I had a chance to meetup with Selah, Michael, and Chloe in Week 4. Looking forward to talking with the rest of you next week, Week 5!

Selah Jael Home

Selah’s choosing between being an Interior Designer/Decorator, and being a Fabricator of Interior Decor Elements. She’s leaning toward following a Joanna Gaines model of creating sets of elements and a visual Lookbook where Decorators, Homeowners, and Apartment Dwellers can find inspiration and order products. Her 1st product, Cement Trays, is live on Etsy now. She will be adding new pieces to the collection during the semester and after graduation. Scaling up both marketing and production capacity is one of her next hurdles waiting in the wings. Check out her Etsy store!

• https://www.etsy.com/shop/SELAHJAEL

Websites we looked at:

• designmanager.com/interior-design-markets-calendar – Upcoming Interior Decor Conferences
• homeaccentstoday.com/business-news/see-whos-speaking-at-the-black-interior-designers-conference-next-month – Speakers for Next Week’s Black Interior Designers Conference here in LA
• artworkarchive.com/blog/what-artists-should-know-about-working-with-interior-designers – Article about Artists & Decorators, with links to Artist’s websites
• jenniferrhode.com – Jennifer Rhode Decor
• greycollective.com/about – Natalie Mason/Grey Collective
• magnolia.com – Joanna Gaines website
• livingspaces.com/inspiration/celebrity-designer/magnolia-home – Joanna Gaines @ Living Spaces.com
• spectacle.works/about – Mike and Pat Murray, Decor Fabricators
• etsy.com/shop/WoodenMarbleArt – other Etsy shops in Selah’s area
• pacificdesigncenter.com – Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood – 1.6 million square feet of design & decor <—– Selah, go visit!

Michael Gonzales, Animator

Michael’s got a strong vision and portfolio materials for his animation career. Even though the 1st draft of our portfolio websites aren’t due for a month still, he’s eager to get started, which is great!

I encouraged him to simply use his own name for his URL. Unlike your embarrassing high school email address, your name is a URL you’ll never be embarrassed by. Plus it’s the most search engine friendly for anyone trying to find you. We searched for “Glenn Zucman” and I was happy to see that unlike in the past when I had “clever” URLs the never appeared on Page 1 of search results, now that I’m using my own name for my URL, both Duck Duck Go and Google put my actual website as the #1 result. So much better than having stuff like RateMyProfessors.com come up #1! 😛

We discovered that MichaelGonzales.com was already taken. But by checking Domainr & Hover, we found that both MichaelGonzales.art and MichaelGonzales.studio were available!

We checked out the big list of platform choices here on our class website. Michael likes Squarespace and will probably go with that.

• https://www.squarespace.com/
• https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=Glenn+Zucman&atb=v358-1&ia=web
• https://www.google.com/search?q=glenn+zucman
• https://glenn.zucman.com/websites/platforms/
• https://www.hover.com/domains/results?q=michalgonzales.art
• https://domainr.com/michaelgonzales.art?q=michaelgonzales.art

Chloe Derevere, Illustrator

Chloe’s Illustration career is on the way! Unlike many of us, she’s got lots of good pieces for her portfolio! She has the good-to-have problem of having to choose the strongest pieces to show. We talked about the upcoming LightBox Expo, the just missed Siggraph, and also looked at the Society of Illustrators of Los Angeles (SILA) website. SILA has a bunch of interviews with the jurors for their recent Illustration LA Catalog. The interviews are great because they give you insight into juror backgrounds and thinking, and also URLs to check out their portfolio. One juror illustration portfolio we checked out was Thomas Blackshear.

• https://lightboxexpo.com/
• https://www.showclix.com/tickets/lightbox-expo-2023
• https://si-la.org/
• https://s2023.siggraph.org/
• https://www.education.siggraph.org/conferences/annual-conference/siggraph-2024
• https://www.thomasblackshearii.com/

Conferences & Events

aka “Fun Homework!” 😀

Selah & Chloe both found some fantastic upcoming LA events to attend. Please, please, please, GO!!!!! And when you’re there, don’t be shy! Network! Meet as many people as you can. Conferences are a place where people who might never return your call or email are often much more approachable and happy to talk, share trade secrets, and career tips. These are priceless opportunities!

• 20-23 September, Wednesday-Saturday – Black Interior Designers Conference – $395 – https://ticketstripe.com/events/1034877
• 27 September, Wednesday – PDC Fall Market 2023 – Free! – https://pacificdesigncenter.com/fall-market-2023/
• 27 – 29 October, Friday – Sunday, Lightbox Expo at Pasadena Convention Center – $70 for 1 day, $200 for all 3 days – https://www.showclix.com/tickets/lightbox-expo-2023

Business Cards

Going to a conference? Make some business cards at Fedex Office before you go!!

• If you’re an interior decorator like Selah, maybe buy a yard of cool fabric at your local fabric shop, get a rubber stamp with your details from Huntington Park Rubber Stamp – they’ll make a stamp for you in 1/2 a day. You can go pick it up same day, or if you have time, have them UPS it to you. Then chop up your fabric and stamp away.
• If you’re an Illustrator like Chloe, or an Animator like Michael, maybe make a simple flip book, print 50 sheets at Fedex Office, then take it home, cut it out, staple or bind with a needle and thread, and take them with you. Simple animation – a dog that jumps in the air and says “Check out Michael’s work” or something, and make a free QR code for your website URL on the back cover.