Let’s have a bluegrass festival in winter…um, ok?

Posted on: February 1, 2011 at 10:25 pm | Posted under: Design, Life, Work
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In July of 2010 I was approached by my boss at the resort telling me he has a friend that wants to put on a winter bluegrass festival.  I was hesitant at first, because bluegrass festivals are normally held in the summer on farms with camping and all of that fun stuff.  We decided to put it out there and see if anything would come of it.  I was tasked with building a website that would offer information on the festival and the bands playing.  A slew of site updates and the creation of an email list followed, I didn’t know what I was in for.

Once I saw the flyer that Rick had put together, I sprung into action.  I found a more “comfortable” shade of blue, replaced the dreaded Papyrus font and turned the poster into an 11×17 format.  Well that was the start of many more projects and many more poster revisions.

As the months went on, we decided on a 4×6 informational postcard, then we needed CD samplers to send to radio stations, oh and the postcard and poster underwent about five revisions each.  We added sponsors, more bands, things needed to be tweaked here and there until we were happy with it – well until Rick was :)  Interesting thing, the posters that we had printed at State Theatre were not the final design – that design was not printed until the afternoon of the festival, in which we wanted a poster for the musicians to sign (more on that later).  Gift certificates were also added into the mix in mid-December, that was one of the easier tasks – only two revisions to that design.

A few weeks out, I found out that the resort was nearing capacity for the weekend.  I thought to myself, “wow, we did it, we are going to sell out and this is going to be huge.”  I was right about that, but the work wasn’t over – not nearly over.

Roughly one week before the festival, I sent out for banners (we had a conversation about that back in December, but decided to table it – wish we hadn’t).  I had the design done, but it needed to be tweaked to fit the measurements of the wall – thankfully we had those – I ordered two, it was a BOGO with the printer, glad we did.  Then we needed a shirt design, just modeled it off of the banner design and called that done.  Finally, I was home free – nope!

I arrived at the resort on Thursday, one day before the festival started.  I was there to work – bar, security, whatever was needed of me – when you have the word “marketing” in your title, you do it all.  I was still creating signage for this event, even the morning it was supposed to start, oh the fun.  The final poster design saw the light of day after three different attempts to get the PDF file to Staples for printing.  Finally I exported the design as a JPEG and they were able to get the art printed so that we could have posters to get signed by the musicians – and you all wonder why I don’t get much sleep anymore :)

Overall the event was a resounding success – we sold out the resort both nights, the concerts were very well attended and I finally got to meet my favorite female bluegrass artist – the beautiful and talented Claire Lynch (her band was pretty awesome too).

So, would I do it all again – oh yeah!  I love the music of the bluegrass community and how supporting the community is of one another.  I have been a fan for a long time and have been listening to Claire Lynch for a while (more about that in a later post).  I can’t wait to start planning for next year and hope we can find some ways to make the event bigger.

Rick and Scott, thanks for putting this project on my desk, it is some of the best fun I have had – even with all of the work involved :)

Confessions of a Juror…eh, not really

Posted on: January 3, 2011 at 1:46 pm | Posted under: Life
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Well today was jury duty, and it certainly was not what I had expected.

I have seen the movie Runaway Jury so many times that I honestly thought that is how the selection process works: attorneys firing off questions at potential jurors and just a frenzy of back and forth.  Nope, not at all.

The jury selection process is that of an educational endeavor for those who are summoned.  The day started with going through security and some paperwork.  Once everyone was ready, we received an explanation of the day’s proceedings from the court clerk.  The judge also ran through the same explanation and then the first panel was called.  I sat there and took it all in, from the questions asked to how comfortable the judge made everyone feel.  It was nothing that I had expected.

After the second panel of potential jurors was challenged behind closed doors by the judge and attorneys, the rest of us were dismissed and thanked, and given our six year exemption.

I had a lot of apprehensions going into the whole thing, thinking it was going to be nerve-racking, but it was the judicial process in action.

Glad I went, sat, learned, and will wait until it is my turn again.

Goodbye 2010…

Posted on: January 1, 2011 at 8:07 pm | Posted under: Life
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Well here it is, the end of another year and a fresh start for another 365 days.  I will admit that I have neglected this blog and with good reason – I have been busy.  Many of you follow me on Facebook, which is where I post most of my daily updates.  If you have kept up with me on there, there you know how busy I really have been.

2011 will be no different, Monday morning starts out with jury duty in county court – a huge waste of time in my opinion.  I have no desire to sit in a room and watch two overpaid suits go back and forth over petty crap.  Who knows if I will even get selected to sit on a jury, it is just going to be a waste of time waiting to get called anyway.

My hope is to update this blog more often, I am shooting for once a week if the time allows it.  We shall see how things go…

Well, time to run, more work to get done and maybe some sleep if that is possible.

Cheers and welcome to 2011!

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