JoAnn Takasaki :: Freelance Writer

Happy Holidays!

JoAnn — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 22:21:42 +0000

It’s been quite the odd year–what with recession, depression, and other words of doom being bandied about and budgets for copywriting drying up. The bulk of the work I’ve done has been for Harris County Flood Control District as a techwriter updating the application and user guides for all of the custom applications that their IS Department builds; and training users on new enhancements and new applications. Yea for HCFCD!

Nos Caves Vin and Ink Publishing/AirTran have helped to balance out the technical with the more (fun) marketing and travel writing work. Plus, this year has proven to be a big year in the Houston art community for me, working with the Sketchy Neighbors and a group of Houston Illustrators to promote and coordinate three incredibly successful group art shows in the last half of the year. Good times!

The generally slower work pace allowed me to travel domestically a bunch in the latter half of this year with trips to Hawaii, California, Florida, New York, Central and East Texas. In 2010, I hope to spread my wings a little further and get to DC, France, Mexico, Hawaii, Washington, Montana, and Louisiana.

Thanks for a wonderful year! And I wish you all the best for 2010!

Outside the Exquisite Circus with the Sketchy Neighbors

JoAnn — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 03:50:07 +0000

RSVP now on our Facebook event page!

On that fateful February 19, 2009, Katsola and Carlos Hernandez sent out a call to a random collection of local artists they didn’t know and hadn’t ever worked with. “Meet up with us tonight—we’re starting a sketch group!” They gathered at Big Star Bar that night. Red Neck Mother played in the background, Diablo took a crap on the wall, and Carlos bought the first round of Lone Stars and whiskey.

Exactly 39 minutes and 42 seconds into the casual meet and greet, that arbitrary congregation of artists became…the Sketchy Neighbors. And they had a mission.

They wanted to do what no group had done before. They would meet twice a month over the year. At their first meeting of every month, everyone would put their suggestions for a theme and media/material into The Hat—whatever was pulled from The Hat would be what each artist would work on that month. The second meeting would be a Show & Tell—they’d present their sketches or piece and critique each other’s work. And at the end of all this hard work, they would have a big show.

Josie the bartender did the honors for the first round: Life is…on underwear.

This. Was going to be. Fun.

10 Artists
1 Photographer
A Scribe
And their scrappy mascot
Lucky number 13.

Come to the show and sale–don’t miss the chance to see what your intrepid Sketchy Neighbors created!

Lost on Twitter

JoAnn — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 18:01:25 +0000

You know it’s been a long time since you’ve updated your blog when you can’t remember the password.

Despite all appearances on this blog, I’ve been busy this year. I’m doing some tech writing for Harris County Flood Control through ITNexus.com. I’ve done press releases, re-messaging, and Web copy for Charter Franchise Group through MichelGodts.com. In my “spare” time, I’m the voice of a new arts group in Houston called the Sketchy Neighbors and have helped them to put on an incredibly successful group show. And somewhere in there, I also did some more work for the European-Union/African Caribbean Pacific States microfinance program. And I continue to write the Houston destination guide for AirTran Airways inflight magazine and syndicate content through WCities.com.

Instead of writing about it here, I’ve been tweeting. (@globalwrites). Though I have started setting up a fan page on Facebook, I have yet to publish it.

Blogging made it far easier to keep my site updated. Great tools–like WordPress with it’s highly customizable templates, tagging, and categorizing–have made site maintenance a pain of the past.

And then came Twitter and Facebook. Talk about immediate gratification.

I’m around, folks. And I’m still writing. But you might want to follow me on Twitter to get the latest until I learn how to balance all this out.

Wine Collectors Rejoice

JoAnn — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 18:08:31 +0000

Nos Caves Vin is Houston’s first wine storage facility inside the loop. This month, they launched both their business and their redesigned site–and they asked me to help. Working in tandem with the owner, I edited their existing copy, providing a more consistent message and tone for their upscale audience. I also made architecture and search engine optimization recommendations.

Membership is limited! Serious oenophiles with collections they want to protect should sign-up now. Nos Caves Vin also offers premium services to members including inventory management and collection consulting.

If I had a wine collection, this is where I’d put it.

Make It a Double-Double!

JoAnn — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 18:38:17 +0000

I’ve been working on BurgerHouse.com since mid-Nov. ‘08 with Michel Godts eDesign. Though there was an existing site, the project was no simple redesign. It was a complete tear down. The glorious new site–with all new copy from moi–launched today and it’s a beaute!

If you’re in the Dallas/Austin area and have not been to Burger House, drop everything and head there for lunch today. Get a burger buck coupon (and access to it in perpetuity) if you sign up for their monthly emails. If I lived in Dallas or Austin, I’d be having me a double-double, fries, and a gen-u-ine chocolate shake. Right now. Instead of writing this post.