Book News: Latvian Translation & English Version Reprint December 2019

With the help of the Latvian Patent Office and the Latvian Designers The Essential Guide to Business for Artists and Designers has been translated and published in Latvian.

Jumava have published the work and you can buy copies from their website. I spent a couple of days in Riga after the launch event, I posted some of my photos on my Instagram feed of some of my adventures. Walking around the old town this wonderful place reminded me of the UK in the 1980s. Interestingly English and American rock music is really popular in Latvia and its played everywhere, on the radio, in bars, cafes and restaurants.

It’s interesting to see the pages translated into the Latvian language. This is an image from the Fold organisation’s website.

On 18th October 2019 I made a speech and gave a talk at the Latvian Design Fair, Design Isle In Riga. I also talked about entrepreneurial skills and Intellectual Property. I also had the honour to meet Andrejs Broks President of the Latvian Designers. I posted a link to my speech below and other useful links. I also met designer Inese Lapiņa, you can see some of her fabulous innovative lounger sofas/day beds via Facebook #Dusis

                          

The Latvian Patent Office Plan to give copies of the translation of the book to all the art schools and elementary schools in Latvia. To help prepare talented teenagers and art students for setting up an arts practice, design studio or creative business. The book is also available to purchase from Igramata.

New December 2019 reprint of the English second edition

There is a new slightly updated reprint of the second edition of The Essential Guide to Business for Artists and Designers now available. Published by Bloomsbury Visual Arts and reprinted in December 2019, please not this version has a new ISBN number 9781350153899. If you go to the Bloomsbury website you will find they are offering a 30% discount that’s £8.40 off the marked price. An excellent guide for yourself or a creative friend or relative.


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Whatever happened to my lost project…

In 2005 I developed, with the help of an illustrator, an exciting addition to the Little Miss and Mr Men characters, originally created by Roger Hargreaves in 1960s.

Little Miss Entrepreneur was not only a character but also a complete story, which we made up as a mock up book in 2006.

We approached the original rights holders Chorion in 2006 with our idea and we received back a ‘we’ll keep you letter on file’ letter. Chorion later went bankrupt so we tried again making approaches to the Mr Men Company (a Sanrio Company).

We made a number of approaches with our concept between 2012 and 2016 to the new rights owners. We have an acknowledgement of a spread of images we sent and tentative interest expressed by them via email in 2012. However, there has been no response to our later phone calls, emails or letters.

In 2018 Thoip (a Sanrio Company) launched a new character and story called Little Miss Inventor. Close friends of ours who were aware of our original character idea alerted us straight away to this character being unveiled.

It is a real shame Little Miss Entrepreneur’s story was not taken on by these companies, and for copyright reasons we cannot publish our own story. Though we have repeatedly asked for permission or a license to do so Sanrio have not engaged.

I did write a number of letters in 2013 explaining the growth in enterprise education at early school level. Several years ago Lord Young ran his very successful ‘Fiver Challenge’ and that the character was right for this audience in this modern age. More recently there has been a huge interest in entrepreneurial teaching in schools, especially in Wales (Professor Andy Penaluna).

So, I regard Little Miss Entrepreneur as my lost project…she maybe lost but definitely not forgotten,

Perhaps she was ahead of her time, as innovators so often are. It is real shame Sanrio are not interested in our story, as we believe Little Miss Inventor and Little Miss Entrepreneur could be great friends, if they ever met and possibly they could even have a very prosperous future together!

Of interest – a recent report The Future Founders written by the Octopus Group, The Entrepreneurs Network and ComRes

‘57% of young people could not name an entrepreneur who inspires them. Of those who could, Lord Sugar was the most popular choice (7.9%), closely followed by Richard Branson (6.5%). Elon Musk came third with 2.6%. Bill Gates (2.2%) and Steve Jobs (1.7%) were also named repeatedly. Of those who gave an answer, Kylie Jenner was the most commonly named female entrepreneur (1.1%)’


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