We are smack in the middle of the initial NM campaign. One of the first things we had to do was create a site worthy of NM and this in itself was a fun project. Like the comics, although seemingly “simple” at first glance, the site is by no means simplistic, but was art-directed the entire way through. I decided that obviously a pop art feel would best suit the motif of the site, so Sas and I looked up the fonts and designs related to smarmy pop culture. Even though honestly pop art was probably one of my least favorite (in terms of like what I’d put up in my living room or something) genres, me being pretty classically or surrealistically inclined, I was absolutely thrilled with the NM website results. A particular favorite for me is the Warhol style “self-portrait” of the Man himself. I hope everyone enjoyed it as much as we did - to us the website itself was a work of art.

ok so day 2 was AWESOME - obviously, more people - i sold twice as many as the first day at full price, another twice as many at a promotional price (to vendors and volunteers) and got picked up by dar-us-salam! alhamdulillaah also someone who runs a bookstore said that a partner had reviewed it and had some criticisms (which was sort of expected) but she says to me, “i disagree, i think it’s charming!” - so she says when she opens her physical location inshallah she will carry it - i had a few “golden moments” where literally some teenage guy would see it, look at it for a second, say, “cool”, and plop down the money and be on his way, but overall it was still a lot of hustling on my part - i started getting even more active - offering vendors a chance to read it and if they liked it offer them a discount, going out into the crowd and seeing groups of kids and telling them about it, etc. - again, i got some more insight into marketing - as i mentioned, if you dont put in people’s faces, they dont notice it - and even sometimes they would be looking at it and then you STILL have to go - its a comic book! and THEN they say “ooooh” - so i dont know why its like that, but its just the reality of life - i do have to admit, i dont like marketing in this manner - i feel pretty bad actually trying to get people to buy something on a personal level (as opposed to having a store or something out which they come to on their own) - so i pretty much just got some thick skin, and was almost robotic in my professionalism - simply coming up with
like a 30-second, pressure-free informative line - my MAIN goal (more than sales even) was to make it KNOWN - i really cant thank allah enough - for such a small conference, for being stuck in the back, sharing a booth, not having fliers, etc. and being the first days with a single product, it was beyond expectation

the last day was a half-day of course (sunday) and pretty dead, but i made some really cool contacts alhamdulillaah - i’ll write about that under IN Production…

(Note: This entry was imported from my personal blog and as such some of the information may be dated. Unfortunately, user comments were lost in the migration, so if you had a comment up, feel free to repost.)

Today I went down to the printers and got the proof. It was supposed to be a “bluebook”, which is basically a monochromatic draft of the print, but it turned out to be a low quality draft print with all the original colors. It looks good - there was only one glitch with the upc bar code on the back, but the bro just went into IN Design and fixed it. It was also really cool seeing the insides of the press - it’s not a huge company, but not too small either - the machines are pretty big and they have several, hooked up to computers, etc. I also learned some stuff about how they print (multiples of 16 are optimal). We now ordered our initial print of 1000 copies on good paper, with a pressed cover. As soon as I got home, my mom read the whole thing and my kid sister read it next (they were the only ones home at the time lol). There’s just something about a comic book - it’s pretty irresistible. I don’t think there’s anything out like it on the market now - and I can’t wait until it’s out.

(Note: This entry was imported from my personal blog and as such some of the information may be dated. Unfortunately, user comments were lost in the migration, so if you had a comment up, feel free to repost.)

I started a company called IN Production (part of IN, Islamic Network) to put out Muslim art. The first project is NaseehaMan, a comic book. The comics used to run weekly on IN. Unfortunately, the author, Zuhair Munshey, has passed away, rahimahullaahu ta’aalaa. But the comic book is coming out this week inshallah. We have a website for IN Production, where you can catch up on all our projects (www.inproductionmedia.com) and specifically for NaseehaMan (www.naseehaman.com), but they are not functional yet. So I decided to start blogging about it here and transferring the entries when the sites are up. It’s just such an exciting process and a lot of people have been waiting around for the comic book!

(Note: This entry was imported from my personal blog and as such some of the information may be dated. Unfortunately, user comments were lost in the migration, so if you had a comment up, feel free to repost.)