p.2 #1 · Can Someone Please Post Some Memory Mate Samples
I somehow missed the last group of replies to this thread, and my apologies, but I'm bringing it back with some rambling thoughts.
Paul- no arguments here, you were preaching to the choir. My above comment was merely a tongue-in-cheek remark, meant as a hearty endorsement of Jeff's and Charles' skills. I respect that you've been deep in the trenches and as a result, have a wealth of knowledge about the big picture. You bring up many good points, with the main one being that no one seems willing to pay for this level of work. Man, if I've only learned one thing along the way, this is it. For me, the writing was on the wall at a very early stage in my commercial attempts. I instantly got a bad taste in my mouth for the public's sense of value when it comes to this stuff, so much so that it killed my interest right out of the gate. When it involves their money, the vast majority of people are blind to the value of quality, even when it walks up and kicks them in the ass.
And I feel the same way as you, in regards to how you'd rather do custom posters for a lower volume of higher-paying clients. It's just a more satisfying experience, from a creative perspective. The icing obviously being a monetary return on your considerable efforts. So I've always wondered, is there a way to design a type of template that combines the two key aspects that were being discussed above- a strikingly different and artistic looking template and the ease of a simple drag-and-drop build? Who knows? At this stage, it's feeling like most of us are beating a dead horse, if volume is the intended vehicle. (and then there was Hammy... )
Paul, you'll probably remember a forum member back in 2006 that talked about having good success with what sounded to me at the time like the holy grail approach to selling to parents. His name is Dave (FM handle- 'crasherX'), and he'd PM'd me about a 'Band of Brothers' poster I'd posted on the forum. We had an ongoing conversation about all this stuff, and one in particular caught my attention when he told me about his marketing being focused on the small percentage of parents who would cherish a large commissioned piece done of their child to be prominently hung on a wall, and were willing to pay for it. It was an 'ah-hah' moment to read that he'd already been using an approach that at the time was only a rough idea floating around in my head. Not too long after, he shared it in another member's thread, and it had the same effect on everyone who read it. Back then, I was in the habit of saving exceptional web pages to my hard drive, and this was one of them. I did find the key page in that thread in the FM archives, for anyone interested in reading some insightful comments: https://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/404941/0?keyword=x#3456466
Dave has a different photography focus and website now, and his skills are still nothing short of phenomenal. But for me personally, his original method is one that many here should consider. Especially the poster and template gang.
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