time on page data, and input from our member companies to inform my next board creation. I created over 200 boards in less than four years. These boards are meant to inspire consumers shopping for tile and anyone specifying tile for a project, such as a designer, architect, or contractor, and are not meant as a path to purchase.

I knew from previous years of posting a few seasonal Elf pins that we would gain exposure and new users would see our brand but this explosion has been unexpected. The pin ultimately gre to 1.42 million 

I remember when we received our first 100 followers on Why Tile and when our platform “reach” hit 10K. These milestones were just as much a celebration for me as when we hit our first thousand followers and our first pin reached 100K. But nothing compares to hitting one million, except maybe hitting two million (we also achieved over 2.1 M platform reach for the month). 

The Elf pin keeps growing. I can share why I chose one image over another and why I posted the pin on a particular day. I could tell you how I ransacked my boss’ new house to take some of the photos and how I tore my clothes crawling around on the floor. I could rationalize that my expertise led to this success but I’d be laughing too hard to carry that off. This pin, mostly by chance, hit the right content at the right time. But, granted, I worked for it.

I monitored the growth of the pin day and night. I cross-checked data to understand the most popular days and hours, I researched authors of re-pins and responded to comments. I made new pins that were similar to compare how they would perform. Most importantly, I tracked new followers that were attributed to this pin. I’ve celebrated it all in my little party of one. No one else particularly cares. You shouldn’t either.

Our Elf on the Shelf pins are fun but they have nothing to do with our mission. It is whimsey created as a nod to the season with a huge shot of my own personality (sometimes most of the time I’m corny and believe everyone wants to have fun). 

I know, and you know, this huge leap in our audience is temporary. I should get back to the important work of promoting ceramic tile as made of naturally-occurring materials (unlike plastic surfaces), that ceramic tile doesn’t give off toxic fumes or have VOCs, and that ceramic tile is actually a waterproof system you can count on. That’s the message I want you to care about.

If you happened to see our Elf pins, took note of our brand, and maybe visited our website (I’ll know more about that when we churn the website traffic numbers) then I fulfilled our mission via a unique path. Nothing wrong with that! We gained almost 200 new followers through this campaign and that’s the number with the promising future.

Cheers to the New Year!

Secret Passion

Perhaps in another life I would have been a movie director? Hardly, but I love the process of filming and editing video for short clips of information. Sometimes the videos are meant to help build community and sometimes they are meant for instruction and technical information. Either way, if you see me with my camera, get ready for your close-up.

Here's a short "thank you" video I created to accompany an e-blast message after the TCNA tradeshow.

This video is used to help customers of a specific floor test understand how the results of the test are determined.

This video instructs remote users of the equipment how to use it properly to achieve accurate test results.

Face-to-Face

After TCNA’s 2020 trade show, Coverings, was cancelled due to COVID-19, and Coverings 2021 was postponed from March to July 2021, it was exciting to gather face-to-face (masked) in Orlando for a much-anticipated first step back to “normal.” Collateral designs that had been sitting on my shelf for a year + were dusted off and updated. I still get goosebumps when opening a box of freshly-printed materials from the printer!

Why Tile Gatefold Brochure

 

 

Lab Services Gatefold Brochure

Antiviral Testing Postcard

 

Giving Back

I’ve been called a “serial volunteer” and believe me, it’s true. There are a number of reasons for this:

1. My first volunteer gig was shelving books at my middle school library (just to be around the books) and I discovered how much I enjoy doing a task that is desperately needed.
2. Volunteering is a great way to meet people.
3. Many volunteer assignments can be physical and so I get a great workout at the same time.

   

   Project Host soup kitchen volunteering

4. I learn something new with each experience. I’ve learned about nutrition, music, and sports, how to select wine, fold fancy napkins, write grants, make bruschetta, pull a draft beer, call bingo, plant a garden, paint (a wall), put up a tent, stack pumpkins, organize a silent auction, lots of doggie care, and, of course, the Dewey Decimal System.
5. I’m passionate about missions I believe in.

So, when my work also commits to giving back, that’s pretty special for me. TCNA’s annual trade show, Coverings, is the preeminent event for the ceramic and natural stone industry in North America. With over 25,000 attendees, the show gives exhibitors much exposure. Part of the show is an Art Tile Courtyard that showcases boutique tile makers. For the past few years, TCNA has sponsored a display of doghouses creatively tiled by these artisans. The doghouses are on view during the show and then donated to a local animal charity to use for fundraising. The charity is also invited to participate by bringing adoptable puppies to the show. 

