make a deal with Maevenon, Patron of Faces 🤲 it will surely benefit you both...

(illustrative work for Cantrip Candles' new line of Patrons & Deities - check them out if it piques your interest!)

Art School | Jenna Blazevich (Chicago,IL)

Designer and founder of Vichcraft Design Studio, Jenna Blazevich took the road less travelled–by ditching an offer to work her dream job–to pursue her own passion and creative freedom. Jenna’s designs are bold, clean and smart as well as technically and aesthetically masterful. Vichcraft Design Studio has allowed her to bring feminist works to the forefront, creating a  platform for important issues and topics. We’re so excited to have her on board for another year of Babes Ride Out, where she has designed a custom skate deck to be raffled off at the Babes East Coast event. In our latest Q&A, Jenna talks about how Vichcraft came about, gives us insights into running a business, and shares with us what she’s most excited about for this year’s 2017 Babes Ride Out! 

Photographs courtesy of the artist.

Could you introduce yourself? I’m Jenna Blazevich, the founder and designer behind Vichcraft Design Studio in Chicago, Illinois. With Vichcraft, I specialize in branding design for small businesses and nonprofits, design and produce a line of intersectional feminist products, and teach oblique calligraphy.

How did you hear about Babes Ride Out? What was your first ride out like? My introduction to Babes Ride Out was actually through a Chicago illustrator friend of mine Jourdon Gullett, who made a tee design for (I believe) BRO 2014. At the time, I didn’t ride a motorcycle yet, but immediately took an interest in what Babes Ride Out is about. I’d long wanted to learn to ride and get my m-class, since I’d grown up around motorcycles and had been dating my boyfriend who restores vintage bikes. My first B.R.O. wasn’t until a couple years later in Joshua Tree, and it was full of such great energy and camaraderie.

What’s your favorite thing about Babes Ride Out? What are you most excited about this year’s event? Babes Ride Out is such a great event because it’s born out of a real (and frustrating) need for more celebration and inclusivity around female motorcycle ridership. Plus, it’s a genuinely beautiful event in the way that the branding and merch and on-site installations are all thoughtfully crafted by people in their community. I won’t be able to attend the East Coast ride, but I’ll be sponsoring and participating in a ladies-only ride and campout in Chicago called Babes in Motoland this fall.

Your top five things to bring to Babes Ride Out? Water bottle for water Aluminum water bottle for extra gas reserve Sunscreen Basic tools + zip ties + first aid Girls to the front pins for new friends!

Tells us a little about Vichcraft.  How did you come up with Vichcraft? What was the inspiration behind it? Vichcraft, as a concept, was born in late 2015 when I had just turned 25 and received an offer to work full-time at my dream job. At the time, I had built up five years of experience freelancing on the side of jobs and school, and instead of taking on the dream job, I made a major shift into full-time self-employment. It was important to me that I come up with an ownable and memorable name for my new curated portfolio (I had previously been working under my first and last name, and published so many different projects that I had no identifiable specialty). I came up with the name “Vichcraft” because it’s a play on my last name (Blazevich), my love of hand craft, and of witchcraft and feminism.  

What’s it like to run Vichcraft? What are some of the most rewarding things and what things do you think folks might not realize about running a business? Running Vichcraft is a never-ending test of how much I can multi-task, remember things, plan ahead, and do my best to still be present. Since most of what I share on my website and on my social media accounts are finished projects, I’m not sure very many people realize how much time I spend on unglamorous, super boring and frustrating administrative stuff per day. I think it’s a common thing to fantasize about the freedom self-employment, but it’s so stressful to be the one person that every issue falls on 24 hours a day. Since I have this quality of hating to feel pigeon-holed into a specific thing, I created my line of product as a consistent outlet for myself to act as my own creative director and make work that I love and that pushes me to try out lettering styles that my clients don’t ask for.  It’s been really rewarding to have such an outstanding amount of positive responses to my products, and all of that has directly affected how much I’ve been able to grow my shop in it’s first year.

What’s your creative process like? How long does it take for the idea to reach fruition? My process is sort of all over the place, but I generally work very fast. I generally say that I work half on paper and half in the computer, and I like it best that way. Whether I’m working on a logo for a client, or I’m sketching a mural for an installation or designing a new patch for my shop, I always start with a bunch of thumbnail sketches in pencil. If the client is in charge of deciding which to concept finalize, I move on to vectorizing their logo in Illustrator either with my iPad and Apple Pencil, or with the pen tool and a mouse. If the project is something for my shop and I’m acting as Creative Director to myself, I can start with sketches for an initial idea in the morning, and be at the screen printing co-op I belong to working on printing the final product that night.

What are some of the important issues you address in your art? When was the first time you decided to combine that with your brand? Vichcraft has (understandably) always been very tied to me personally, and the causes, social issues, pieces of writing, and aesthetic styles that interest me as a person. The election year of 2016 was my second year of running Vichcraft, and I was (and am) still developing the most effective ways to use my skills, voice and platform to speak on topics that I’m passionate about. Post-election, it is still one of my main goals with Vichcraft to do whatever I can to contribute to organizations and projects that are working to resist and counter the moves being made by the current administration. Furthermore, it is extremely important to me that I create feminist work that is as inclusive and intersectional as possible, because feminism is currently being diluted in meaning by companies monetizing the movement, and by self-proclaimed feminists focusing on issues that only relate to women who look and live like themselves. Failing to consider other classes, identities, races, bodies, and religions when doing feminist work results in an inability to progress and unite in a collective fight, and the opposition gains more leverage as a result.

If you had to choose one of your designs as your favorite, which would it be and why? “The City Beautiful” piece that I made for Typeforce in January of 2015 was the first piece that I made under the name “Vichcraft,” and it’s still what I’m most proud of. It marked a significant and intentional shift into creating lettering work that more closely relates to the issues and topics that I personally care about. It also really challenged my ability to create sculpture work within a very tight timeline, as well as my writing skills for the initial proposal. It’s still the project that I’ve worked on under the name “Vichcraft” that I’m probably the most proud of.

