Are you the kind of person who wants the good news first or the bad news first? 🙂 I like ending on a good night, so I’ll start with the bad news.
At the end of last year, I put out my own design team call for my very first creative team. My goal for the team was to help crafters who have never had any DT experience get a glimpse of what it’s like to be on a DT and try to help them a little on their journey. My first team of crafters were all amazing and it’s been a wonderful experience for me to have my own creative team. The DT term was intentionally short (3 months) with the goal of being able to help more crafters in the course of a year. My first term is coming to an end at the end of this month, and I’ve decided to discontinue my creative team. I will not be recruiting a new creative team for the foreseeable future.
I’m sad that I won’t be leading my own creative team anymore. It was a great experience for me – one that I learned from myself as well. However, all is not lost.
Ready for the good news?
When I started my creative team, I had a larger goal in mind. But it wasn’t something I could manage on my own. I recruited a creative team as a small step towards that larger goal. I’m absolutely thrilled that since then, I’ve found an incredibly talented partner in crime — the Queen of DT’s herself – Danni Bindel of Danni’s Dreams! Together we are launching a new Facebook group – Design Team 101.
What is Design Team 101?
In short, this is a private Facebook group designed for all levels of crafters. Whether you just made your first papercraft project or you’ve been designing for decades and on multiple design teams, I invite you to join our group. The focus of this group is to share and grow together as crafters through mentorship. If you are a crafter who is interested in getting onto a DT, we want to help you on your journey towards that goal. If you just joined your first design team and you are unsure what all is involved, we want to be a resource for you. In addition, we welcome seasoned design team members who want to offer advice and guidance and charter new ways for all of us to be better design team members.
Our goal is for DT 101 to be a resource of knowledge, a crafty community and supportive peer mentorship. If you have questions, if you need advice, if you have crafty tips to share, this is the space for you! We don’t plan to have any courses or lessons, as such. This is not a class, but rather an “on-demand” resource of information and conversation to help you find answers about design teams. Here’s our current vision for this group, but we will take it wherever the need demands:
- The group includes “Mentors” – designers who have experience on design teams.
- Members can ask questions related to design teams, and DT work and expect one or more Mentor to offer their opinions.
- Top 5 Tips from Mentors on various topics. These are quick way to get different opinions on popular topics. Members can suggest new topics.
- Zoom calls for more in-depth discussion on popular topics
NOTE: This group is NOT a place to gossip. Danni & I encourage transparency and openness, but not infringement on any NDA or confidentiality agreement you have with your sponsors. We request any advice, opinion offered doesn’t any names of companies or individuals. And we ask that members don’t try to infer or speculate either.
How Do You Join?
It’s simple. Just visit our Facebook group – https://www.facebook.com/groups/dt101. Join the group and be sure you answer the questions, read over and accept the rules.
If you are part of my Crafty Fun w/ Friends FB group, there have been a few conversations that would be perfect over in the Design Team 101. I invite you to join my new group as well. While I welcome all crafty conversation in my Crafty Fun group, my hope is that the DT101 group can provide more in-depth advice and conversation when it comes to details about things beyond sharing project inspiration or enabling each other. 🙂
Interested in Being a Mentor?
If you have design team experience and would like to learn more about being a mentor in Design Team 101, please feel free to DM me on Facebook or email me at Linh@LVHandcrafted.com and I can give you all the details!
Learn More About Design Teams
If you want to learn more about design teams, consider watching my Let’s Talk Design Teams Part 2 livestream.