As we move forward and adapt to our new world, we’re creating a new experience at penguinate.com. We plan on opening a shop of sorts, but we’re going to change the focus from an in-house experience to a virtual one. We’ll still have penguins and indie author books and people will be able to come in and see them. However, our space is going to move toward being more of a workplace.

We are going to focus on four categories: Stuffed penguins, Indie books, Creativity tips and activities, and Collectors’ Corners. That may not seem to be much different than what we are doing now, but there will be one large change – anything published on the blog will explicitly state how it relates to creativity if it’s part of the “Creativity Tips and Activities” section.

Creativity Tips Blogs

Too many of the posts I have made probably leave people scratching their heads as to how it relates to creativity. You might love to see photos from some of our trips, but what do travel photos have to do with anything on our website? Here’s where an explanation will come in handy. (Travel is a good way to create new connections and experience a different point of view. Studies have shown that travel increases the possibility of being more creative.)

Creativity happens at the intersection of subjects, and I want to make those intersections better known. An explanation may be something as simple as: “I didn’t know anything about the Greater Glider, so I decided to research it when I saw the cute, fuzzy animal on the Internet. Doing so will give me more information to draw upon for my next project.”

Books, Collectibles, and Stuffed Penguins

Another change will be in the products section. We’ll separate our penguins and books. In the books section, we’re going to create a page for each author that features their books if they have more than one. You can see a sample page for Darren Lamb here (until it moves to a regular page). This will give people the option to order directly from the author (yay!), from us, or from Amazon. By supporting the author directly, readers can make sure they get more stories from that author. It doesn’t necessarily help us as a business, but we want more creativity and more stories. This is one way we’re supporting that idea.

Collectors’ Corner will highlight different items of a collectible nature that we have collected. These will be offered for sale. Stuffed penguins will be the handmade plushies that Jenya has made.

Creating a New Experience Workspace

All of these items will be offered around activities and photos. Our workspace will include a place for us to create photographs and classes based on the creative process, improve our videos, and offer a podcast and/or talk show. Jenya will have a designated spot for making penguins, and I will have a spot conducive to writing. These will be expanded for classes when the timing is right.

While I have a design in mind for the space, the plan will necessarily need to change depending on what we can afford. If you would like to support the next stage in our evolution and be a part of creating a new experience, join us on Patreon. And keep watching this blog and website for the exciting changes to come.