Who are some of your favorite past and contemporary artists? Some of the artists who inspire me most are: Alphonse Mucha, Teagan White, Kathleen Hanna, Marian Bantjes, Laura Jane Grace, Doyald Young, Cat Coven, Hellcats, Louise Fili, Hydro74, Jourdon Gullett, & so many more.

You run some really cool calligraphy workshops in Chicago!   How did you get interested in calligraphy and typography?   What are some of your favorite things about calligraphy? I taught my first public calligraphy workshops in the fall of 2014, just before launching Vichcraft, and I’ve taught at least one beginner workshop per month since then. The format of the class has generally remained the same: introduce the tools, talk about the craft, work through exercises, then graduate to lowercase letterforms. I do, however, think the workshop has evolved into something that people value attending because they gain the ability to utilize me as a resource both during and after the class. I get almost an equal amount of questions about how I started freelancing, what was required to start selling product, etc., as I do about the actual craft of calligraphy, and I enjoy offering myself as a real person who can help answer these questions (versus whatever answers would otherwise come up in a Google search). This is a big reason why I want to continue teaching calligraphy workshops, and possibly other types of workshops, in the future.

Is there a new medium you haven’t tried yet but want to start learning about? There are always so many! I had my first solo art show a few months ago, and I commissioned a custom neon sign from a Chicago artist. I’d love to learn to make my own neon one day, but I know it’s extremely tedious. For that same show, my boyfriend and I took apart, stripped, painted and restored a 1972 Honda CL350 to be a “Handmaid’s Tale” inspired piece in the show. We had to work very quickly on the project (we only had nine days to do all of the work), but I’d love to keep working on designing, customizing and restoring some project bikes.

Favorite Vans? and how would you describe your style? I wear black or grey low-tops everyday, and they’re my favorite shoes. My style is pretty androgynous, and my outfits almost always include an oversized black band tee, bike commuter pants, and my black trucker jacket with “Girls to the Front” screen printed on the back, and pockets full of stickers to give out to anyone who asks where I got my jacket! Also, my helmet and a bolo tie are go-to accessories.

What’s on the horizon after Babes Ride out and what exciting projects do you have coming up for 2017? Along with some of my best friends, I’m a partner on a game called TumbleSeed that is being released on May 2nd. It’s 2.5 years in the making, and I’m so thankful to have been involved. I’ll also be bringing Vichcraft on the road to a bunch of craft fairs and conferences around the country this summer, and I’ll be doing so with my very first employee! My friend Ellen will be joining my studio in the role of studio manager, and I’m extremely excited to see how much Vichcraft can grow with her on board, and freeing up a huge amount of my time to focus more on creative work.

What would you say to folks who wanted to follow in your footsteps and start their own business? Don’t. JK but I’d say to definitely be very critical of whether or not you possess the qualities that would make a great candidate for self-employment like extreme attention to detail, self-motivation, obsessiveness, time and money management skills, the ability to compartmentalize, etc. Also, I’d encourage you to seek advice from people who know both the work that you’re making, and also how you are as a person and to encourage those people to give you their honest opinion on whether you might be ready for self-employment. During my time in school, I freelanced and also worked at six internships, and stayed in touch with many past co-workers as I continued through school. Those people became my mentors, and I was able to learn things from them that I didn’t in school, and also develop relationships with them that encouraged honesty when it came time to decide if I was ready to launch a business. I’d also suggest starting out by freelancing on the side of a consistent job. When I launched Vichcraft, I already had five years of freelance experience under my belt, which meant that I had already given myself the chance to work out a lot of the kinks with handling client relationships, managing money and time, etc. Giving yourself the chance to figure a few of those things out while still having a consistent paycheck from a full-time job is much less scary then jumping in head first.

Follow Jenna Blazevich: Website: www.vichcraft.com Instagram: instagram.com/vichcraft Tumblr: vichcraft-design-studio.tumblr.com Twitter: twitter.com/Vichcraft

The Value is in the Aesthetics: the Art of the Pokémon TCG

New Twitter account: @ArtofPokemonTCG

Hi guys. So here we are. An account dedicated to celebrating the art of the Pokémon Trading Card Game. The idea for this channel was primarily born from my love of, well, the Art of those lovely little rectangles of cardboard (that’s my wife’s description, substituting the word lovely for pointless) that we like to cherish. Some of said pieces of cardboard can even be special, sparkly ones (that’s what I tell my wife as an unexpected package drops through the letterbox and I try to justify spending more than I perhaps should have).

Despite having dabbled in the Online Trading Card Game on and off, I’m not much of a player. I prefer to collect. It all started back in 1999 with Base Set when I was about 12 years old and the Pokémon craze craze swept my school and every other school in Britain. But while I’d like to say I’ve been collecting ever since, the reality was that Pokémon just wasn’t seen as ‘cool’ when heading into your mid to late teens. And thus began my, what adult Lego fans call, Dark Age. But darkness can only have relevance in relation to light and the light was to make a brilliant return in my early 20s when I picked up Pokemon Diamond for DS. It was like picking up where I’d left off with an old girlfriend (my girlfriend at the time wasn’t happy when I described it like that)! But my itch to climb back into card collecting wasn’t scratched until about a year ago. The initial excitement of opening a booster pack came rushing back, followed by a pang of regret at not having the foresight to keep all of my old cards, but the elation at realising I had about 18 years worth of sets and expansions to wade through on eBay. To date there have been 74 total sets/expansions released with the 75th and 76th expansion of the current set due to be released before the end of the year. If we take the cards in those sets plus promos, the TCG now has nigh on 10,000 unique cards, give or take a few for reprints etc. (If anyone knows the precise figure, I’d love to know). Of course, there was no way in hell I was going to collect all of them, as

a) I’m a collector, not a completionist and b) I’m not rolling in cash.

