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MAR 2019

Pen & Mug

Introduction



Welcome to Pen & Mug International Headquarters



I’ve been wanting to write consistently for quite a while now, but I’ve learned that, like many things in life, saying “I’ll do it when I have time” typically gets me nowhere.


My solution: the Pen & Mug Notebook.


I plan to write an article every month, (short and sweet for your benefit and mine), and share each one as both (1) an email to our new mailing list and (2) as a post on penandmug.com. Whether I ever hear from you or not, I’m declaring this intention to you publicly to make you my accountability partner (thanks for that!) and to begin growing this community.


Want to know what to expect? Wondering, “what’s the objective here?”


Community. Community is the objective.


I've also got dreams of this becoming a larger thing, of course. I'd love to see the readership and mailing list grow over time. Maybe speak at a conference some day. Achieve eternal glory. Modest goals.


So I guess that's two objectives: eternal glory and community.


Sincerely, creative people are my favorite people in the world. When I say that, I don’t just mean “creative professionals” – I mean people who are compelled to MAKE something. Anyone wired to create, grow, and improve themselves and their craft. For you, that could be a passion project, or a side hustle, or a full-time job, or leading a large and ever-evolving business, or even nothing more than a new idea and an action plan.


Put another way, we’re talking about people who are not perfectly content with things the way they are. Happy, maybe, but not content, and therefore determined to make something new – to add their own flavor to the world.


As a graphic designer and web designer, I work with creative people every day, and I get to be an agent who helps them turn ideas and dreams into tangible/visible/interact-with-able things. HOW COOL IS THAT?!?


That’s the community I want to continue growing. I’m here to connect with and encourage creative people of all kinds – to share some of my story, and get to know yours, too.


As far as these articles will go, I plan to write a few different “genres” of posts:


1. Fan mail: articles where I get to nerd out about someone or something awesome who/that I think you’ll love, too.


2. Inspiration: recaps of conferences I attend or books I read, and hopefully a few peeks behind the curtain at some of the processes I use regularly. (I’ll be at SXSW 2019 later this month, so expect a recap of that experience FOR SURE!)


3. Short Stories: the occasional general musing on design, or business, or life, or tacos...


If any of those sound intriguing to you, please join the new mailing list if you haven’t already, and help spread the word! You’ll get first access to these assorted writings, and the occasional special offer on Pen & Mug Online Shoppe items. I’ll also be creating new case studies and write-ups of recent projects as those wrap up, and I’ll let you know when those go live, too. (I’ll just send a link for case studies, rather than build those out as emails, too. SOOO many images…)


I’m fired up, and stoked that you’re a part of it. Keep an eye out for a new article next month!


Thank you for your support,


Austin
Pen & Mug



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