I had fun creating signage for this event, “Hot Dog!”

I created paw print stickers that we used to lay a path through the showroom to the puppies. Each sticker had a playful puppy pun. 

The courtyard was undoubtably the most popular exhibit of nine total miles of international tile and stone displays.

I also designed the graphics for the show booth, seen in this video that I pieced together as a quick thank you to everyone who worked so hard on a great show.

The Spice of Life

Thanks to a wide array of work and volunteer experiences, I’ve been a part of some pretty cool projects. But, I have to admit, my tastiest project was working with the craft chocolatier, Cocoa Dolce, to produce Why Tile chocolate booth give-aways and “thank you” gift boxes.

Brand Identity

Some brand identity work for a friend venturing out into the freelance world.

Recent Ads

Here are two ads I’ve created recently, one for Why Tile and one for TCNA.

Women in Tile

The tile industry is overwhelmingly male-dominated. The women who have made their mark in tile are inspiring a new generation and we celebrated through a small social campaign on Women's Equality Day (August 26th). My goal was to create an image for the postings that did not identify a particular person but was representative of a strong woman, of any race.

Oh, my, the horrors

I was asked to collaborate for a podcast interview with a good friend and illustrator, Tim Davis, about the role of illustrations in literacy. The Afterword podcast is excellent. Listening to myself is akin to swimming in the ocean and hearing the Jaws music score. I had no idea I speak so slowly but I suppose that’s a result of being raised in the South, plus an effort to be mindful of my words.

Part 1

Part 2

It’s the little things . . .

That time your boss called and said, “Cindy, could you design a set of coasters to give our members for holiday gifts?” Then called back and said, “Cindy, could you design another set of coasters for our members who are fans of the vine?” Such fun. The designs were produced on ceramic tile with cork backing and gift boxed in these sets of four.

Pretty Pinterest

Why Tile’s Pinterest channel is my baby, though I often refer to her as a teenager who is misbehaving. Pinterest can be fickle—changing dramatically with trends—which is exactly why I believed Why Tile should be active on this highly visual and DIY social channel. I started the channel in May 2018 with a couple dozen basic home decor boards. The effort was part experimentation and part personal challenge. We now have 128 boards that I update constantly in a response to trend patterns. We’ve grown to over 100K viewers with 5.5K engagement, 100% organic. While our viewer numbers bounce around, our engagement keeps steadily growing, even if our pins are fewer. My study of these analytics leads me to conclude our content is becoming more and more useful to the reader. Pinterest is now our top referring social channel driving viewers to our website. Next up: a little budget for paid postings; it will be interesting to observe the impact on our analytics and if our engagement percentage will grow at a different rate.

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Focused Editing

I have to laugh. My editing is anything but focused. In fact, my mind is thinking of a hundred things at once—who is the audience? what is the author’s voice? what’s the story goal? how many words/characters are needed/necessary? on which publishing platform will this appear? what’s the logic flow? does the average person know what this means? is that comma correct? should I capitalize this string of examples?—far more thoughts than if I’ve chosen the best word or not in a sentence. (And, I sweat that detail, too.) I do find a “zone” when I play with words and my “focus”
is simply one directive, to make the text as clearly understood as possible.

Below is a screenshot of some text I edited this week. I've blurred the image to protect the identity of this text but what you can see are my additions and edits in the name of clarity. My first edit is pink and my second review is green, blue text is a link, and black text is the original content.

While not much of the original content remains (and my green edits are proof that I even correct myself), the original content lays the critical foundation for the article. Just because I may edit heavily is no reflection on the value of the first draft. I love the process of editing that makes the content better and that would not be possible without the initial work.

Lexophile With Tile

I'm mostly writing and editing these days—a big helping of puns and creative writing mixed with a dash of technical wordsmithing. You'll find most of these musings in the blog section of WhyTile.com, a national marketing campaign to promote the use of ceramic tile and the craft of tile installation. 

Five awesome years at Legacy

A new adventure begins!

Grant writing presentation

This was fun. I've been writing grants for about 12 years. In the last six years I've written grants as part of my job and it's been at a very fast pace. I've written hundreds of grants (one day I'm going to try to count them). I realize most people write a few a year for their organization. If you are a full-time grant writer, you may get close to 75-ish a year. My record was 19 grants in one month. That left scars. Surprisingly, we got a number of those grants but I wouldn't recommend it. My little bit of advice is that whether you've written one grant or 10 or 100 grants, you learn something new with each opportunity. Create a structure so that you apply your lessons to the next grant . . . and the next. We are all doing good work. The key to getting a grant award is to tell your story well enough that your funder knows your story as well as you do, and it's a story they care about.