The latter of the two arguably dictates how true the first is. Maybe if Pokémon cards were £0.50 per pack, I might be a completionist. But sadly they’re not that cheap; the reality is that this hobby has if anything become more and more expensive since my glory days in school. Booster packs, booster boxes, collection boxes, pin badge boxes, booster packs, elite trainer boxes. That’s a few hundred quid in that last sentence! Spending is a huge part of collecting in any hobby, but especially in this one. The rarest cards can fetch hundreds of pounds; the extremely limited Pikachu Illustrator Trainer card fetched more than £44,000 at auction. That’s an extreme example. Even if you’ve not got £50k kicking around, gathering dust in your bank account, a well looked-after Base Set Charizard could cost you in the region of £50 these days on the secondary market (shamefully, I traded mine for a holo Scyther after school one day; the excitement upon the release of the Jungle set led to a few silly decisions!) A sought after full art card, depending on rarity and set, can go for a more modest but by no means insubstantial £15 to £20.

So what’s all of this got to do with what this account is setting out to do: celebrating the Art of the Pokémon TCG? Well, there’s much more to collecting Pokémon cards than investment. Arguably, there is just as much enjoyment to be had from this hobby, regardless of whether you have your monthly pocket money to spend or have a full time job that affords you a little disposable income. Actually, I’ll retract part of that statement: Not arguably. Definitely. Regardless of value or rarity, all of the cards that you pull from your £3.99 booster pack are bound by one thing: the love that the illustrators pour into their design and presentation. I’ve always loved the artwork and aesthetics of other media. I’m no stranger to a video game art book and so Pokémon TCG was no different. The owner of my local card shop (sadly now closed as of yesterday) used to even keep a few cards aside for me, just because they might be of interest to me from an aesthetic point of view, and not just for his own commercial gain. But it was on one afternoon in particular that this idea of celebrating the art of the TCG really took root. Following a long spell of not having bought any boosters (13 packs of Burning Shadows in a row without a GX, Full Art or better had left a more than bitter taste in my mouth), I impulsively bought a Break Point blister pack. Blisters are not renowned for their good pulls but it was nicely reduced and I had my mind fixed on one of the many Full Art Mewtwos in that set. Nothing beats the thrill of breaking the seal on a booster, doing the card trick and seeing what happens. But there’s also no worse feeling than pulling three packs of absolute crap, which is exactly what happened. Feeling just that bit more bitter and remembering afresh why I had decided to stop buying booster packs, I decided to pick up my £9 worth of nothing and flick through what I’d pulled. Might as well get my money’s worth, I thought.

That was the moment.

I stopped to actually look at some of these cards more closely: the commons, uncommons, the non holo rares; all cards I would’ve rashly skipped over on my way to see if that elusive EX of any description lay hidden at the back of the pack. But while only lowly common and uncommon cards, some of these were nothing short of stunning with so much care and attention given to render them so vividly and really bring each Pokémon to life. The bitterness subsided and gave way to sadness. Not a '£9 down the drain’ type of sadness but one that spoke of booster pack openers across the world doing exactly the same as me and not giving the lesser cards the attention and love they deserve. And they do deserve it, since their illustrator no doubt devoted just as much attention and love to their design as they hoped we would pour into appreciating them. And I know for one that that doesn’t always happen. The most damning example of this is a recent feeling of disappointment I experienced at only pulling a rare holo from a pack. That was another big moment since I started collecting again. A stop moment. Way back when Base Set fever was sweeping every playground in the land, holos were the pinnacle. I remember being so proud to own my 1st edition Machamp holo, which was dime a dozen since it came in a starter deck. But it was a cool card and I whooped at pulling it as part of the Evolutions reprint again almost 18 years later. So, to go from this to now resenting a holofoil card, just because it wasn’t the EX, GX or Hyper Rare I was craving. It seemed that somewhere along the way a perversion of values had taken place as to what constitutes true satisfaction from a set of pulls. Value, rarity and status had trumped the true value of aesthetics. I know there is some crossover there too though: an ultra rare card can also be truly stunning. I’m not going to lie and say that I now throw all of my ultra rares in the corner because 'look at the pretty colours on this Caterpie’. I have many Full Arts and a few Hyper Rares which I really love. But my point is this: let’s not ignore the Magikarps, the Polywags, the Hoot Hoots, the Mudbrays just because of their circle or diamond symbol. Stop and have a closer look. Think about how someone somewhere thought to capture this particular Pokémon in this particular pose, on this particular backdrop and that that person was fortunate enough to have their work placed on a card for the world to see.

To quote Novellist Julian Barnes:

“Art belongs to everybody and nobody. Art belongs to all time and no time. Art belongs to those who create it and those who savour it.”

Never have truer words been spoken. My hope in creating this account is to celebrate the art across the entire TCG; not only cards across generations but also from Commons to Hyper Rares, not celebrating their status as such but rather what our senses first latch onto above all else: their aesthetic value. I hope to do this through posting pictures, offering personal reflection on selected cards while also inviting you to share with me your highlights from the TCG.

Thanks for reading and enjoy. Please follow, like and retweet. Spread the word. Art belongs to everyone. Pokémon can too. And you don’t even have to catch 'em all to do it!

