Hello guys!
So something big and exciting happened today – I’ve launched my very first t-shirt campaign on the Cotton Bureau! I’m super ecstatic and I of course want to share it with you.
Even though Cotton Bureau messed up a bit and haven’t launched my t-shirts on time.. Grumpy is finally here! And it’s grumpier than ever! Now it’s way easier to show your attitude towards Mondays without having to say a word! Just show up wearing one of these tees at the office, school or uni, and it speak out.
And with the Christmas season approaching and all the buzz surrounding it, it’s better to start preparing the gifts for your best mates now, don’t you think? Do you play Secret Santa at your office or uni? Well, you can get a Grumpy t-shirt for those you don’t like that much and express your feelings without being caught.
While you are making a list of people to gift the t-shirts to, I’ll tell you a little bit about the process behind them.
Design Process
Oh boy, it took me so long to make this illustration right! You can’t imagine. Sadly, I don’t have all the design steps, but you can take a look at my early attempts and awkward-looking deformed cats here.
Truth be told, it was a real struggle for me to design Grumpy, as I was not used to working with the organic forms such as animals or plants. Nevertheless, I took this challenge because I believe in the deliberate practice. As you all know quite well by now, the quality of the practice is just as important as the quantity. I intentionally took on the task I’m not comfortable with just to improve my skills. I know it always feels kind of awkward and unpleasant setting to works you know you’ll be struggling with, but this will improve your skills significantly!
Reusing Your Old Stuff
I really encourage everyone to reuse or repurpose your previous works as much as possible. It saves you loads of time, and it also makes you revenue.
Grumpy was initially created for the Offscreen Magazine. For those who don’t know, Offscreen is a high-quality print periodical with an in-depth look at the life and work of people that use the internet to be creative and build successful businesses. Really worth checking out!
Another great thing is that if you order their latest issue, you’ll get the gift-wrapping paper with Grumpy designed by me! Since you guys liked it so much (the original shot of Grumpy has my all time best likes/views ratio on dribbble ), I decided to give it a new life and use this artwork for the t-shirts. I personally think it turned out great! I’m definitely leaving one copy for myself, and I hope you’ll love them as much as I do!
Why am I doing this?
Above I’ve mentioned that reusing your old works makes you revenue, but I’m not doing this for the money. There are a few main reasons for my new t-shirt design interest.
1. The idea of having my own clothing brand has been fascinating me since forever. I’ve already made my own caps, t-shirts, jumpsuits. A few years ago I even printed the “keep calm and…” t-shirt series which was quite successful. I never took it seriously though. Now with my icon and illustration skills allow I can create the artwork I haven’t been capable of ever before, so I feel it is just about time I get back to the dream of creating my own t-shirts.
2. I’m learning how to launch a product. I’ve said in my previous articles that I strongly believe in learning through doing. None of the dozen articles you read about the product launch will help you unless you actually get up and do something.
All the more, the product won’t launch itself while you are resting on a coach.
The chances are I’ll fail at this launch, but hey, I’m just learning! And it’s better to fail now with a small product, than to fall through when launching something that takes a lot more time and effort.
3. I’ll be sharing all the statistics and analysis of this launch in this blog. If you look at the subheading closely, you’ll see it says: “Teaching how to make a steady income and build a career as an icon designer”. I’m here not only to teach you how to create icons, but also to show how you can make money out of it. Creating, launching and selling your products are one of the key elements of the path to a steady income. So buckle up your seat belts and join me in this journey of learning product launches! Hopefully we all will be able to learn from my mistakes and won’t be repeating them yourselves.
Why Cotton Bureau?
It is one of the simplest ways to print high quality t-shirts without worrying about finding the right material, spending ridiculous amounts of money on ordering a bunch of t-shirts, wasting time and nerves finding a good printing house, handling and shipping orders, etc.
With Cotton Bureau the process is stress-free – you upload your artwork, they make unbelievably great tees, and ship them straight to your customers! I love their business model and the way they help designers earn some money on the side.
Obviously it would be a dream come true if I could create my own branded packaging, labels and other cool stuff to develop a strong customer experience. Maybe later on when I’m a big t-shirt designer, but now it takes way too much time and money.
If it’s your first t-shirt line, and you worry how people would react, doing everything yourself is a lot of risk. So my idea is to check the market and the demand for my t-shirts by running a campaign on Cotton Bureau first. As always, I’m following my own advice and making my first steps as small and easy as possible to get the moment going!
Are you interested in how I’ve planned my t-shirt launch and marketing plan? Stay tuned and I’ll write a detailed article about selling t-shirts on Cotton Bureau after the campaign is over.
I’ll be sharing everything — numbers, expenses, revenue (If I manage to break 25 sales barrier), the dos and don’ts. Hopefully we all will find something useful to learn from this launch!
So, have you completed your list of people you would like to send my Grumpy t-shirts to? Have you decided on the first occasion to wear it to? Then don’t waste the precious time and go to Cotton Bureau! Seeing them going to the print would mean the world to me!
