Rule 29: Creative Matters…& so does good people believing in your work

To me Where Am I Wearing? is more than a book, it’s a mission. And one that uncannily matches up to the business plan I wrote three years ago:

“Have a positive impact on the less fortunate peoples I write about. Bring awareness and shed light on situations and processes that are socially difficult so that readers actively help alleviate problems.”

I’m pleased to welcome two more soldiers to the cause.

Larry Olson, a VP at Wiley, read WAIW? and is now going above and beyond helping to promote the book. He has placed ads in Relevant Magazine the past two months and now has enlisted the help of the Illinois-based, strategic design firm, Rule29.

Rule29 in their own words: “We believe in making creative matter. So, what does that mean for you? We specialize in strategic design that is based on the unique values, audience and key messages of you, our client. By applying a well-defined creative strategy, we transform the raw information of who you are and what you do into a striking visual message that arrests the attention of your audience. Strategy + Great Design = Making Creative Matter.”

What does all of this mean for WAIW? It’s about to get a whole lot shinier around here.

Today I had a conference call with Larry from Wiley and Dan from Rule29. There are a number of areas that we’ll be working on.

1) The Blog – This place could use a face lift, a toosh tuck, some lipo, and a boob job.

2) Improve Social Networking – I confessed to them that I felt that my social networking life was a mess. I feel like I’m everywhere and nowhere. A list of my social communities fighting for my time: Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, GoodReads, Flickr, APEsphere, LibraryThing, LinkedIn, Matador Travel, and I probably forgot about a few of them. It’s hard to update and participate in them all. They assured me that I’m better than 98% of authors in this regard. Still, there’s room for improvement. There is even talk about breathing some life into the Underwear Wall of Fame.

3) Reach Students – I’m really excited about this. If I would have talked to High School or College Kelsey, I would have so converted me to a(n) Touron/Engaged Consumer. We want to develop materials that allow teachers to introduce the concepts in WAIW?

4) Develop my brand – I’m hoping for Touron action figures!

This should be loads of fun and I’ll keep you all posted.

If you have ideas, I’d love to hear them. We’re still in the brainstorming stages, so it’s not too late to get in on the action. In fact, I just received some questions from Rule29. A set of them begins as such…

“If Where Am I Wearing was an amusement park…?”

A few answers: Free rides for everybody. Anyone who makes less than $2 per day gets moved to the front of the line.

 
10 comments
Melissa says:

Could “developing your brand” include WAIW? underwear? Ah, the irony of going back to Bangladesh as a legitimate underwear buyer…

Kelsey says:

I won’t be buying any underwear from Bangladesh. Of course, that would make Dalton’s day — finally, business bridging the world.

Whatever we decide, we don’t want to leave my message open to criticism. I can’t really be part of the industry — other than a consumer — to do that.

We are looking at reusable shopping bags made in the USA. I’ll keep you posted.

Jenn says:

I think reuseable shopping bags are a great idea.

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