I'm Taking the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Challenge

I decided to take the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Challenge organized and taught by Darren Rowse of Problogger.net. Thirty-one days is not all that long so I thought what better opportunity than to get taught by someone who has made a living at blogging.

1st Challenge: Elevator Pitch

The first challenge is to write an elevator pitch for my blog. This isn’t going to be too hard as I think I’ve already done this in the past, I just didn’t know that is what you called it. Up until now, I have been running my blog, Kris Black Digital Studio, under the notion that I am the following:

a digital artisan that specializes in providing lettering and design services for the comic book professional

I guess that’s okay but to take advantage of this challenge I want to rethink this. So let’s deconstruct my elevator pitch.

1) What is a digital artisan?

I think this is a great question as I get asked this a lot, but at the same time I’m told that it is a great way to describe what I do. I create art and design digitally using a computer, graphics applications and other supportingperipheralsand applications to produce my projects.

2) What is lettering?

Lettering, in terms of what I’mreferringto is creating the title, logo, words, balloons, and sound effects for a comic book, comic strip or Webcomic. I haven’t had the opportunity to do as much of this as I like over the last year because I do this in my spare time when I’m not working at my day job, night job, or hanging out with my lovely family.

3) What is design?

The type of design I am offering is graphic design for print and the Web. I have been working professionally in the graphic design industry since 2000. This is a natural service for me to provide as I am very comfortable providing the type of skills needed to compete with other designers.

4) Comic Book Professional

Ever since I was a little kid I wanted to work in the comic book industry. This is a life-long goal of mine and I want to make sure that this is something I do. I have made a lot of contacts with professionals in the industry while working with my colleagues on the Dollar Bin comic book podcast I helped found several years back.

Conclusion

After decontructing my elevator pitch I think that I still like it. It has gone through several revisions over the last couple years. Mostly it’s just gotten shorter. In fact, at the bottom of my site is the shortest version I’ve ever used, Lettering and Design for Comics. So here’s my full length elevator pitch:

Hello, my name is Kris Black. I am a digital artisan that specializes inproviding lettering and design services for the comic book professional. I have a Web site where I post tips and tricks about lettering, review the work of other letterers in the industry, discuss graphic design and how it’s important for comics, and also display my most recent work in my portfolio. You can find me online at www.krisblack.com to learn more about me and my profession.

Let me know what you think about my elevator pitch in the comments. I look forward to any ideas and critisism.