Miss America, Miss USA and Miss Teen USA Share Why Their Historic Pageant Wins Matter

Emily Taylor/Shutterstock; Benjamin Askinas; Nicholas Hunt/Getty Photos Cheslie Kryst, Nia Franklin and Kaliegh Garris are trailblazers in each sense of the phrase. For the primary time in historical past, three black ladies are the titleholders of the three main pageants titles: Miss America, Miss USA and Miss Teen USA. Let that sink in.  Cheslie, Nia and Kaliegh’s current achievement is even wilder contemplating it has been 36 years since Vanessa Williams turned the first-ever black contestant to win the Miss America pageant in 1983. And, whereas the pageant world has made leaps and bounds by way of progress, it is about time that there’s equal illustration for all! And these three younger ladies couldn’t be extra proud to be a task mannequin for younger girls and boys throughout the nation. To learn the way a lot this implies to the celebrities, take a look at the interview under! E!: You’re part of historical past with all three main title holders being African American! How does that really feel? Kaliegh Garris: It is actually superior truly. All of us have talked about it. Cheslie and I truly did not discover at first. We did not understand that the three of us have been all ladies of coloration and it was the primary time that it has ever occurred in historical past. I solely seen once I began seeing the information shops posting about it. I assumed it was actually cool to be part of that second to do one thing that has by no means been achieved earlier than. It was actually cool to be part of that second in historical past. Nia Franklin: It feels actually nice. It is nonetheless loopy when persons are like, “You are part of historical past,” as a result of it sounds so main. It is simply one thing that I did not count on. I imply, I clearly was Miss America. That is part of historical past. In 2021, will probably be the 100th anniversary of the group, in order that’s in and of its self. I am the 92nd Miss America resulting from like wars and issues like that—all through the years typically Miss Americas will likely be Miss America longer than only a 12 months as a result of they would not maintain the competitors—so I am the 92nd Miss America, however this previous 12 months that I received was the 98th anniversary, in order that was definitely historic. However then six or seven months after that, Cheslie and Kaliegh win after which it is like, ‘Oh my gosh, that is the primary time in historical past that there have been three ladies of coloration holding these titles on the similar time’, which I used to be not even conscious that that hadn’t occurred earlier than. It simply wasn’t one thing that I hadn’t considered earlier than. Cheslie Kryst: I feel increasingly more sure. At first, I did not understand the affect that I’d have, after which I noticed a bunch of individuals have been posting me on Instagram with Kaliegh Garris and an excellent good friend of mine Mia Franklin. And that is when it dawned on me that we have been three ladies of coloration in these big extremely seen positions in our nation. That was an unbelievable second. I feel it dawns on me increasingly more the extra that we speak about it, sure. E!: What has this 12 months meant for you? What’s your favourite factor that you have achieved or are in a position to do due to your title? KG: For me, after I received titled and even earlier than, I’ve all the time made it my objective to make everybody really feel as welcomed and accepted as potential. The factor with that’s you are able to do that on an each day degree with simply the person individuals you meet. Now I’ve this platform to achieve so many extra individuals and make that affect a lot better and I actually take that under consideration with every part that I do. Individuals are going to see what I publish and what I say—it doesn’t matter what that’s—I need it to have a optimistic affect on individuals. My favourite factor up to now is when moms or younger kids message me and say, ‘Hey, I’ve by no means seen anybody that appears such as you that’s biracial and is carrying out these superb issues with out straightening their hair or feeling snug being who they’re.’ That actually has an affect on me as a result of rising up, I did not essentially have that position mannequin that I linked to as a result of, though in society we wish to say that our pores and skin tone would not matter. However whenever you see somebody that appears such as you that has the identical pores and skin tone or possibly the identical hair texture as you, it actually does have an effect on you as a result of you’ll be able to see that somebody is carrying out these nice issues that appears such as you, so you recognize which you could accomplish it as nicely. NF: It has been a 12 months of development and alter, that are two issues that may actually spark simply greatness and success. So Miss America, this was the primary 12 months that there was no swimsuit competitors held, in order that was form of one other a part of historical past that was taking place again in September, so being the primary Miss America 2.zero has made me really feel like I’ve loads of duty, and I am actually enthusiastic about that. CK: Oh gosh, there’s been loads of issues. Can I provide you with a prime three? Only recently final week I went again to North Carolina as a result of the Council of Chief Justices was internet hosting their annual assembly in Asheville, NC and I used to be invited by the chief justice of the NC Supreme Courtroom to come back to that convention and converse. So the closing occasion of the convention was a hearth chat actually simply between the chief justices and me! I used to be flattered and thrilled and pleasantly stunned that everyone was simply genuinely considering what I needed to say. Particularly for the reason that authorized business is notoriously conservative so I wasn’t certain how I’d be obtained, so it was unbelievable, an unbelievable occasion. I would choose that one. My second within the prime three, I like Gown for Success, it is an unbelievable group that focuses on financial independence for girls by offering them skilled clothes and a bunch of different applications. I used to be just lately named a Nationwide Influence Ambassador for the group, and that was superior. In order that second, simply listening to that and with the ability to proceed my work for the group was an unbelievable second for me. And third, form of enjoyable, we labored with Finest Buddies, it is one of many nonprofits that the Miss Universe group companions with, and I received to go to a fundraiser just lately in Boston and one of many occasions we did was a flag soccer sport with Tom Brady and a bunch of his Patriot mates. That was a lot enjoyable as a result of at one level I used to be taking part in on his group and I like blocked someone and he got here working down the sphere like, “Nice protection,” and I used to be like, ‘Wow, you’ve got six Tremendous Bowl championship rings and I did some good protection on this little flag soccer group.’ Paul Archuleta/Getty Photos E!: Being a part of historical past, and as historical past strikes ahead, what are you hoping for by way of change? KG: I feel it is an important factor that it is a second of historical past. I feel it exhibits how far we have now come, in fact, to have three ladies of coloration maintain these essential titles. I feel it additionally exhibits how far we have now to go as a result of it’s such an enormous deal. I am hoping in some unspecified time in the future it is not this massive factor that girls of coloration completed these items too although our pores and skin tone could also be totally different. I really feel as if that we will actually get previous that when ladies of coloration maintain these titles, that we do not have to take a look at their coloration essentially, and simply see that they received as a result of they’ve completed so many nice issues. The perfect is to maneuver strides ahead on this planet that we reside in. NF: I actually hope that individuals will see magnificence otherwise and know that magnificence could be various actually the world over. It is not simply America. Typically the European customary of magnificence could be what’s most popular, and even with black ladies, sporting our hair straight so much when it is naturally curly. That is one thing that we have now felt for years that we needed to change. I keep in mind getting my hair chemically straightened simply in time for my seventh grade image, and that was one thing I felt like I needed to do to form of slot in. I used to be going to an all-white college. I simply felt like I actually needed to get my hair straight as a result of, not solely was that how nearly all of my classmates wore their hair, but additionally nearly all of the black women at my college had straightened hair, so I felt like that was one thing I needed to do to be stunning. I ended up going pure my sophomore 12 months of faculty, and I ended getting my hair chemically straightened at that time. I simply hope that seeing Cheslie and seeing Kaliegh sporting their pure hair, seeing me sporting braids and my pure hair often—however I feel these are all issues we will form of look and say there would not must be one customary of magnificence. Magnificence can are available all totally different styles and sizes, and it is also okay to be stunning and care about your look, but additionally understanding that it is not crucial factor, and the way you’re feeling about your self on the within and how one can assist others along with your mental presents and abilities is de facto what issues on the finish of the day. E!: For the ladies that look as much as you or anybody on the whole that appears as much as you, what could be the message you need to give to them? KG: I’d say, look inside your self earlier than you have a look at others. As a result of, you possibly can solely repair or make issues higher whenever you have a look at your self first as a result of its not possible to alter everybody else. You aren’t going to all the time be capable to make everybody else glad or change what’s going on on this planet except you might be proud of your self first. That’s one thing that I had to determine with myself and one thing I’m engaged on each day inside pageants or inside the world. We consistently evaluate ourselves to different individuals. We wish what they’ve or evaluate ourselves and wish the identical issues, however then you definitely actually must suppose that you’re able to doing no matter you need to do. It’s a must to look inside your self and suppose, ‘What am I not doing that might make me glad?’ You may all the time make your self happier however you possibly can’t make everybody else glad. NF: The message I need to give to them is hold going, hold preventing to your desires irrespective of how you’re feeling, irrespective of how outdated you might be, irrespective of the way you suppose you’ve got made errors previously. We have all made errors. There are issues that I want I’d have achieved slightly in another way in my profession. Perhaps there is a sure course I ought to have taken or possibly there is a workshop that was optionally available and did not go to and I ought to have. You may’t dwell on the errors, however you simply must hold going, and when you’re keen about one thing, Miss America is an efficient instance of that for me. You already know, I competed for 2 years and misplaced Miss North Carolina, after which lastly, on the eleventh hour, I competed on the final native of the season for Miss New York. I used to be very not sure about competing once more as a result of I used to be scared to fail once more, however you possibly can’t be afraid to fail. You by no means know what can occur. I imply, my first runner-up was half-white and half-Asian, so she wasn’t a black girl, so had I not competed, possibly this complete three black ladies successful on the similar time wouldn’t have occurred, so that you by no means know who you would possibly encourage by persevering with to maintain going. CK: I’d say be courageous, there are lots of people who attempt to affect ladies and put us in a field. Individuals who inform ladies what to appear to be, what to say, what we needs to be. However I feel that girls these days, particularly younger ladies, younger individuals, must discover a sure sense of self and really feel brave in displaying that consistently with out affect from different individuals. Taylor Hill/Getty Photos E!: What’s subsequent for you? KG: In a couple of weeks, I begin my first week of faculty. I’m going to Southern Connecticut State College and I am majoring in Nursing. I am actually excited to begin off this college 12 months with a brand new place and contemporary slate. Aside from that I’m going to proceed my reign as Miss Teen USA and hope to journey everywhere in the US to unfold my social motion referred to as, “We Are Individuals First” which is one thing I began in honor of my sister who has a number of disabilities. I am going to totally different faculties and organizations to show individuals the way to use totally different language. For instance, as a substitute of claiming ‘the autistic boy’, you say ‘the boy who has autism.’ It removes the unfavorable connotation individuals often have with individuals who have disabilities. I am excited to proceed with that. NF: Subsequent for me, I will be crowning the brand new Miss America on December 19th, so in just some months, I will be doing that, and I plan to remain in New York Metropolis hopefully. I’m considering a pair different cities too, so if somebody gives me a deal I can not refuse, I’ll have to maneuver, however proper now, I’ve my sights set on staying in New York Metropolis and consulting, working with firms within the arts there, in addition to placing out an album of my very own songs, music. I am going to even be curating a live performance this spring for one among New York’s efficiency venues in Brooklyn, and I will be persevering with to work on my ardour mission Compose Her. You may be taught extra about Compose Her at composeher.org. We’re all about supporting ladies in music, particularly ladies composers, feminine composers. I do not know when you noticed my NowThis interview, however I talked about how there was a professor once I was auditioning who advised me that I had the identical probability of being a music composer as an NFL soccer participant. I’ve clearly confirmed him incorrect. I’ve my Grasp’s in music compilation now, and I need to be the subsequent Hans Zimmer, the subsequent Pharrell, however like a lady. That is my profession objective, so I will be engaged on that with each fiber of my being. After this 12 months’s over, I am going to be capable to put all my coronary heart and soul into that, and I have been laying the bottom work for it this 12 months, however it should undoubtedly be cool to have full freedom to do this as soon as I am not Miss America full time. CK: Oh my gosh what am I not doing to organize for Miss Universe? It is a lot enjoyable! We do the night robe competitors, interview, swimsuit, after which we even have a nationwide costume and on stage questions. So I am working with Sherri Hill, one among our sponsors to make two customized robes, one for preliminary competitors and one for remaining. So we have been having FaceTime calls and telephone calls, we have now a couple of sketches prepared in order that has been going extremely nicely. To arrange for swimsuit, I’ve type of curbed my dessert consuming habits. I type of pigged out on dessert proper after I received, simply to take slightly break for some time, however I have been centered extra on simply consuming like I usually eat after which understanding with a extra regular schedule. And at last for interview, I labored with a designer down in Greenville, NC to design an interview outfit. Plenty of prep and I am actually, actually enthusiastic about it. https://www.eonline.com/information/1066538/miss-america-miss-usa-and-miss-teen-usa-share-why-their-historic-pageant-wins-matter?cmpid=rss-000000-rssfeed-365-topstories&utm_source=eonline&utm_medium=rssfeeds&utm_campaign=rss_topstories The post Miss America, Miss USA and Miss Teen USA Share Why Their Historic Pageant Wins Matter appeared first on Kartia Velino. https://kartiavelino.com/miss-america-miss-usa-and-miss-teen-usa-share-why-their-historic-pageant-wins-matter/

Six Nudges: Creating A Sense Of Urgency For Higher Conversion Rates!

