46th Annual Governor’s Breakfast in Cadillac, Michigan

April was a busy month, but this was a highlight. I got to meet Michigan's Gov. Whitmer at the 46th Annual Governor's Breakfast. It was my first time attending, my first time meeting a governor, and I got to give her fun gifts I made.

I also got to hang with SlaughterHawk Unltd LLC all morning and we had a great time drinking lots of @chunkybearcoffeeroasters. One of the pieces we gave BG was our art print collaboration, and Anthony got to give her a beaded hat that was commissioned for her.

Nice seeing our community gather and honor this decades-long tradition.

Special shout out to the hard working women at the Cadillac Area Chamber of Commerce and the Cadillac Area VIsitors Bureau for their tireless work on events such as this that put a spotlight on the community.

Gopherwood Posters 2017-2018 Season

I've been volunteering my poster designs to a local non-profit for about 3 years now. Gopherwood Concerts is a local to Cadillac organization that for 35 years now, has brought awesome musical acts to our quiet town. 

I recently learned where the name Gopherwood came from and its a pretty relatable story for most folks up here in Michigan. The name came from the commonality that all the members had to "go-for-wood" in the winter months for heat. Pretty funny Northern humor if you ask me. 

This year I made more of a templated design than I have in the past. I used the same top title with the year, and the same footer bar with all the info at the bottom. I'd say adding that into the design definitely allows the people who view the posters around town to see that it's part of a series. Another thing that I did with the house concert posters (they had 3 this year) was created a different living room poster for each artist. Generally, the design comes from knowing the artist personally, having listened to them for a long time or I listen to them for the first time and from that knowledge, create a design that jives creatively with the music or person.

Here are all the posters from this years line up. Enjoy! 

Platinum Noir Custom Grand Opening Shirts

Let's print!

Back in June my friend Shirley had a grand opening party for her new clothing store Platinum Rags. She ordered some shirts, I ordered a new screen and we got down to biz. 

Your Year-Long Guide to Marketing a Successful Music Festival

Marketing for a music festival is a huge ongoing task. Having been to a few and done marketing once or twice for a festival or other events like this, I am writing this guide as an educational piece for anyone crazy enough to get involved with a music festival.

I got started in festival marketing by helping my friends with posters and graphic design for Hoxeyville Music Festival. I have worked with them on three festivals, taking on more responsibility each year I helped. I love music - my dad has been a drummer in bands his whole life, my brother and I grew up listening to him and then playing in band in school. I still play music (guitar, ukulele and can sing a tune when no ones watching) and love attending concerts, festivals and little tiny local shows and open mics.

I went from a simple poster design in 2011 to now running their Facebook fan page, designing merchandise, maps, programs, advertising and more. I also co-chair the marketing for Cadillac’s Craft Beer Festival for the second year in a row. Between these two events & my catering and food service knowledge - I try to provide help in organizing the events and getting people the information they so desperately need. In a beautifully designed and artful way ;).

Things you’ll need to begin

• Awesome Musicians.

• Good, professional art and branding for your posters, website, merch and marketing materials.

• Awesome location with camping and water near by.

• Marketing plan and overall vision for massive amount of pieces that will be required to properly get the word out to your precious patrons and fans. This will include social media calendars & blogging calendars.

• Professional photography and video from years past

• Community involvement and support

• Great local vendors and beer.

• A massive group of friends and family you can enslave to set-up and tear-down the festival.

• A meat smoker, so you can eat smoked meat all weekend. Also good for bribing those friends and family members into helping you.

1 year out
Plan a festival marketing meeting to:

1. Download the festival’s past marketing fails and wins.

2. Commission poster artist for next year, so they can start concept.

3. Create social plan for next four months of good memories, continuing any philanthropy, and other related festival news so you can keep momentum going through the off season.

This is an important time to have and release:

1. Next year’s dates

2. Next year’s location

8 months out

• Start talking to bands or their managers. Great bands will be booked many months ahead of time, so its good to get the conversation going as soon as you can. A good goal for 8 months out would be: a headliner band committed with 25% of supporting acts committed.

• Locking in talent, both volunteer and musical is an early must do! Also, you’ve given your friends and family a couple of months to recoup, but nows a good time to start reminding them about next year. Weed out the ones you wanted to throat punch because they gave away a box of volunteer shirts to a group of cute girls. Line up those friends responsible enough to run your merch tent, etc.

• Keep interest going on blogs and social. If everyone had a good time, they love being reminded of it. Post photos with countdowns, dance parties and general good times to keep your festival at the top of their list. Posting images that are shareable, branded with the festival logo and easy for people to engage with is very important. When people engage, other people see the activity. Building exposure and reminding people of events coming in the summer is important at this stage. Other good ways to keep interest high on social: show us your throwback merch, ask what other shows/bands people are seeing over the weekend, celebrate musician’s birthdays (local and international), plug local events, cool things that people involved with the festival are doing, etc.

• Blog about bands (this years and last years) & festival happenings. Send this out on your social media to drive traffic to your site and sell tickets. Send with a Press Release to music marketers and other music blogs that fit your genre.

• Artwork and theme should be ready, and released with the website and early bird ticket sale date. It needs to be applied to: website, ticket site, social media and events, map/program, tickets, shirts, poster, ads, merch, other social media. Branding all the imagery for social media with your logo is very important, especially if its getting shared by your fans.

6 months out

• Release headliners and initial line-up via your website, blogs and social media. People will be excited and share this post so make sure you brand it and make it a shareable size that is easily read on mobile and computers. 1200 px X 1200 px is a nice, square shareable size for Instagram and Facebook.

• Set up your online ticketing, and brand the page as you did for social media and your site with the new artwork.

• Make a limited amount of early bird tickets available. When those run out, presale.

• Request volunteers and vendors on social media, and send them to your site to sign up.

• Vending, recycling, security, sponsorships should all be coordinated at this time as well. But this is an ongoing effort that will continue through the year.

4 months out

• Release more bands.

• Make sure ALL bands have been sent a branded image with the line up that they can share on their site and social media.

• Begin slow burn of ramped up social and blogging engagement. Keep people interested, but find a balance between posting enough and not enough.

• Continue presale.

• Graphic collateral for marketing should be out. Some ads will be better served closer to the festival date (local and regional magazines).

• Social media should have initial line up, event created with people invited, banner ads on Jam Base and other music/show calendar sites.

• Newsletters to email subscribers when more bands are released.

2 months out

• Posters circulating in major college towns, handbills, street teams at music and beer festivals.

• Ads in other festival programs throughout the summer.

• Merch designed. Plug on blogs.

• Social causes pinpointed (can drive for posters, etc.).

• Vendors fulfilled with some menu/merch options.

• 90% of lineup confirmed.

• Presale.

• Ticket giveaway. 

1 month out

• Daily posting of offerings from music, vendors, food, tips, camping, safety, social causes, gear, friends, past festivals, activities, etc.

• Ads in local papers.

• Posters circulating locally.

• Bands all booked.

• Production booked.

• Volunteers filled.

• Last ticket giveaway

• Day/s of events

• Posting all events on social:

• Video of bands and activities

• Photos of people, camping, bands, funny things, vendors, happiness, dancing

• Fan photos

• YouTube live/streaming

• Rinse, repeat.

Do you have experience with music festivals? What have I forgotten? What would you add to the list? Let me know in the comments below.