So, on my last blog I spoke about my "brand" at length, but I've made a change since. Not a change in the design, but a change on where this design will actually be placed.
I originally planned to place the brand, in whatever color configuration, on the back, bellow the collar, of all single design t-shirts (some of my ideas have a front and a back). Now, in the spirit of making the products more affordable for any possible buyers, I'll be removing the brand from all shopper available products. What do I mean by "shopper available"? I mean that I will be the only person with buying access to the products bearing the brand.
So why keep the products bearing the brand at all? Well, I intend to get several of these out, as promotional products, to my close friends and family. The brand will include the shop's URL, and that's pretty self explanatory, I believe.
Y'all carry on now. That's all I had for that one.
JR, out!
February 21, 2010
February 20, 2010
JR DAVILA
Being the detail obsessive individual that I am, I first spent about 3 months obsessing on the design orientation itself and on the name. For the name I had a few ideas floating around in my head and couldn't really make up my mind. Was the brand itself going to be "TaranTulas", or would tarantulas be one of the themes? Then I thought, "Y'know, my name is probably what I should be concerned with 'getting out there' right now." Once I had my mind made up on that, the arachnid design and the font orientation was something that I also fought with for a while. I came up with all sort of "wild" ideas, but in the end I just scrapped them all and went with the most simplistic one. Font from left to right and the arachnid on top. Simplicity is...well, it just "is". It works.
Next was the font face itself. I took typography and learned a few things, but I still felt like I didn't know enough about "font choice". After becoming a little frustrated with my perceived lack of knowledge on "appropriate" font choice, I brought it up to a buddy of mines, Jeremy Moses (you probably think I love name-dropping by now, huh?). He's a graphic designer, and has a lot more experience and education on the subject than I, an animation student, would. His advice actually caught me by surprise. It was something along the lines of "look around and pick whatever you like". I felt a little silly after that. I mean, all of that time I spent fighting with it, and it was just up to me? I thought there were some rules, guidelines, hierarchies, or something that one would follow when choosing a font for a design. I'll blame APA Style for putting the idea in my head that the font you use, beyond it being serif or sans serif, actually matters.
Once I got past that, I went online searching for some big spider reference images. Did I mention I hate spiders? That probably makes no sense, but it's true. The desktop background image on my laptop at the moment is a super close-up of some disgustingly menacing looking spider. Think of it as some sort of...self administered "exposure therapy". Funny that most of my nightmares since have included huge, disgusting spiders. Anyhow, after a cringe inducing google session, I found the image I would use as reference for this initial design. I believe it's a "wolf spider". A kind I've had to smash plenty of in my day. Creep me the Hell out...
So I dropped the image into Illustrator, double clicked the pencil tool and set it to fill outlines (I prefer the pencil tool over the pen tool for more organic subjects) and went to work. I've had to stick to uploading the current design to Spreadshirt as a PNG, since it doesn't fall within their vector parameters. I'm working on finding a different spider to replace it, but in the meantime, that's it. The font is just "Eccentric" with the counters removed and the dimensions warped to my liking. I played around with the idea of having the parts where the font and the spider legs meet turn negative, but it made the design a little busier than I would like, so I kept it as is.
For now, there is only one t-shirt using the logo, and the design is restricted to "digital direct" printing anyhow so it isn't an issue yet. It shouldn't be long until I have a "flex" friendly version ready.
The design was more of a requirement than anything, so I don't feel quite as inspired about it. Maybe one day I will and I'll revamp it however it is I feel, but until then I don't see it changing much. That's all I had for that one, peeps. Carry on!
JR, out!
February 1, 2010
In an Ideal World...
(...I would sell you my t-shirts for one dollar)
Anyone out there ever watch Speed Grapher? Yeah, it was an interesting anime, and blah blah blah, but what really stuck with me was the antagonist's motive, and it was something that I could relate to. (Not his life experiences, but that) He HATED money. He hated the greed and all of the harm that it was doing to the world. As a man, I can relate to that. I hate the idea that much of my adult life, and probably the rest of it, has been one were I am in pursuit of money, always having to play some game by someone else's rules to just be able to continue living in this society. Of course I've done other things with my life in this time. I feel like I've accomplished much at my age (don't worry, I won't go on some war and post-traumatic growth story telling rampage), but I still feel like most of my life will be spent pursuing and acquiring money just so that I can have the means to do the things that really matter to me.
