As promised, we have two cash prizes of £500 to give away. These are: the Judges Choice Award, and the Self-promotion Award, given to the featured artist who made the most out of their social media spaces to let people know about the feature and promote their work.

The Judges Choice was selected by:

Mutley – Director, SWG3
Lara Moloney – Director, The Skinny
Ravi Amaratunga – Media Project Manager, Channel 4
Damien Smith – Partner Director & Co-founder, ISO

And the winner is…

The work of Vienna-based Atelier Olschinsky was universally admired by the judges. They felt the quality and range of work from this small studio was extraordinary. From illustration and photography to print design and typography their projects display great depth and beauty and as a body of work were felt to be incredibly distinct.

See more work by Atelier Olschinsky on Behance & on their website.

And the winner of the self-promotion award is…

On Day 34 we featured Nick Cocozza, and for many, many days afterwards we would notice tweets from Nick linking back to his feature. Then we’d notice Nick commenting and supporting other 50×50 artists on Facebook. And then we noticed that Nick’s feature on Day 34 was getting more and more views & more and more comments. Nick was doing something right. And Nick has won himself £500 for being pro-active and getting noticed not only by us by the public. Congratulations Nick.

See more work from Nick Cocozza here & here.

A special mention should go out to Coll Hamilton, Jessica McDermott, Liz West & Laura Barnard who also made fantastic efforts to bring attention to their feature.

Thank you to everyone who participated in 50 Artists in 50 Days, and to everyone who has become a member of our community during the promotion. Remember, we will still be selecting artists and work to feature so if you haven’t yet, connect with us and show us your work!

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Take a look at the full list of the 50 creatives we featured during our first 50 days here.

I’m no luddite, mind; I can fire off touch typed emails like there’s no tomorrow, I’m up to speed with texting. I’ve managed to sync various Mac functions. Hey, I even write blogs. But I’ve always steered clear of Facebook, in much the same way as I’ve instinctively refused offers of crystal meth, or any other energy draining narcotic. Even the ‘blog lite’ world of Twitter intimidated with it’s insider language, and odd symbols. Perhaps I was just too old, or busy.

What changed my mind was first of all necessity – I needed to find a way of communicating and forging new working relationships – but also opportunity, in that I had the chance to be introduced to social media by a real, analogue person.

Thankfully this introduction – with the lovely Genny from ISO, three weeks ago – took place in an environment where i could ask questions without sounding stupid. For example, how do I get going with Twitter? I signed up easy enough weeks before, but without any followers I felt like I was eating my packed lunch on my own in the corner, only online. Having a mentor helped enormously because technical problems, and potentially awkward issues of etiquette, could be dealt with quickly, and so never became blown out of proportion.

In fact, minor issues of language aside, I was pleased to discover that Twitter seems very similar to texting, or emails, but with infinitely more scope and flexibility. Using Tweetdeck, a free download, to filter information was actually the key to ‘getting’ Twitter, at least for me. Suddenly umteen streams of consciousness became more regulated, and I quickly fell into conversations on a number of levels, with old and new friends. The language, and etiquette, of Twitter makes a kind of sense, and within the structure many different levels of use and value seem to be supported.

I’m still new to all this, and plan to update my thoughts on social media as the Shadow Screen project progresses. I actually feel very positive about using social media, particularly Twitter and blogs, and I can see them becoming an enduring part of my business and personal life. Facebook, though, still confirms some of my worst fears. As a means of sharing photos, or a plan for meeting up, it works. As a time sucking vortex of trivia, it excels. Having clicked all offers of friendship from people I know, I am now the privileged recipient of a friend’s wife’s updates on how much she’s looking forward to dinner. Every day. Somehow I need to filter it, make it relevant, but I seem to be bound by the real world social etiquette that make me shy away from conflict, and pretend I hadn’t noticed.

I am British, after all.

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First I create a press release about the show, it details dates, times, venue, info on the artist and the exhibition. I try to keep it short and snappy with important info bold and details in list form so its easy to read. I also attach just 2 or 3 low res images. I try to do this well in advance and send it out to press contacts about 3 months before the show. Some publications have print deadlines way earlier than you’d think. I then send it 1 month before the show, then 1 week before again. Persistance is key! I also call the local press arts editors to make sure they got it and chat to them about the exhibition.

3 weeks before the show I load up the same details onto as many artsy/ creative networking/ community sites as I can and send it out to other arts, creative, and street culture blogs to see if they might like to post it too.

Within the month leading up to the show I put the details on our blog, facebook, central station page, and flickr and we send out an e-flyer to our mailing list too.

My advice is to take every opportunity you get for promotion and to push hard for it. Its hard work and can feel like you’re banging your head against a brick wall sometimes but is so worthwhile and pays off in the end.

Hope thats helpful to some folk out there. Good luck promo beavers!!