Andersen Design - Andersen Studio Contemplates Taking the Quantum Leap of Faith

Andersen Studio's new Internet presence is seeing growth potential and looking for ways to calibrate production and shipping to a potentially greater flow of orders.  Like most in the micro-economy private sector, there is not a lot of capital available to us other that that old American convention- sweat equity.


Earlier this year, I redesigned our website, using the open source Joomla template, which has a very sophisticated back end for processing orders and other information. I took the photographs and wrote  the text myself. I researched SEO and incorporated what I learned into our website design. I also activated a social networking marketing effort, for which our line of classic American ceramic art and design is ideally suited- (being that we became a collectible exclusively through the grass roots). Social networking is better suited to the micro economy than it is to large corporations. Etsy has been a great resource for us - both for generating new business and for greater exposure to design and shopping blogs and printed publications.


At this point, I do not yet have our entire line represented but I have created catalog pages for each section. The catalog pages play an important role in search engine optimization as they enable Andersen Studio to be discovered by a larger public through targeted search terms. I started with our line of birds. I knew that we had a chance of getting a rating with a "ceramic birds" search thread, where as our chances are pretty slim if the search term is "ceramics". Before I redesigned our website. I went through ten pages of the search term "ceramic birds" without finding Andersen Studio. Now we are either the last listing on page one or the top of page two. NOte _ I recently checked to find we have been bumped to page 3 of a Ceramic Birds search on Google. This may be due in part to pulling back on the marketing until We can better synchronize production and shipping- but that is just specualtion - it also might have to do with Google changes.


I would like to bump us up on the list so that we remain on page one but not at this time as we need to calibrate our production and shipping with our marketing efforts. The flow of orders that came in during July and August, which is usually a slow online season for us is steady and consistent. It can clearly grow once we have a well managed production and shipping team.


To this end I believe we also need more space, which is a risky investment at this time but it seems necessary to realize the growth potential that the Internet makes possible for a small hand crafted production like Andersen Design. I have driven by Industrial Way in Boothbay , where I like the feel- but that is the extent so far of my searches for more space. Since we have to invest in space and employment before we achieve a greater flow of orders ( so that we are capable of handling such a flow), I am looking for a very affordable space to begin with. ( There are other family members involved in this business as well)


One of the great challenges and rewards of ceramic slip casting production is that it depends on great team work. There are those who really love this kind of work. A business such as our has many different facets involving many skills. We will eventually be looking for a great manager.


I have also long been looking for a way to get other people involved in such a way that this business can be carried on by future generations and to that end, I published a visions statement a number of years ago. Essential to the success of such a vision is to have a licensing agreement that satisfies, financial, aesthetic, and philosophical needs. We also need legal council to develop a system of governance.




My vision statement- written quite a number of years ago is HERE.


The idea is a network of small independently owned production studios, united by marketing and a company identity along the lines of fashion houses which are started by unique designers but carried on beyond their own life time. Andersen Studio- Andersen Design has established such an identity and is also recognized in the field of mid-century design See Andersen Studio in The Media
 
This is an unformed project at this time. We will be looking for new employees and are also open to new partnerships. In a time when the government targets  businesses making a profit greater than 250,000.00, this seems like a good time to develop a small independent network of ceramic art and design productions, which individually might remain below the radar, so to speak- at least for now.

Andersen Studio has developed two large and comprehensive lines of ceramic design since the mid-century - original contemporary functional forms and wild life sculpture. Our originating philosophy was to create a hand made product affordable to the middle classes. Through out our history our collectible line of American ceramic art and design has been marketed in both middle class and high-end venues, we have also sold over seas most notably in department stores in Japan and Denmark. Because our line is affordable but also appeals to a higher end buyer, we have an unusual marketing flexibility. Because we have always been a micro-economy production we have never flooded our market, even as our designs have maintained their marketability over the course of half a century. Because we became a collectable solely through the wisdom of the grass roots, and because our line is expressive of genuine American individuality, Andersen Studio has a fair probability of weathering the unpredictable economic and political patterns that the private economy is currently confronting.

We are also open to partnerships in other states, especially sites with small government that favor the free enterprise system.