What's my weakness?

I've been exploring my strengths and weaknesses and I made a revealing discovery about myself. Read more in my LinkedIn article by Cynthia Faber Smith. It surprised me, too.

A little extra

This image was a high-performing post on Legacy's social media. The post had simple information about a regular school schedule after a snow day. The image has a bit of humor, reflects our Legacy Lions positivity, and is branded. It took me about 10 minutes to create this and the extra effort was well worth the engagement return.

My kids

Legacy's first appearance in the Greenville Christmas parade was thrilling for me. I stood in the crowd talking about my kids and had a whole corner of strangers on Main Street ready to cheer for the Lions. As the purple float came into view, one after another of my new friends shouted "Hear they come!" I jumped out into the parade route screaming and taking cell phone photos. After the float passed, I was asked "Which kid was yours?" I answered, "All of them!" The crowd erupted with laughter; they all thought I was excited about having a child from my family in the parade. I am so fortunate to know 1350 kids that I help each day reach their full potential. The kids love to take selfies. Here are a few:

I am often taking photos for the school but occasionally I am in a photograph. Below was captured by a photographer at a luncheon when my mentee told me she received a $30K scholarship to Benedict College!

Hidden Gems

Somewhere, in some doctor or dentist office, sometime in your past, you may have enjoyed finding hidden pictures in a Highlights magazine. Creating those illustrations are more difficult than you might think. One of Highlights’ long-time illustrators happens to live in Travelers Rest and we got together in 2014 to teach a Hidden Pictures workshop. The benefits of that workshop are now employing freelance illustrators in the Upstate. Two of our “students” received the highest Hidden Pictures honor by having their work in the 2018 Highlights calendar!

Rockin' Around

I've been slow to catch the Christmas spirit this year (too warm), but crafting this Christmas concert highlights reel has me ready to decorate the Christmas tree (finally).

T(W)hat's Creative?

Published as an article on my LinkedIn profile.

The image above is a photograph by Felice Frankel, one of the most creative people I have ever had the pleasure of working with. This is a photograph of peppers cooking in a pan with the cover on. Felice is known for envisioning science—showing us the beauty of fractals, microstructures, and our own human cells. In her bio she states her goal is to "encourage researchers to develop creative ways to visually communicate their work and to teach the next generation of scientists and engineers about the power of visual communication –– both to colleagues and to those outside the research community. I want the world to love science as I do."

Do I think Felice is creative because I would have never thought to take this photograph? Yes, I think that's what sparks us to say something is creative—we didn't think of it first.

So, how do we get beyond our own initial thoughts so that we can dip into our own creativity?

Rod Ebright once gave me 50 (or so) exercises to unlock creativity. Matt "PASH" Pashkow's book, Inspirability, ventures into the creative worlds of 40 top designers to ask them how they manage to be creative. Rod gave me some specific tools I have used reliably for over a decade (thanks!). PASH's interviews proved to me that talent doesn't always equal creativity and (for sure) it's not easy for anyone. But, I'll come back to Felice. I believe she really has the answer: creativity comes from intentionality and love.

I've art directed thousands of illustrations. When I didn't make a good match of artist to assignment, the work was usually late and mediocre. When an assignment synched with their style and medium, the work was joyful, quick, and with little editorial correction. Their creativity came from a love of the assignment. It was exhilarating to witness an illustrator hit their stride, act with freedom to create, see the challenges as fun, and intentionally invest themselves in a rewarding result. To do my job well as an art director, I have to figure out this love-match for every assignment or else figure out how to make the most of my misguided judgement.

