It's on Paper so it's OFFICIAL... RAWR!

Back in April I shared with you some of the details of filing for a trademark on my RAWR! logo. While the trademark was approved and registered at that time I was still waiting on the final paperwork. Over the weekend that paperwork finally arrived and now it is OFFICIALLY all done and my RAWR! logo is now OFFICIALLY a registered trademark! It may be just a piece of paper with a gold seal sticker on it, but it is the piece of paper with a gold seal sticker on it that says my branding is protected, registered, and mine. I was not really sure when or if this piece of paper would ever arrive, but you would hope to get something tangible for $450. Enjoy these images of a $450 piece of paper...

Officially, RAWR! is official!

Just look at those letters, they just exude RAWR!

Gold seals make everything better.

Not sure what the end game of this really is, but it is important to take the steps to protect and establish my branding if I am going to use it everywhere. While I am not sure if people are lined up to try to steal my logo, this does give me legal protection to something I have been building upon for years. RAWR!

That is all for another exciting Monday on the blog, see you back here on Wednesday! Until then...

For more samples of my work or to contact me regarding my availability head over to my website: www.christopherburdett.com

RAWR! - TRADEMARKED!

Finally, at long last, I can announce that I completed a big step to secure my branding that I use everywhere when talking about my monsters... RAWR! I started the paperwork back in October of last year and after months of waiting, additional correspondence, and corrections my trademark was published last week. So when it comes to RAWR!, this is MY RAWR!...

TRADEMARKED! RAWR!

Big thanks to Dear Wife for pusing me to do this and to Chris Seaman for giving me that extra push to get it done as well as answering questions at the very beginning.

It ended up being a whole lot easier and a whole lot harder then I expected, but I used legalzoom.com to get me through the process. If you are planning on acquiring a trademark of your own you will need to expect to pay several hundred dollars and wait months for the process to be completed - with no guarantee that the trademark will be granted. For the record so you know what to expect, my trademark cost me around $450, but it is mine now and I can protect my RAWR!. This is probably not for everybody, but with as much as I use RAWR! and the fact I use this logo everywhere, including on shirts, it was in my best interests to move forward with getting it trademarked. As a side not, it is actually better off for you if you are already using the brand that you want to trademark before you start trademarking procedures. You will also want to be able to document when you first used your brand. Thankfully since I have everything time stamped by the blog I was able to easily pull up all that information.

Be sure to check by on Wednesday when I will announce a celebratory RAWR! event... that is as yet to be determined... RAWR!

That is all for another exciting Monday on the blog, see you back here on Wednesday! Until then...

For more samples of my work or to contact me regarding my availability head over to my website: www.christopherburdett.com

Upping My Frame Game

Since I have shared two new paintings in the last two week, I think this is a good opportunity to share some of the stuff I have been doing behind the scenes to create an overall more professional finished product with my paintings. What I am focusing on right now is upping my frame game. I look to my friend and fellow artist, Sam Flegal, as a guide on how to up my frame game. On top of being an amazing artist and businessman, Sam has great taste in frames and presentation. A lot of what I am doing to better my own frame game is learned directly or through observation from Sam. Recently, I have gone that extra step and started to finish off the backs of my framed paintings...

Choosing the right frame for the right painting is part of it and I am constantly trying to find ways to better frame my work in a cost effective way. When someone is buying a painting you want to give them a finished complete item, so sometimes that means addressing the parts you don't always see.

BAM! I have started to clean up and finish off the backs of my paintings.

I have had custom stickers made so that my branding and info is clearly presented on the back!

Made sure to put little rubber feet on the bottom of the frame for a better hanging experience.

In the end this was not as difficult step to take as I first imagined. Once you have the supplies to do it, which were not terribly expense, it comes together quickly and easily. It is just a matter of taking that extra step to invest the time and effort to make a more finished product. To be honest, I didn't realize this was even an option for me until recently (thanks to Sam... THANKS SAM!). When I started painting, I didn't even think this was necessary, I was just thrilled to be painting.  In my opinion, for what it is worth, I feel that the presentation of the painting is enhanced and it now feels professional and finished in a way my open backed paintings did not. My only regret is that I have sold paintings before I started doing this and I wish I could go back and finished off those paintings. BUT, this IS a learning process and you can't expect things to be perfect immediately.

That is all for another exciting Wednesday on the blog, see you back here on Friday! Until then...

For more samples of my work or to contact me regarding my availability head over to my website: www.christopherburdett.com