By every indicator available, ecommerce is continuing to grow at an insane speed. Although it may seem impossible to imagine with ecommerce already totaling up to 5% of overall commerce, there’s astronomical growth still to come.

Still, I’m heartbroken that some the simplest elements of ecommerce stink so much.

It is 2018—why are there still light gray below-the-fold add to cart buttons?

#youarekillingme

There are numerous subtle issues as well. One strategic issue is illustrated by Timbuk2.

Timbuk2 pays a huge margin to its resellers to sell their messenger bags. These resellers, in turn, give a bigger cut to Amazon, who then sells the Timbuk2 bag for 30% off. Yet, when I want to pay full price on www.timbuk2.com, I have to buy a minimum of $99 to get free shipping!

I understand channel conflict, Timbuk2, but this is just plain not being hungry. You could win bigger by cultivating higher more profitable direct relationships, especially when the old world order of commerce is collapsing all around you.

And I’m ignoring the extremely light gray font reviews…on a shade grayer background!

Painful.

(I really want to buy the Closer Laptop bag. The small one in Jet Black looks cool. I refused to buy it because I don’t want to reward a lack of ecommerce imagination. I am one person, I know it is not going to really hurt them, but I don’t know how else to protest a brand I love.)

Pause. Deep breath.

I do get excited about this stuff. My heart bleeds digital.

There is an ocean of opportunities when it comes to elevating ecommerce. In this post, I want to focus my passion and zero in on something that is difficult to solve for, yet immensely profitable: Inserting a sense of urgency into the shopping process.

I don’t mean: BUY IT NOW OR ELSE!

I mean developing and inserting a subtle collection of gentle nudges that can help increase the conversion rate by a statistically significant amount.

Sizing the Opportunity.

In order to have the same passion to take advantage of this magical opportunity (nudge, nudge) you’ll first want to understand how inefficient your current shopping process is.

Do two things, they’ll bring you to your knees:

1. Go look at your ecommerce conversion rate. It shows you how often you win. :) Your overall conversion rate is likely to be around 2%. You don’t need an advanced degree in math to compute that 2% winning is 98% not winning!

Do something simple. Increase current conversion rate by 25%, quantify how much increased revenue there will be. Yes, that additional $6 mil is not as hard to accomplished for an imaginative focused team – in fact you can get that from implementing half of the recommendations in this blog post.

Bonus: The best computation of conversion rate is orders divided by users (the default in your analytics tool is sessions). This will bring your conversion rate up (yea!!). Still. Big opportunity. And, yes, I did say a decade ago that you should look at the opportunity size within all your website visitors. You should. Still. The conversion headroom is massive.

2. Go to the Multi-Channel Funnels folder in Google analytics and look at two other yummy reports: Time Lag and Path Length.

They report two dimensions of speed: How long does it take for a human to convert? How many visits does it take for a human to convert?

My preferred choice is Path Length; it is rich and actionable.

This data you’ll see, the analysis you’ll do, will scare you. It will also create a sense of urgency to do something about it!

These two recommendations will help you compute the opportunity size for your management team.

Aim for quintupling revenue, obviously, but calculating just 25% improvement will give you all the budget you need from your management to insert urgency into the shopping process. Present a yummy spreadsheet that quantifies the cost of inaction, how much money you’ll lose by not delivering a 25% improvement every week. It will be heartbreaking, and now you are ready for progress!

Welcome to Nudging.

Nudging has plenty of different definitions. Mine is simple:

A gentle incentive that creates a shift in behavior.

Another insistence of mine that you’ll note below: Nudges are based on a deep understanding of user experience. They solve for the user first, and all of the hard work is done by the company (you!).

In the long run that’ll also create a positive revenue outcome for you. Win-Win.

Below is a collection of nudges, curated from my global experiences, influenced by research and data I’ve access to.

1. In-stock status. 2. Life of current price. 3. Direct competitor comparisons. 4. Delivery times based on geo/IP/mobile phone location. 5. Social cues to the rescue. 6. Personalization. Yes, from 1995!

My goal with these recommendations is to have a big impact on your ecommerce existence, and to spark your creativity as you go out and change the world.

Let’s go have some fun nudging people.

1. In-stock status.

It mildly irritates me when sites don’t use this nudge.

How many hotel rooms, cameras, seats in a theater, are left?

Only 15 left in stock. Have that right under the price.

How about: Last run! Be one of the last 9 people to own this credenza design.

OMG! Click, click, click!

Or, 1 in-stock in the REI store next to your office.

Nudge. Nudge.

I’ll admit that you need to have a well-integrated logistics platform to make these ideas work. But given the decade we are in, if you have not already done that, you are facing an existential crisis. Please stop reading this post, pull in your agency and internal teams urgently to figure out how to dig your company out of this deep hole.

If you have a well-integrated logistics platform already, then all I’m asking for is this: lock your online and offline IT folks in a nice Four Seasons suite for 72 hours with your User Researchers, and BAM! Money will start falling from the sky.

Speaking of the Four Seasons, consider how sad their nudging strategy is vs. the one that booking.com has on display:

All the data you need for this nudge… You already have. That’s what makes the Four Seasons strategy, and that of most sites, so heartbreaking.