Despite intention and love, we can also get stuck via a crisis of conviction or confidence. This is when we think we are not creative, when we've lost our mojo. I've talked enough illustrators (and myself) off the ledge over the years to have compiled eight suggestions from Rod and PASH and Felice that seem to help:

1. Turn it upside down, on it's ear, look at it in the mirror, read it backwards.
2. Look behind you—the sunset may not be as interesting as the sunset reflected in the windows of a beautiful barn.
3. Inspire yourself by going to a museum or a library or just go shopping and open your eyes.
4. Take a bath. A long hot bath or shower works wonders for me. When something is especially challenging, I rate it not in stars but in showers—"That was a two shower solution." This also means I've likely slept on it. Fresh eyes can be very powerful, either your own or through a colleague's review. (I always have a colleague review my work.)
5. Take a bath. This kind of bath is a long walk in nature, literally called Forest Bathing. It's the best kind of meditation/mindfulness for me and it's amazing how the exercise coupled with nature activates the little grey cells.
6. Don't ever cop out by saying, "there's no need to reinvent the wheel." In this age of sharing, give others their due, build yourself through known expertise, and form alliances that make you both stronger. You cannot literally copy someone's work and successfully apply it to your circumstances anyway . . . you'll have to put your own air in the tire at the very least.
7. You don't know what you don't know. Do your research; it's often inspiring.
8. Develop a reputation for creating concepts that work, not for doing what you want. Keep your opinions to yourself so that you are known for your expertise. If you can approach a problem objectively, your mind is open to solutions beyond yourself.

And, there's one more point to make. That colleague who always plays the devil's advocate is doing you a favor. Listen to them. Take a few showers, if need be, and use their perspective to make sure you've kept #8 in mind. Or, maybe, that devil will help you practice #1.

Smoke and mirrors

I revel when someone says at a photo shoot that "Cindy can fix it in photoshop." The most challenging work I've done recently was a composite of the boy's national basketball team. I was taking the photos that day because the photographer I had scheduled was sick. I struggled to get these active teens to focus for one good shot. The first image is the base photograph and the second is the composite I created from multiple images in order to capture everyone at their best. The poster was created by Derick Harris.

My Social Media Wedding (Strategy)

I have two big buckets of skills. One bucket is Design and the other bucket is Writing. Who knew that they would meet and fall in love? Admittedly, my writing has always been a bit of a stalker of my design work. Most editors have been grateful that I cared about the words, too. For event planning, I'm a one-stop shop. My publishing experience taught me to copy fit for space (yeah, like Twitter on steroids). I learned to be a skilled copyeditor and then to write captions and headlines, then reporting and articles. It's a beautiful union to write a story, take the photos, and then design the presentation, either in print or online. Social media gives me this opportunity and challenge multiple times a day.

Social Media is a powerful communications tool. However, it requires engagement. Success is often measured by likes and shares but even more powerful is mentions. A healthy social media program engages and builds relationships with followers. In effect, followers lead you to—and help you build— meaningful content.

Want to build relationships?

• Be authentic. 
• Celebrate, be grateful, and always be positive.
• Reciprocate to followers when they comment.
• Be immediately responsive to questions and direct messages with answers. 
• It takes 24/7 monitoring to make your social media a safe place for comments. 
• Become a trusted resource for clear, accurate information. Consider yourself a reporter and abide by reporting ethics, ie. don't report anything unless it can be confirmed, be nice, and don't take sides.
• Make every post specific to your audience, ie. your Veterans Day message should highlight veterans from your organization, not just be a generic Veterans Day post.
• Brand flyers with your logo so followers can print and share.
• Resist using social media as just a bulletin board. 
• Use video, photographs, gifs.
• Create some infrastructure to support you—key individuals you can rely on to answer texts promptly so that you can reply to a worried parent and a rich pocket of contacts who will keep you in the loop about information your audience needs.
• Shout out and mention organizations and people who support you and especially those you want to support you in the future.

Use technology to your advantage—

1. Set Google alerts for relevant topics.
2. Program your phone to alert you for activity on posts.
3. Use Hootsuite (or similar) to manage multiple platform posts.
4. Use Asana (or similar) to manage your strategy and delegate tasks, if needed. Yes, there's a strategy to it so use that strategy for it's best purpose—Twitter and Facebook posts are not the same. Your audience peaks at 4 pm...post at 3:55 pm. You have the most engagement with photos of adorable children. Your following businesses actually follow you...mention them, thank them, comment on their posts.
5. Review analytics to make sure you are posting content your audience cares about.

Social media takes much more time to do well than we are usually willing to admit. There's still a stigma that equates social media to pics of cute puppies. Get over it. Unlike other communication tools such as direct mail and telephone marketing, social media gives us an opportunity to truly build communities with people and businesses. That means you have to care and be able to put yourself in your audience's shoes... and then dance around in them. The effort increases the results exponentially, as only social media can—greater audience, more event participation, and larger fundraising dollars.

See a screen shot below of my recent Asana social media calendar tasks.