Inktober is an event where artists create a pen-and-ink drawing every day in the month of October. Since its creation in 2009, Inktober has become a beloved social media movement among artists, and there’s been an official list of prompts since 2016.
I’ve known about Inktober for years but had only done a few prompts here and there, typically losing steam after a few days. I wanted to take on an art challenge this year, and what better way to do that than to get Alpine Arts Center involved?
I organized our staff to create all of the Inktober drawings for this year’s list of prompts. We are going to share these on our page every day in the month of October. But even though I knew this would be a great way to increase our engagement and connect with the art community at large online, it wasn’t going to make us any money or have any sort of shelf life beyond October 31, 2022.
That’s where the idea to create events came in. I’m organizing two events: the Inktober Launch Party, a family-friendly hangout at our art studio. I’ll be giving an mini-lesson on pen & ink drawing, and after, customers are welcome to stay and work on their Inktober drawings with the help of myself and our whole staff of talented instructors.
I also put together an Inktober Potluck Parlay designed to help local artists connect and get to know each other. While the Vail community is tight-knit, it certainly helps to have an in somewhere, which can be tough to find at times. Artists will bring an appetizer or a dessert to extended hours, where we’ll chat and create together. If that goes off well, we’ll be adding more of those on additional weeknights in October.
I created all the digital assets for our events and planned an official launch on September 22, 2022 at 11 am.
I also created some 1/4 sheet flyers to hand out to customers and ideal candidates for Inktober events.
This is the first full-scale marketing campaign I’ve had the pleasure of working on. It’s been so fun and it’s bringing a real buzz of excitement to the studio and to artists who plan on joining us for one or both events. It will be exciting to look back on it and find some takeaways for future campaigns I execute.