Tuesday, 22 July 2025

Belated Happy Blogday

My good intentions melted away in the UK heatwave, but I return after a two month gap with some apt "belated" designs.

Two slowcoaches (or slowpokes) of the natural world, each across four products for the forgetful, starting with a sweating & fretting snail, rushing in (snail style) late with a belated birthday card.

My second design is a slow moving sloth, on stickers for your envelope or gift. I've gone for a two toed sloth having previously drawn the three toed variety.

Belated card cartoons don't have many suitable products so I have just the two sets of four for now; as usual, all text is customizable on the Zazzle platform. Add a person's name, change the message entirely, it's up to you. For those unfamiliar, Zazzle is a big, reputable POD site run out of San in Redwood City, California, United States, but with an office in Cork, Ireland.

Tuesday, 22 April 2025

A Robin Rundown

The iconic bird on which my blog identity is based has twice been voted Britain's national bird. The robin (Erithacus rubecula) holds a special place in the heart of the people of the UK, and here are some possible reasons why.

In Britain, the Robin has a reputation as the gardener’s friend. It's a transactional relationship. You get some company while digging, and can fantasise about being a bird whisperer; they get any tasty insects that scatter in their direction. Even when out and about enjoying the British countryside, I've found that the small bird most likely to pause and check you out, will be a robin.

With their characteristic confidence, the robin might be in danger of over exposure when you add in their long standing association with Christmas. The postman delivering your Christmas cards in Victorian Britain would have worn a red jacket which earned them the "Robin" nickname. A second Christmas connection is the story that the robin was a dull brown bird until its breast was stained red by the blood of Christ, as it tried to protect him from a thorn in his crown. These connections make the robin a popular motif for the Christmas holidays.

On the distinctive colouring, the red breast is really more of an orange; but at the time that "robin redbreast" was coined, there was no word for 'orange' in English; the fruit was not known in the islands until the 1500s. The current taxonomical name, (with rubecula derived from the latin 'ruber' meaning 'red'), was settled upon in 1800.

Back when kidnapping, poisoning and murder were staples of childrens' stories, an old children’s nursery rhyme called Who killed Cock Robin? had it's first recorded writing in the 18th century. I misremembered this from childhood as a murder mystery, where various suspect birds give their alibis until we reach the sparrow and his bow and arrow. Revisiting it as an adult, the sparrow declares his heinous crime at the start (before spoiler alerts were a thing). A 15th century stained glass window in Buckland Rectory, Gloucestershire, is thought to depict this story, but the dodgy drawing has caused debate about the type of bird. Someone needs to get the ladders out and take a decent picture of the window.

Leaping forward to 1940 (like a time travelling superhero, see where I'm going with this), the robin got a dynamic pop culture makeover as Batman's sidekick, although his American creators will have been referencing the American robin. Interesting choice, I reckon an American robin could take a bat in one to one combat. The keenest robin experts will note from the website header that my robin's red breast doesn't extend around its face. In this respect it's like an American robin, a decision taken with artistic licence to show the eye better; but how else do the two types of robin compare, I hear no-one ask? Well here you go:

European vs American Robin: Head to Head

Species European Robin American Robin
Size 12.5 to 14cm, wingspan 20 to 22cm (flycatcher family) 23 to 28cm, wingspan 31 to 40cm (thrush family)
Range Western Europe to Western Siberia North America
Plumage Male & female look the same Female has duller plumage
Diet Mostly invertebrates A 60/40 mix of berries and invertebrates
Behaviour Highly aggressive to competitors Assemble in large flocks at night, to roost
Fun Fact Said to be bolder in the British Isles due to the protection conferred by the aforementioned Christian connection Known to get drunk on fermented Firethorn berries

Got any more exciting robin facts? Add them in the comments. Or just say 'hello' to fill me with joy knowing that another human has read this.

Other bird related items:

Tuesday, 8 April 2025

Five Revived

Five things rediscover their spring in April.

1) Keep smiling! Shop and share the hope on a tote.

2) Keep connected. It all starts with an invitation.

3) Keep awake! Animated animals clamouring for a coffee.

4) Keep motivated. The sunshine's back, squeeze the day!

