Bear the Wonder Dog, 2000 - 2013
A Tribute to Bear
Bear has been a shop fixture since we opened the shop. His body failed him earlier this year, and it has been a steady decline ever since. He will be genuinely missed.
Bear was an extremely active dog with a terrific sense of humor. If he was in a playful mood, he knew exactly how to agitate to get the attention he wanted. He enjoyed greeting the customers long enough to get their attention and hopefully get a treat.
Rest in peace, Bear.
The Acrylic Print
Introducing Our New Acrylic Prints
For the past six months, we've been quietly and diligently working on a new family of products called the Acrylic Print.
Our goal was to create a premium product line that complements our Panel Prints.
After several iterations, we are thrilled to introduce the Acrylic Print. We are excited about the sharp and vivid details this presentation package offers.
For more details, visit Red Wing Digital.
The Red Wing Innovation Incubator
Red Wing Innovation Incubator: Supporting New Businesses
As mentioned previously, much of the year has been taken up with the generation of the Red Wing Creative Economy report.
Related, and even more of a time sink, has been the initiation of the Red Wing Innovation Incubator.
This is a physical space dedicated to helping grow and mentor new businesses in the Red Wing Community.
This activity is being driven by Red Wing Downtown Main Street, and our involvement is because of a firm belief that the stronger the local economy is, the stronger our business can become.
Visit the website and see what the hubbub is all about: Red Wing Innovation Incubator.
Busy, busy, busy…
Busy Behind the Scenes
It's been busier here than it might seem.
Earlier this year, we embarked on an exciting project to measure the local Creative Economy and compare it to other communities. With this information, our goal is to make well-informed recommendations for the future.
This project is crucial to our business for obvious reasons, but it's also vital for the community, as this sector of the economy is experiencing rapid growth.
We couldn't—and shouldn't—undertake a project of this magnitude alone. We've partnered with the Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation, Red Wing Downtown Main Street, Inc., Anderson Center at Tower View, Red Wing Arts Association, ArtReach, and the Sheldon Theatre of Performing Arts.
Being in such good company adds credibility to the final report.
We are proud of the final report and encourage you to download your own copy.
Catch-up/ketchup
Reinventing and Expanding Our Horizons
We've been very busy reinventing ourselves here at the shop. To start, we've been focused on unveiling Red Wing Digital. This print-on-demand product offers unique large-format presentation options, including the Panel Print and the Acrylic Print. While the Acrylic Print has taken longer to get ready for production, we're excited about its potential.
Additionally, we have a new business partner, Fine Art Prints on Demand, a UK-based company. We've been quietly working and growing this side of the business (printing and framing fulfillment) for several years. FAPoD is our third customer in this area.
These developments have driven our third initiative: moving our production to a larger facility. We've narrowed down our options and expect to make some final decisions soon.
On the topic of work, road trips & writer's block
Back After a Six-Month Hiatus
It has been almost six months to the day since this blog was last updated. This is inexcusable, so here are the excuses:
Busy Shop: The crush began in August (the last blog posting) and has been unrelenting ever since. The simple solution would have been to hire additional help to manage the workload, and to some extent, that was the solution. But as a business survivor of 2008 (remember Lehman Brothers?), you learn not to trust short-term business trends. So, you suck it up, put in long hours, and satisfy each and every customer.
RedWingDigital.com Success: Contributing to this work crush has been the success of new products at RedWingDigital.com. This new business model takes time to hammer out a smooth workflow. But if it were easy, everyone would be doing it. Look for new products soon.
Vacation: January is supposed to be quiet, so we closed the shop for ten days and took a long road trip to the most remote part of the United States we could find. However, this January was the busiest January ever, even with ten days removed from the calendar. It's not fair to have a customer wait for my vacation, so it meant even longer days once we returned.
Writer's Block: This stuff doesn't write itself, especially when you're tired and have convinced yourself you have writer's block.
That being said, I promise not to allow such a break in the blog pattern to ever occur again.
Our customers are rock stars!
A Business Built on Great Customers
This business is only as good as its customers, and we have the best customers.
Case in point: the busier we get, the less attention web administration seems to receive. But it's too important to ignore for very long. This morning, I was determined to bring the Video/News section of our website up to date. This involves the painstaking task of writing press releases, proofing them, and then re-writing them. I know it isn't as bad as breaking rocks for a living, but it is still a job that I do not look forward to.
At some point, you need to include testimonials to add credibility to the releases. And this is when I am reminded how good our customers are.
Thank you, Jeff Marcus. You have been a steadfast supporter for many years, and we appreciate it. Now go support Jeff. This is good stuff.