Friday, September 29, 2006

(49) October 5, 2004 Arty Appetite

2004: First Class Stamp $0.37 cents
Enormous tsunami devastates Asia
U.S. media release photos of abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison.
San Francisco begins issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples
Chechen terrorists take between 1,000+ people hostage,
mostly children, in a school
Mount St. Helens becomes active again
Fahrenheit 9/11
"Desperate Housewives" premieres on ABC
"Lemony Snicket's a Series of Unfortunate Events"
and "The Incredibles" in theaters
Gay Marriages begin in Massachusetts,
the first state in the country to legalize such unions
The year when all roads led to "Arty Appetite." A collaboration between my brother-in-law the food designer and me, I had been thinking about the similarities between artists names and food for a long time, and this was the natural projection. I spent this year setting up the business with my sister and developing the first food items. My marketing strategy was to introduce the products first to American Museum gift stores, since I knew they did not traditionally sell gourmet food and this would make this product very visible quickly. By the end of this year we had found placement in 2/3rd of the nation's art museums, and all of this from a basement office in a small Illinois town. The most exciting gift from the Universe this year was being chosen as #2 gift product by the Washington Post for their annual Christmas Gift Buying List...against such esteemed design companies at Neiman Marcus and the various national design firms. And all this within six months of the product's initial launch. A very exciting time, it spurred a lot of media attention this year, and it proved to me once again the power of focus and belief in the process of life.

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