Heather
keeps a collection of quotes tacked to her bulletin board above her desk to
provide inspiration, such as, "An idea is a funny thing. It does nothing
unless you do." But Heather translates her ideas into products through the
creative process.
An avid people-watcher, she always tries to find the funny
side of any situation. Since Heather has always created, whether it was
painting, drawing, designing clothes, or sewing, she started to draw the
situations she saw around her in cartoon form. Her latest cartoon, for instance,
is called "Bad Day On the Stock Exchange", certainly a fitting comment
on many people's late experience. (You can see Heather's cartoons on her Web
site.)
When creating a cartoon, Heather first sketches out her idea in pencil.
When she's happy with it, she outlines it in black pen. Next she paints the
design using acrylic paints, and re-inks the outlines, adding additional detail
in pen.
Then she scans the design into her art program and adds
personalization depending on what the customers wants, such as a person's name
or descriptions such as "BBQ King". She prints the finished design on
heavy parchment-like paper, adds a matte in the colour of choice, packages it,
and ships it. While Heather has tried designing only by computer, she hasn't yet
found the right software solution to meet her needs.
Heather is obviously a very creative person, who has a wealth of
ideas for creating new products. But as she says, "Creativity in designing
is self-explanatory; persistence and perseverance are definitely needed to
succeed. All too often we hear of small businesses 'going under' because the
owners got discouraged and gave up too soon without really giving it a fighting
chance."
"Remember", says another of the quotes Heather has
pinned on her board, "once you start, keep going. Once you stop, you'll
have to start all over!"
Next page > Marketing and Production
> Page 1, 2,
3
You can contact Heather Diodati at info@whimsies-online.com or
visit her Whimsies Online Web site.
Other Feature Articles
|
~ FREE NEWSLETTER ~
|
|
Keep up to date with all the new resources
in Small Business: Canada by signing up for the
free weekly newsletter
|
|
~ DISCUSSIONS ~
|
|
Have your say and give us your views on these
current topics
| Recent Discussions |
 |
| Small Business: Canada |
| Join these forum conversations |
| |
|
|
|
|
Start a chat now!
Disclaimer: The Canadian
Small Business of the Month feature is provided for information purposes only.
If you would like your business to be considered as The Canadian Small Business
of The Month, email me at sbinfocanada.guide@about.com, and I'll
send you a questionnaire. While completing a questionnaire is no guarantee of
being featured in this series of articles, all completed questionnaires will be
considered.