Convert the inventory status into a conversion boosting nudge.

2. Life of current price.

It physically pains me how rarely this nudge is used.

Dynamic pricing is everywhere. Why not share that information with the shopper?

This price is guaranteed for the next 18 hours.

This price reflects the highest discount in the past 24 weeks.

Limited-time offer applied to the price you see.

Seasonal promotion! Expires Friday.

Reflects special pricing for our highest-tier Frequent Flyers.

Price has reduced by 14% since your last visit.

I’m sure you’ll find language and phrasing that works perfectly for you (see PS at the end of this post). There is a nugget tied to a unique dimension for your dynamic pricing strategy. Please find it, please use it.

Here’s an example from The Golf Warehouse:

Here’s another one from Overstock that shows two time based nudges…

You can take advantage of other dimensions related to pricing that are unique to your digital strategy.

This one comes from YouTube TV: Lock-in this monthly rate for life.

YouTube TV’s price just went up from $35 to $40 (they added more channels). Everyone who’d signed up at $35 was grandfathered at that price – until they cancel!

Yet, this incredible benefit was not a part of YouTube TV’s merchandizing strategy from day one. You can imagine that a whole bunch of additional people (me!) would have jumped on board. Instead not only do I not have YouTube TV, I am sad/upset. Double loss.

You have an entire staff of economists, financial analysts, directors and VPs spending so much time on finding the perfect price to charge an individual. Why not convert that immense hard work into a nudge that creates a sense of urgency?

3. Direct competitor comparisons.

38% cheaper than Nordstrom.

Sometimes, by using one of the multitude of price aggregators, you can have an understanding of where your pricing is at an item level. Where the match is in your favor, why not use that as a nudge?

You can have the comparison for as long as it is valid. You don’t even need to specify a time—people are familiar with FOMO.

Only at B&H, this item comes with a free LG Watch!

First, who does not like free stuff?

Second, who does not like believing they are getting a special deal?

Three, who does not freak out that if they don’t buy it right away, this “insane deal” will disappear?

Me. I did that. At B&H. :)

Again, your merchandizing team is working hard to procure these amazing bundles for your customers, so why are they not a core part of your nudge strategy?

Costco Special: Get an extra year of warranty!

Our average delivery times to California are 50% faster than Amazon.

Save $150 on installation compared to Best Buy!

Our return rates are 40% lower than Wayfair.

You catch my drift.

Here’s just one example from SugarCRM:

Here’s a comparison on Honda’s site…

No, actually it is from Toyota’s site.

They know that if their car is more expensive, with worse mileage etc., better to be upfront as the customers are looking for that information…

You can also go deeper when it comes to implementing the spirit of this nudge. Kendrick Astro Instruments has the normal table based competitor comparison, additionally they also have a detailed comparison with images to give you more detail…

This shows hunger and desire to win… Their text:

This image displays the quality of Kendrick's cabling that we use on all Premier and FireFly heaters. Our cabling remains flexible in cold weather (down to -40° C), are all labeled for easy identification and all have metal RCA connectors..

This is the text next to their competitor's image (which you can view in higher resolution):

This image displays a competitor's cabling. It is a PVC coated RCA patch cord. PVC gets very stiff in the cold and as a result, makes it an awkward component to use at the telescope. As well, due to the lack of flexibility and give in the cold, it can defocus camera lenses.

Not all that hard to see how this nudge drives higher conversion rates.

Your employees stand up at 11:00 AM each day and sing the company song. There is a line in there about your company’s unique value proposition. Something so special, it stands out against everyone you compete with.

Why let that be your little secret? Why don’t you convert that into a nudge?

Consider how much louder your 11:00 AM company sing-a-long will be when your employees see you laying it out there and going head to head with your competitors.

4. Delivery times based on geo/IP/mobile phone location.

Amazon does this really well.

Each item’s estimated delivery time to you depends on the closest warehouse to your home address. So that Timbuk2 bag might be delivered to me the next day, but it would take two days to get to Carissa in Alabama.

Amazon shows this best delivery time for me right next to the price.

More often than not, I see that Prime One-Day or Prime Same-Day and, as if by magic, I find my mouse glide toward the Order Now button!

The closeness of the customer to your delivery environments remains an infrequently used strategy in creating an urgency nudge.

Another dimension of the delivery time nudge is order in the next 4 hours and get it tomorrow with fast shipping!

In our instant gratification culture, who can resist that?

You are $39 away from overnight shipping has been done to death. (If you are in this category, know that the last “secret” of ecommerce is that figuring out how to weaponize shipping – and free returns – is a powerful conversion increasing engine. Not easy, but your business model has to change to survive.)

But. If you are still in that world—don’t worry, I still love you—know that a behavioral shift from an emphasis on cost to an emphasis on the benefit will make a huge difference.

Add another $39 to your order and get your order 48 hours faster!

This takes advantage of the person’s location, your warehouse location, and your shipping policy, and frames it all as a positive nudge.

A couple more examples to inspire you.

Love these delicious sandals on Express. My wife thinks I’ll look prettier in the red, I think the Mustard really looks like my color. :)

I love the nudge they have built-in showing how many in my size are in stock (only one!)…

Not wanting to risk it, I click on the Find in Store link you see at the bottom of the page.

I get a interstitial that shows me availability of the sandal by geographic location…

Here’s the lovely part… I did not have to do anything. Express did a reverse lookup based on my IP Address, matched that with their stores, then checked their ERP system for inventory and got me the answer. All inside one second.

Nudge, nudge!

One more.

Dominos will now deliver a pizza to you wherever you are. Literally wherever. In a park, in the dark woods, under a bridge. They look up your mobile location (with your permission), and they’ll come find you.

Assuming you want pizza that bad.

There are still websites that ask you to choose your country when you land. In this day and age, for the sake of Zeus, I hope that is not you.  But, how inventively are you using the location nudge?

