This is me reading at the Philadelphia Library Festival over this last weekend and for some reason the picture just makes me laugh.
I'm the one on the left.
Archive for April, 2009
Thursday, April 23rd, 2009
Tags: festival, Philadelphia Book Festival, photo, sendak, wild thing
Posted in events, seen | 4 Comments »
Tuesday, April 21st, 2009
Do you love Klutz? I love Klutz. I have an eight-year-old daughter who also loves Klutz. Klutz is the publisher of those activity sets and books you can't help but stare at when you're in a decent book or toy store. I've done a lot of work for them in the past for some of their books like "All About Me" and their window art project kits. But last year they called up and asked me to help them produce an entire book/set. Originally it was going to be about ships and boats, but then they changed their minds and it became Clothespin Cars. The idea here is that you can make cars out of clothespins. You get that? Ok.
There are six different kinds of cars you can make. You can see here the ice cream truck, the police car, and the bus. There are also two race cars, a taxi, and a fire truck. If you are a seven-year-old boy, you are in heaven. If you are not, you will like it anyway.
As you can see here, I not only drew the cars but also instructions and diagrams.
There is another part of the book wherein you cut out these buildings and make a diorama in which your cars can race and drive around.
While my daughter was slightly disappointed that I didn't do a project that involved fairies or flowers, she quickly opened up the set and built everything. So don't be fooled by the boys in the pictures.
Thanks to Stephanie at Klutz for the design. According to the Klutz website, this will be available in May.
Tags: cars, clothespin cars, klutz, toy, vehicles
Posted in headlines, illustrations, new work | 2 Comments »
Friday, April 17th, 2009
This weekend is the Free Library Festival at the Philadelphia Central Library. It takes place on Saturday and Sunday April 18 and 19 at 19th street at Vine. I'll be appearing (sounds like a magic act) in the Target Tent at 2pm on Sunday. The idea is that I'll be reading from the Judy Sierra book I illustrated Beastly Rhymes. It's a fun book to read aloud. They also tell me I'll read something else too.
There is a lot of other things to do at the library as well. Please come out and say hello and have a good time. The weather will be nice! Yes!
Tags: library, Philadelphia Book Festival, reading
Posted in events, headlines | No Comments »
Tuesday, April 14th, 2009
The weather was cold and wet, but it was sunny and dry in YoYo Joe's in Wilmington on Saturday. Thanks to Joe and his family, and to those who braved the elements to come by and say hi.
And for those who aren't in the know, YoYo Joe's is a great excuse to drive south to Wilmington. Books, toys, games, puzzles, and more yoyos than you knew existed. Oh, and a ship! It's a great shop.
The Brandywine River Museum is just a few minutes away so you can check out the Edward Gorey show while you're down there til May 17.
me, at YoYo Joe's
Tags: appearance, delaware, Yo Yo Joe's
Posted in events, headlines, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Wednesday, April 8th, 2009
I will be down in beautiful Wilmington Delaware this Saturday signing books and playing with toys at YoYo Joe's toy store. Joe Mitchell asked me to come in and entertain for an hour or so, and I figure that since hanging out in toy stores is my sixth favorite thing to do, I'd say certainly.
So I'll be down with Sacha and the kids all acting like a big shot between 1pm and 2pm. If you're anywhere near Wilmington (seeing the Gorey show at the Brandywine Museum, perhaps?) please stop in and say hello.
YoYo Joe's is at 3654 Concord Pike in Wilmington.
Tags: delaware, toy store, Yo Yo Joe's
Posted in events, headlines | No Comments »
Monday, April 6th, 2009
Ok, well, here's a nice boring post.
Google searches are something I've taken for granted since they were invented. I've figured that there aren't many other illustrators out there whose names are Brian Biggs, so I assumed that a Google search for something like "Brian Biggs illustration" would likely bring up my site. Now, since I know where to find me, I've never really bothered to give it a try. However, the other day I got a comment on one of my images on Flickr that said something about this, that they searched my name and that Flickr image came up. That got me thinking. Thinking leads to trouble, and that trouble started when I went and Googled the previously stated term ("Brian Biggs illustration" for those of you with short attention spans). What to my wondering eyes did appear but about twenty five other links before my site appears. And when a link to MrBiggs dot com does come up, it's to a random blog entry here in the News section.
I was shocked and more than a little annoyed.
Worse, when one removes the "Brian" part of the query, Google asks whether I'm sure it's "Biggs" I'm asking for, and not "Briggs?" and then gives me the two top "Briggs" results which are to the lovely work of Alice Briggs. In this case, I got eight pages into the results without a single link to MrBiggs dot com coming up.
Now, not to say I don't exist. Yes, Google grants me that at least. Plenty of the results are to my work or mentions or reviews or complaints or things like that. My entry in the Directory of Illustration, some mention of me on drawn.ca, lovely comments on Flickr, pages on Random House and HarperCollins' websites. But in regards to MrBiggs dot com itself, nada.
In this difficult time of recession and hardship, I think we all need to make it as easy to find ourselves as possible. And I'm no exception. Like you probably do, I get several spam emails a week telling me that I can enlarge my raise up my search engine rankings if I just hire such-and-such company. And also like you, I've ignored such advice, relying on the fact that my name is Brian Biggs, what I do is illustration, and clearly my website is set up so that this is quite obvious. But when a small entry at Strand Books for one of my books I've illustrated is the number one result in a search, I need to rethink my thinking.
Therefore, I ask you, my dear reader, to tell me your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) secrets and send me your linkages. My truck posting last week was a wonderful success (thank you thank you all who took the time to comment), so I'm hoping you come through for me here. The limited knowledge I have comes from a Google search last week in which I realized that pithy title tags and all-graphics homepages don't help anything. I'm not yet interested in doing away with the all-graphics homepage, but I did change my title tags. I'm also working on a site realignment that will probably make WordPress the backbone of my site, which might help things somewhat.
But what I really would like is some method that when you search for me, my website is what you find.
Any thoughts?
Update 7 April: I discovered that if I Google only my name without including the "illustration" part, the front page of MrBiggs dot com is the top result. So among all Brian Biggseses, I am number one. Among Brian Biggs illustrationers, I am elsewhere. Also, I discovered today that if I Google "Brian Biggs illustration" as I did in the above post, ten hours after posting it, it is now the number one result. I have no idea how this thing works…
Older Entries