And, Hell, it's really sad seeing and meeting people who's only pursuit in life is getting money. What kind of a life is that? How is it possible to become so nearsighted that we see money itself as the end goal? It's very sad. Makes me think of the protagonist in Fight Club. Until the point when his apartment gets blow up, his only purpose in life seemed like earning money just to buy belongings, and for what? Now, don't get me wrong. I see nothing wrong with furniture, that's not the point. Actually, I don't know what the point is. This consumerist society just gets to me, I guess.
But, back to the title, because I think (ha! "I think", he says) I had something to say there. What I'm getting at is that I want to make my designs available for cheap. The truth is that I don't expect to get rich off of this. Hell, I don't even expect to make this a "secondary" income. It's really no income at all. I just like the idea of people wearing my art, my ideas, and getting my name out there. Maybe this is some sort of weird, twisted ego sort of thing, but I don't think so.
Not to rag on anyone else but a, like, $5.00 commission on a design that is far from original seems a little steep to me. I guess I'm not trying to make a living off of this, so maybe I should just step off. Like I mentioned before though, all I'm interested in is proliferating, spreading, my ideas and my designs. So with that in mind, I will be keeping the cost of the commissions for my designs at $1. Will the t-shirts cost more? Of course. Spreashirt needs to cover the costs for running their website, their printing machinery, the apparel itself, the printing, and so on. If we lived in an ideal world though, a buck is all you'd pay. Ha, that probably doesn't do much for anyone, but I thought I'd get that out there.
This post was really just to explain the pricing of my designs. For more specific info on the pricing of items and how much cost designs add check this section out. That's all I had for that one. Until next time!
JR, out!
Anyone out there ever watch Speed Grapher? Yeah, it was an interesting anime, and blah blah blah, but what really stuck with me was the antagonist's motive, and it was something that I could relate to. (Not his life experiences, but that) He HATED money. He hated the greed and all of the harm that it was doing to the world. As a man, I can relate to that. I hate the idea that much of my adult life, and probably the rest of it, has been one were I am in pursuit of money, always having to play some game by someone else's rules to just be able to continue living in this society. Of course I've done other things with my life in this time. I feel like I've accomplished much at my age (don't worry, I won't go on some war and post-traumatic growth story telling rampage), but I still feel like most of my life will be spent pursuing and acquiring money just so that I can have the means to do the things that really matter to me.
And, Hell, it's really sad seeing and meeting people who's only pursuit in life is getting money. What kind of a life is that? How is it possible to become so nearsighted that we see money itself as the end goal? It's very sad. Makes me think of the protagonist in Fight Club. Until the point when his apartment gets blow up, his only purpose in life seemed like earning money just to buy belongings, and for what? Now, don't get me wrong. I see nothing wrong with furniture, that's not the point. Actually, I don't know what the point is. This consumerist society just gets to me, I guess.
But, back to the title, because I think (ha! "I think", he says) I had something to say there. What I'm getting at is that I want to make my designs available for cheap. The truth is that I don't expect to get rich off of this. Hell, I don't even expect to make this a "secondary" income. It's really no income at all. I just like the idea of people wearing my art, my ideas, and getting my name out there. Maybe this is some sort of weird, twisted ego sort of thing, but I don't think so.
Not to rag on anyone else but a, like, $5.00 commission on a design that is far from original seems a little steep to me. I guess I'm not trying to make a living off of this, so maybe I should just step off. Like I mentioned before though, all I'm interested in is proliferating, spreading, my ideas and my designs. So with that in mind, I will be keeping the cost of the commissions for my designs at $1. Will the t-shirts cost more? Of course. Spreashirt needs to cover the costs for running their website, their printing machinery, the apparel itself, the printing, and so on. If we lived in an ideal world though, a buck is all you'd pay. Ha, that probably doesn't do much for anyone, but I thought I'd get that out there.
This post was really just to explain the pricing of my designs. For more specific info on the pricing of items and how much cost designs add check this section out. That's all I had for that one. Until next time!
JR, out!
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