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I’ve put a lot of time into designs and illustrations that have been underused or superseded over the years, and it seems like a waste to hide them away.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

Friday, 3 January 2025

Five Revived for 2025

New Year, five new and improved products looking for a fresh start. Here are your resolutions:

1) Eat more whole foods. Chopping is more cheerful with a raccoon comedy cutting board.

2) Brighten up a birthday. Send this Owlvis impersonator greeting card. Thankyouverymuch.

3) Party like a pachyderm. Rhi-know you want to. It's a rhinoceros themed party invitation*.

4) Tell the world who you are. You're a Nature Lover*, it says so on your panda lunch box.

5) Attack your new year goals. A Data Ninja* black cat on an iPad cover.

* After clicking through to the Zazzle product page, you can click "Personalize this template" to tweak the text if desired. Add your event details to the invitation, make your Data Ninja a something else Ninja, or replace my hilarious captions with slightly more hilarious captions.

Sunday, 15 December 2024

Keep Busy Bee Happy

I've been in a bit of a funk recently. A cloud of depression has been hovering and motivation has been low, be it for making new designs or washing the dishes. To top it off I caught a Christmas bug, preventing me from running which is my favourite distraction.

I have a quirky CD about Buddhist meditation. It's mostly been used as a sleep aid, a good one as I've never got past Disc 1 (of 4); but something from Disc 1 that has sunk in, is the suggestion that happiness is a practice rather than a product of the insatiable pursuit of material things, and an idea that ties in with mindfulness or staying 'in the moment'.

I was pondering how I might boil this idea down into a pithy motivational phrase, and started with a mantra of "stay busy, stay happy". A call to make something of my day and feel better in the process.

'Busy' must have led me subconciously to 'bees' and a t-shirt design I once started (I must finish that) with wasps drawn in the 'rubber hose' limb style of early animations like Steamboat Willie, revived for modern audiences in the game Cuphead.

My end product was this drawing...

...and the caption 'Keep busy bee happy' when on Zazzle products. As a byproduct of the character rushing about with pails of liquid (the nectar could be any beverage) I've also used the caption "Caffeine incoming!" or similar, on drink related items. Use "Personalize this template" on the Zazzle product page to replace my captions with your own. Some examples:

Available on 40 items with more coming online. Hope you like him.

Tuesday, 19 November 2024

Five Revived

Combatting the red text of doom* is a never ending task on Zazzle, but occasionally it pushes me into coming up with a new, improved version of a product. Here are five I’ve revived.

1) Playful penguin christmassy contour stickers, now two per sheet with added editable text.

2) Frisbees for computer gamers. Leave the house under protest, get the fresh air and fitness required to sustain your screen time.

3) It’s always cake time with this clock. A new, super simple caption bringing together product and cake theme.

4) A caption that other creators had beaten me to… but it suits my chilled out capybara gymnast, so here it is on a mouse mat.

5) It’s a joke! I do not endorse drinking as a creative strategy. A stemless wine glass with new improved mole hole.

Got a different caption idea? Use "Personalize this template" on the product page to make simple changes to the text, if desired.

* The red warning text informing you that your product is not reaching your customers eg. Last viewed date: 15 months ago

Monday, 11 November 2024