Found this draft post I saved on the 1st of December! Must have dropped the internet connection... Here's what we got up to for the MESH Artisan Marketing Workshops...
December 1, 2012
Since we returned to Delhi we have been busy busy busy! For the past five days we have had the priviledge of helping to run a marketing workshop for five artisan groups supplying to MESH. Four of these groups are lesprosy colonies and one of these is a group of artisans with mixed disabilities. This last group I mentioned makes small products out of tailors waste!
The purpose of this workshop is to give the artisans the tools and the skills to be able to market themselves locally so they can find their own buyers appart from MESH.
The first two days were dedicated to developing a logo, business card, swing tag, sew in label and pamphlet for two groups. The representatives from these groups were four older men (two from each group) and I really appreciated their contribution in how they wanted the products to sit when photographed, what they wanted the logo to represent and what needs to be included. Thoroughly enjoyable.
Representatives from all five groups attended the middle day in which three speakers came to talk about local marketing, the craft mark and fair trade membership.
The last two days were dedicated to developing the design elements above for three groups. They were very keen to be involved in the design process and were thoroughly happy with the results. After the pamphlets and business cards were produced, one group of knitters got straight into handing them out in their local community. I am really looking forward to hearing about what these groups have been able to achieve.
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| Designs for Bharat Mata Kusht Ashram |
The two gentlemen from BMKA wanted to use the image of a loom in their logo. Once we abstracted the idea a bit they loved the result. Especially once others voiced that they wanted the logo for their group too!
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| Designs for Khadi Gram Udhyog Kust Ashram |
Kuka Artisans were envious of the logo created for BMKA but when we questioned them about the main activity in their village it was actually bobbin winding - where men and women use spinning wheels to prepare the yarn for the loom. Another income generator is the harvesting of mangos so we used the colours of mangos in their designs.
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| Designs for Genesis Knitters |
Genesis Knitters were very clued in to how to create a logo. They started with what their name meant and came up with a lovely metaphor of a baby bird at the start of it's life. It was also lovely because it was so personal as these two women were both mothers.
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| Designs for People's Action Group for Inclusion and Right |
The PAGIR group from Leh Ladakh make products from tailor's waste. They already had a logo that they wanted to keep so we created it in a format that they could use and helped to reinforce their message in their business cards and pamphlets.
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| Designs for Little Flower |
Little Flower in Bihar have been fortunate enough to have a logo already designed for them. The stitch in label will be a lovely addition to their products. Some photos had already been produced for them so we utilized these along with our own photos with local models ~ the Genesis Knitters!
