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.