Review - no.1

I started The Journal of Tiny Things for many reasons:

1. To start a new visual journal (I LOVE starting a visual journal… see point 2)

2. To try and address my track record of getting easily distracted from visual journal A and moving on to visual journal B because starting new things is so much more fun than 'business as usual’.

3. To flex my visual storytelling skills. In my work as a graphic recorder I draw other people’s content and stories all the time. I wanted to be the story generator for a change.

4. As I sit firmly in my middle age I increasingly want to shape my life and business in directions that bring me the most happiness and fulfilment, to nurture my curiosity and interests as a primary goal. To that end I want to explore visual reportage in my work and I see The JOTT as a step on that path.

Before you get to the rest of the post here’s a quick question:

Now that The JOTT is 10 issues old I want to reflect on the start of my journey and share what I’ve learned.

First the stats

• Number of posts: 10

• Frequency: 1 per week

• Subscribers: 0 - 84

I found it helpful to be building a habit in public. It’s made me wonder if my usual approach has made it too easy for me to change focus and start something new. The accountability of working in public has so far been a positive motivation.

The frequency suits me right now but I can imagine as my posts get longer, which I imagine they will as I explore the visual reportage side of my personal brief, I might want to slow down the schedule.

I am a bit amazed at my subscriber growth. I honestly thought it would take a lot longer to get to 84, and now I feel like 100 subscribers is achievable. That is a pleasing thought. I do have another publication,

The Visual Edit

, that I co-author, which has a bigger following and it ‘recommends’ me, which was definitely helpful. I also share my posts on Instagram and that brought in 1/4 of my subscribers.

The subscribers

52% of my subscribers are in the UK, 18% in the US, 5% each in Australia and Ireland and 4% in Germany

Of those who filled in the questionnaire

• 100% were female aged 35 - 54

• The top reason for subscribing was for Inspiration and Creative Ideas

Until today I didn’t know there was a questionnaire so that was interesting. I’ve now gone in and edited the questions to take out some things I don’t care about and add in some that I do, “Do you keep a Visual Journal?” for example.

One of the questionnaire respondents added, “To have something joyful drop into my inbox each week” and that comment made me happy. If that subscriber was you and you got as far as issue 7. Three Pins, I hope you’ll also stick with me when I am not joyful at all.

The posts

• 50 - 74% average open rate

• 101 - 228 average views

• Top 3 most popular posts were 1. Spice Jar, 3. Post and 7. Three Pins

Honestly I have no idea what is good or not about the first two stats and at this stage I’m okay with that. I’d like to understand why some posts do better, and I hope that will become clearer in time. Right now I surmise that 1.SPICE JAR is in the top 3 because it was the first and so benefits from the most new subscribers looking back over previous posts. 3.REAL POST was one of the biggest images on the page which maybe is relevant but also was also clearly about connecting with others, and 7.THREE PINS…well, that post was the most personal.

My hand writing style has varied…this will no doubt continue. I use particular styles of hand written text for my graphic recorder work and I wanted to avoid that. This means I’m currently in a state of flux which I’m sure will eventually settle down into something more consistent.

My post length has varied from 1 to 2 pages, and I have started to add in cut outs of the images as well as the full journal page photo. This means that currently each post has the photographed journal page plus the typed text and the cut out image. I’m not sure if that duplication is helpful or not but at the moment it feels right to me so I’ll stick with it. Until I don’t.

I’ve decreased / stopped pencilling in my images first as I find it mostly gets in the way. Over the 10 issues I’ve relaxed a bit and now my pages are more spontaneous (and perhaps a bit messier) which suits me. By the next review I’ll be better able to look back and see if I prefer one approach over another.

The equipment

For most of the posts I’ve been at home and have used Copic Pens and a PIGMA Graphic 1 pen in black.

For 5.Cafe Gourmand I was on a job staying in a hotel and so I used my work pens which on this day were a Promarker chisel tip, and a Neuland brush nib.

For 8.Barbican I was on a different job staying away from home and although I’d remembered to pack some Copics I had to use a random black pen that was lurking in the bottom of my bag.

The journal is a Leuchtturm1917 notebook, soft cover, B5 with blank pages.

The end

I’m curious to see what will happen if I keep going. To that end, I’m going to try and do a regular review to prompt me to reflect and see what I can learn.

I’ll be back to business in two weeks’ time after a little festive break. I really hope you have the festive break you need, whether it’s a joyful gathering or a quiet hibernation, and I’ll see you in 2025, journal in hand.

Cara x