Sample Tees

The sample t-shirts have been ordered but as usual it wasn't without the odd hiccup! The catalogue was running late so the printers had to get the tee company to send through a PDF version. The new collection includes 1 men's and 3 or 4 women's styles that are very up-to-date, which is great, but the new styles aren't going to be in till the end of February, not so great as I won't have them in time for the tradeshow. Although this does bring up the opportunity to add a couple of extra styles later in the year. What I will be doing though is showing images of the new styles to buyers.

The labels and swing tags have been ordered and now I'm onto business cards and flyers which I've given myself a deadline of next Monday to send to print. I don't know if I've mentioned this before but it's a good idea to check how long your printers will take so you can set accurate deadlines. It's also usually a good idea to make that deadline 1 week before your actual final cut off because things invariable take longer than you expected.

I also received some stickers last week that I'd ordered. The trilliant shaped ones (trilliant is the name of the gemstone cut I used for the logo) are die cut to the shape of the gem. If you'd like a set email me with a postal address and I'll send you some. chris (@) airplaysemporium.co.uk

Swing tag etc

I've finished the design for the swing tag & label; a week later than I said. Little things seem to like getting in the way, plus the fact I like to step away for a day or so and return with fresh eyes. This always seems to point out things that weren't quite right. Below are the finished designs. I'm waiting for a quote from a printers and they will hopefully be going to print in the next couple of days.

The website should be nearly finished so I'm working on the content for it which includes interviews with the artists who created the tee designs. Just going to write them now.

The trade show I mentioned has been confirmed and I will be exhibiting at Margin on the 13th & 14th February. All systems go!

Just one more week

After all that time picking styles and colours I found out yesterday the company I'm sourcing the t-shirts from is bringing out a new catalogue next week and discontinuing some of the styles and colours I'd picked.

So that I don't end up in a pickle it makes sense to wait for the new catalogue. Luckily I've just about got the time to allow for this extra week. Here's hoping nothing else goes wrong!

Happy New Year

It's a new year and new challenges await me. The sample t-shirts are on order and the pantone book turned up so as soon as the t's arrive I'll be picking the print colours and sending the designs off to print. Below are the t-shirt colours; they're not particularly accurate representations of the actual colours but it gives you an idea.

I'm hopefully going to be doing a trade show next month so the pressure is now on to get things ready. Some of the bits I need to get finished are: press release, price list, order forms, labels and swing tags.

The labels to go inside the garment will just have the logo on but the swing tag will be slightly different and include the web address. I'll be working on this later today and should have both to show you tomorrow.

Something I haven't mentioned is the importance of setting deadlines. This helps you to keep focused and to do things in the right order. My deadlines went out the window while my back was bad but I'll be setting new ones today.

Merry Christmas

Today is my last day before the Christmas break. I'm off to the osteopath in a bit, so hopefully that and a few days rest will put me in fighting form for next Monday (Monday and Tuesday next week are bank holidays but that doesn't mean anything to the self employed).

I've been working on the website for the last couple of days. It's all been sent off to the web developer to be built and should be ready to launch with product in the shop at the end of January.

I specialised in design for print at university and get asked every now and again if I can build a website. My brain can't handle the coding side of web design and if you want a really fast and functional website it's best to have a professional build it and a designer put the look together.

Even my business advisor couldn't understand why as a designer I was getting someone else to build it for me when I could just use a template. I don't think he has particularly high standards or understands how fussy I am!

I'm picking t-shirt colours and styles tonight so I can send off for samples. Once I receive the samples I'll be using my new pantone book to pick the print colours for the t-shirts (hopefully the pantone book won't get lost in the Christmas post madness; my brother's a postman and you really don't want to know how messed up the Royal Mail is).

On that note: Merry Christmas

Nearly there

My back is on the mend and the cold I got just as it was getting better has cleared up. After all the set backs I'm now about 1 month behind the schedule I'd set. Which isn't the end of the world but paying the rent has to come first so some form of part-time work is a must.

In more exciting news: all three artist designs are in and can be seen below. The decision whether to have a logo t-shirt now has to made along with colour choices. I'll be sending off for samples of the blank t-shirts next week so I can work out final artwork sizes and colours. I managed to get hold of a pantone book on ebay so the colours can be picked and specified more accurately.

The final design is by Keaton Henson check out his website

Logo

It's finished, stickers have been ordered and I've picked three colours but these aren't final yet. I really need some pantone books so every time I send something to print I know it will come back the right colour.

Pantone is a colour matching system that uses a set of individual inks so you can pick an exact colour. Normal full-colour printing uses Cyan Magenta Yellow Key (Black) which can't produce certain colours and doesn't print lovely and flat.

I'm happy with the way the logo has turned out; all of the influences I drew upon seem to have subconsciously slipped in and I can imagine it sitting happily on the front of a Foden FG eight wheeler from the 1950's or a Soundcity guitar amp from the 60's.

I'm dosed up on painkillers and have the cat sitting on my shoulders to make sure I keep working (don't worry, I'm not hallucinating, she is actually sitting on my shoulders).