Significantly higher revenue awaits.

5. Social cues to the rescue.

The last couple of months have not been great for social networks. I’m sure something beneficial will come to the entire digital ecosystem from all this.

A minority might believe that the whole social media thing is going to die. It is not. Community and sharing are core to who we are as humans. It is not going to change. (And, you still need a place for guilty pleasures: indulging in the latest Kardashian-West clan developments!)

Stretch your imagination and it is not hard to come up with some super-clever nudges that incorporate aggregate non-PII information that is public.

People have shared this blouse 18 times in the last hour on Instagram.

80 people in California have booked this destination in the last 30 days.

1,846 Pins for this closet on Pinterest.

Our most tweeted style of underwear!

800 plusses on Google+.

Ok, so maybe not Google+ (I was genuinely excited about it, I am sad it died). But you get the idea.

Social cues (/proof) can help create a sense of urgency for a whole host of companies. Yet, I bet you’ve rarely seen the use of this aggregated information to deliver nudges.

Here’s a simple example of aggregated non-PII based social cue, from, a site you’ve seen me express adoration for in the past, ModCloth. Every product has a little heart sign, visitors to the site vote their love which helps me make more confident decisions…

ModCloth also allows their customers to contribute something you might consider PII, their photos. These make perhaps the ultimate social proof as I can see the skirt I want (mustard again FTW!) on different body sizes…

ModCloth has a whole lot of social proof strategies. They have a Style Gallery, #ModClothSquad, #MarriedinModCloth etc.

Think expansively about social proof.

Naked Wines has a lovely widget next to each of their wines that shows the would buy again rate…

And, they show you historical sales and would buy it again rates.

Checkout the Kimbao Sauvignon Blanc you can see sales and would buy it again rates since 2011. At 91%, the rate is highest this year. Sweet. Add to Basket!

Another team thinking expansively about leveraging social proof are the excellent folks at Basecamp. If you scroll to the bottom of their web pages you’ll see…

Completely non-PII based social proof, a simple cumulative trend of the number of customers. What better way to convince you to use them than this lovely up and to the right trend?

One final, massively underutilized, social proof nudge for you to consider.

Every smart ecommerce strategy has an individual-level referral program bolted on from the very start. Your current customers refer your products and services to their friends, family, and complete strangers—in exchange for a little benefit for themselves.

It is rare, however, to see the use of that referral information as a nudge.

Your friend Alex will receive $5 if you order in the next 24 hours.

The site is keeping track of the referral (to pay your friend Alex his bounty). They have all the information they need to create the above line of text. Why not use it?

Read Diana’s review of this product.

Diana, of course, referred the product to you, and that insight is in the URL you used to get to the site. The site is simply going the extra mile to surface Diana’s review, as it will likely be more meaningful to you than the other 29.

I love Patagonia; I value the brand’s ethos so deeply. And, when I say love, I mean LOVE. Two of the three pieces of clothing I’m wearing right now are from Patagonia. Yet there does not seem to be any strategy at Patagonia to help me (and you and other brand lovers) to create social cue nudges.

Humans inherently want to share, they want to show off, and they want to pass on recommendations/deals to their community. Got social nudges?

6. Personalization. Yes, from 1995!

Do you remember what I did during the last visit to your website?

No PII, just off the anonymous first-party permission-based cookie. Did you use that to change the site’s home page?

And, if you have a GDPR compliant login mechanism…Does your machine learning-powered ecommerce platform leverage the lifetime of my site experience, complaints, purchases, etc., to anticipate my activity?

Do the pages on your site wrap around my objectives, rather than your static and pimpy ones?

Is your entire sales strategy obsessed with the Do, or does it also obsess about the See, Think and Care bits of the complete human experience?

Personalization is the ultimate nudge—to create ecommerce-related urgency and to bring your brand closer to the customer over the lifetime of their experience with you.

That’s because personalization means truly caring. Personalization requires a huge investment in understanding. Personalization is translating that individual human-level understanding into anticipation. Personalization means helping. And when you do it right, personalization means you pimp with relevance—the best kind.

The desire to personalize across the complete human experiences kicks off the processes that fundamentally alter how you treat every human. The reason it works, when done right, is that deep down, we want people to care about us. And yes, we will end up doing more business with people who show that they care for us. Really care. The ultimate nudge.

So. If you own www.canada.ca or www.sainsbury.co.uk using PII or non-PII information… Does your site actively learn and then change? If not, why not?

One huge challenge we had to overcome in delivering personalization was employee capabilities. Employees are terrible at being able to imagine the expanse of possibilities when it comes being able to understand each human and being able to react to each human. Mercifully, Machine Learning (/Artificial Intelligence) will help us solve this challenge with incredible results.

Bottom-line.

You can pray that your conversion rates increase.

Alternatively, you can take advantage of the data you have access to, the permissions your users have given you, and the competitive advantages you’ve worked so hard to create and use them to create nudges that solve for delivering delight to your customers and more revenue to your company.

Your choice?

Nudging FTW!

As always, it is your turn now.

If you’ve tried one of the above six strategies to create a nudge, what was the outcome for your company? If you’ve seen a strategy for creating urgency that you love, will you please share it? What challenges have you run into in trying to personalize experiences? Nudging also works in our personal lives—have you tried it? :)

Please share your critiques, brilliant ideas and experience scars via the comments below.

PS: My doctor reminds me during every annual visit that I need to take more walks outside in the sun to make up for a vitamin deficiency. Turns out I spend too much time in my office or auditoriums. The sun is right there. I just need to take a walk. I still do it less than I should. Such is the case with A/B testing. The tools are free and abundant. You know they are the best way to win arguments with your HiPPOs or your cubicle mates. Yet, you don’t use them. I’m off to take a walk in the beautiful California sun, you go implement my recommendations for nudges as A/B tests—it is the only way to unlock the kind of imagination required to create profitable happy customer experiences.

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