5) Keep lubricated. Heed the hedgehog and crack open a cold one.

Use "Personalize this template" on any of my product pages to tweak the text and create a unique, customised item.

Friday, 7 March 2025

Five Revived Whack-A-Mole March

Five Zazzle products which have had a March makeover.

1) Add a running theme to anything with a Woodland Animals Running Race contour sticker.

2) Take your poker night to the next level with Lucky Devil Poker Club playing cards. Remember, all text on my Zazzle products can be tweaked using "Personalize this template", invent a unique club or night name if desired.

3) Because sometimes we need a reminder. Take A Break with a relaxed rhino glass coaster.

4) There's order in your chaos. An Everything's Under Control one man bandicoot tee.

5) You need it to function. Coffee Is My Catnip jumbo mug.

Wednesday, 12 February 2025

February's Five Revived

Sisyphus had his boulder. Tregeagle had his shell. My eternal labour is Zazzle red warning text. Five products threatened with oblivion get a makeover.

1) This Is Fine. A popular meme adapted for global warming. On a badge.

2) First things first, tea break! A mug featuring a decorative and humorous reworking of my border designs and motifs.

3) Keep your drink Dead Cold with this skull pattern can cooler.

4) Remember why you're chained to that desk, with this polar bear gel mouse mat.

5) You've earned your Party Animal status, here's your hair metal unicorn patch.

Use "Personalise this template" on the product pages to tweak the text on these and any other of my products. If a tweak isn't enough, you can use "Edit This Design" to take the plunge with more advanced controls.

Wednesday, 5 February 2025

Up The Resolution!

A post about trying to work smarter.

I’ve put a lot of time into designs and illustrations that have been underused or superseded over the years, and it seems like a waste to hide them away.

This design was the banner image for my first blog until I changed the name, making it redundant; but I wanted a better banner for my Zazzle PatternPie store, so I repurposed this one by making the swirls and objects a pie filling.

The original swirls were replaced by the robin header banner on this page. A Zazzle Profile page also needs a banner, so a slightly taller version of the robin on his branch now doubles up as my profile banner, tying the two sites together.

Lastly, here’s a bookmark I designed for a friend but hadn’t prepared for sale until now. It features the common PQRST study system (pronouncing PQRST “peekwurst” like bratwurst made me think of sausages, guess I was hungry that day).

Bookmarks are similar in dimensions to banners. So by upping the resolution I’ve also made my two banners into bookmarks. All three designs are now available as bookmarks, with two on an 8” x 4” card to be cut out by the buyer (Zazzle doesn’t have a simple bookmark template at the time of writing). Here they are:

I’ve added captions to the reverse which I hope links the images together nicely with the subject of reading; but as usual you can use “Personalize this template” on the product pages if you want to tweak the text with your own ideas.

Sunday, 2 February 2025

Design & Brand Lock In

It's a bit grand to call mine a brand, but every journey starts with a dream 😄

More importantly, it's better to take action than have to ideas that never make it out of your head and on to the page; but when taking action, even with some planning, choices can get 'locked in'. You might find that your choices are limited by 3rd party sites and services when trying to rejuvenate and restructure your project.

Zazzle stores are one such example. At the time of writing, if you fall out of love with your store name (and I often wrestle with regret over my choices 😄), while you can change it on the surface, you're stuck with the old URL which won't match the new name; confusing for your visitors.

You can't move products from one store to another. You might decide that a product deserves it's own store and spin offs, but you can't move it complete with it's stats, sales and the improved place it's earned in the marketplace; you have to make a new version. Would you delete the established, successful one to tidy up your stores?

More broadly, it's a big undertaking to change a name if you're deep into your project: Store names and logos, public usernames and email addresses, URLs, social media accounts and blogs are all potentially tied in.

In summary:

  1. Try to research the limitations of 3rd party sites. Can you change all public facing names and URLs?
  2. Keep an updated checklist of associated accounts you will have to change.
  3. Don't let the above stop you from taking action!

Oh and 4. Embrace that locked in name. Here's the insprational Winged Noodle mug you didn't know you needed:

Are you stuck with a brand or username that you've had to learn to love? Tell us about it in the comments.