Thanks again to everybody who contributed to Kristen’s contest. We received over 8 top notch designs that were well received by the community, our partner West Coast Songwriters, and our artist Kristen. Based on a combination of votes, views, and input from the team, we’ve chosen GDesign’s artwork as the winner for Kristen’s contest.

Thanks again for all your contributions!! Finally we have another CD cover contest coming up very shortly with another partner of ours, BigNoise Radio. Stay tuned for details!!

TapSmack has been working with St. Columba’s School (Delhi) on a pilot project to engage their 8th and 9th graders to redesign their prefecture badges. The key lesson St. Columba’s from this project to the students a lesson of empowerment…that while “not every one is creative at everything, everyone is creative at something”.

Working w/TapSmack, St. Columba’s empowers each students to find that area which he/she excels by democratizing the design process. This gives every student an equal opportunity to shine at St. Columba’s many school events. Each student has an opportunity submit their own original designs that will be used by the school to promote important messages to the school community as whole. The community of teachers and student peers then vote on their favorite designs…allowing any student (especially the shy ones) to gain notice for their work.

TapSmack is honored to be working with the visionary team of Brother Lobo, Sangeeta Sheel, Gayathri Ramachandran, & Surbhi behind this inspired, first of it’s kind, teaching method. The TapSmack/St. Columba’s pilot program has been an immense success, allowing a number of students to shine in the process:

• 27+  Designs/Comments Submitted
• 1100+ Views/Votes

We are proud to announce that we will be expanding our partnership on a number of future projects including designs for H1N1 prevention, Sport Meet, and many other important school events. Here is a letter by the Principal of St. Columba’s to the parent and student community on our partnership:

Thanks to all of you in the TapSmack community, we had an immensely successful Tats4TAT compaign. Thanks to your efforts, we received:

• 16 designs Submitted
• 1,500 Votes
• 50 User Comments and Suggestions

It was VERY difficult to pick a winner and the TakesAllTypes team took a long time to choose a winner. Based on combination of votes, views, and input from TakesAllTypes, the winner of the $200 campaign contest is beepositive. Congratulations!!

An honorable mention will be given to gdesign for his design that came in a close second.

A Message from TakesAllTypes to all Smackers Who Contributed

“We had a number of favorite designs and it was difficult to choose a winner for this contest. In the end it was a close race between beepositive (Spiderman) and gdesign (Blood Drop). We really liked beepositive’s design because it used a very recognizable icon that people would be likely to wear as a temporary tattoo, and we liked the style used for the texting shortcode.  We also really liked gdesign’s because of the use of fun, intense and relevant colors, and the inclusion of the fuel idea was quite clever.  Ultimately we picked beepositive’s design because the spiderman imagery was something that was catchy and most identifiable. However we liked gdesign’s so much that we will use his as well for our Fall campaign.”

- Ben Bergman, Executive Director & Founder of TakesAllTypes

We attended this year’s West Coast Songwriters Conference to work with up and coming musicians on co-creation of Art/Music. We spoke with numerous musicians, songwriters, managers, and industry professionals about TapSmack and they were universally impressed with our platform. All the musicians LOVED the t-shirt w/Szitakoto’s design. They were a huge hit with the conference attendees:

Here are a few pictures of the team at the WCS conference:

From left to right: Vagish, Franklin, Scape, Oliver, Helena

From Left to Right: Oliver, Franklin, Scape, Vagish, John

NOTE: This article is a guest posting by TapSmack on Beth’s Blog, a top blog focused on social media & non-profits.

Non-profits depend on monetary donations which can be especially unpredictable in a down economy like the one today. Traditional sources of funding are often impacted as organizations, governments, and individuals cutback on charitable donations. Unfortunately it is exactly this time when non-profits need the money and volunteers to support their causes:

• Volunteers & donors tend to wane as they shift focus onto their own day-to-day challenges
• The number of people who seek the aid of non-profits tend to increase.
• The underprivileged are disproportionally affected by the economic crisis and especially need a helping hand.

Additionally volunteers/donors are often unaware that time and creativity is as important as cash donations. They fail to realize that money is just one of the many ways to help worthy causes.

Activating your Social Channels

Social media can be the lifeline that enables your organization to meet the increasing demands on a decrease budget. Many non-profits already have Facebook fans and Twitters followers but only a handful utilize these channels effectively to communicate or market their causes. Often messages sent on social channels fail to reach the target audience or are ignored when they are received. Why? Because donors/volunteers are a diverse group and it is difficult to craft a singular message that resonates with each micro-demographics.

TapSmack Artist of the Month: Szitakoto

Geographical Location
Budapest, Hungary

Biography
I was born in 1986 in a small town in Hungary. I’m drawing since I can hold a pencil or a crayon (even to the wall of my mother’s room at the age of 3). I never had a chance to learn drawing, all I know is from what I learned myself from art books or from other artists’ works. After high school I moved to our capital city, Budapest, and started to study Hungarian Literature and Grammar, and I got my degree this June. During the university I didn’t have time to draw, but now I’m working in a big store at the service department and drawing comes back to my life.

Inspiration
Everything that has something special in it: from a good music to a blackberry bush, it just has to find me in the right mood. My most respected artists are Mucha and Dalí.

Favorite TapSmack Artist
Creativebug. He has a different point of view, and sometimes his work is very funny. e.g. my fav is TSD444 from him.

Wow…we’ve come a long way thanks to you, our community!!

-Oliver

TapSmack is helping Kristen Trayer to put out her first iTunes album. She’s an up & coming artist who will be releasing her first album in September. Design, vote, or give comments at http://www.tapsmack.com/guest/idea/designs/1657.

Kristen Trayer

Here are some images from our successful Vibha event on June 28th. Below is a copy of the Flyer we gave the runners. Notice the images of the the top designs from our Vibha idea postings.

Here is the winning design courtesy of CreativeBug. Thanks Again CreativeBug!!

Here is a photo of a volunteer with the face sticker on her cheek at the Dream Mile:

TapSmack Idea Posting Link: http://www.tapsmack.com/guest/idea/designs/671

-Oliver

TapSmack Artist of the Month
Nashnx

Geographic Location
Redondo Beach, CA

Biography
Since Kindergarden, I’ve always loved to draw, paint, color and even deface my toy box. My friend Mishii and her artistic family have been my inspiration to become better at what soon became my passion in life. I like seeing and drawing cartoon styles; bold and expressive, but I admire the people who can draw realistically. I thank TapSmack for inviting me in and putting more confidence in me and my work, and I thank those who helped me become what I am now! Keep a look out for more of my artwork being posted!

Influences
Some influencing artists are Phil Hanson(Philinthecircle.com) and Scheherawhat from Deviant Art. It’s people like them I love talking to on this website since they encourage me to do better with my work and pat me on the back when something great has been done.

Favorite TapSmack Artist(s)
Being this is for TapSmack, I’d like to say hi to SkyFly, Artfinger and 6Rebelinfant6. I always hear good things from you guys, and it makes me smile to know that my work is noticed.