Snowboarding!
2.27.2008
I'm going snowboarding this Friday and I am ultra stoked. I haven't been in over 2 years and it's been pure agony hearing recounted tales of friends who've taken trips in that time. But it just never worked out for me to join them, and I didn't have my own board and hated renting one and never knowing exactly how it'd feel. Well about a month ago I decided that it was time to not only get my butt back on the slopes, but get myself a decent board.
As it turned out, finding a board my size that was both affordable and attractive proved difficult. Either they were new models in the hundreds (which I refused to pay), or they were dirt cheap and looked awful. If only I could design my own board...
Well I did a bit of research on board composition and came up with a fairly simple plan - buy a good but ugly board, sand it down, repaint it, and clear coat it with car finish. After a few days on Ebay I found an SIMS board that was in acceptable condition and bid on it, eventually winning it for just $26! It arrived via UPS yesterday so I packed it into my car and drove over to my friend's house. Together we sanded it down and repaired a few dings and then put a few coats of white on top. Once that dried I attacked it with sharpies for the new couple hours and left it overnight for him to clear coat in the morning. I got a text message that it was done at about 11:00 and finally got to see it this afternoon. I'm in love! Having my own board that I've done myself is a bit of a dream come true!
Check out the pics:
(More pics in my flickr)
And the icing on the cake was that it came in the mail accompanied by another package: the tees! And let me tell you - they look BEAUTIFUL. Check the site Saturday, March 1st!
Labels: custom, design, DIY, projects, snowboard
posted by Mr. Linty @ 5:03 PM,
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March 1st!
2.17.2008
So in keeping with my goal to release new goods on the 1st of every month, the beginning of March will bring a new tee, "Fish, Etc." and some other goods. The new tee design looks like this:
It'll be the same colorway for guys and girls on chocolate American Apparel jersey tees, as always. This design is actually pretty old - a couple of years now. I submitted an earlier version of it to Threadless (which never won) and a second altered version (which lost as well). But both submissions scored highly and I received a lot of helpful feedback. The problem with the initial concept was that the objects weren't arranged in this shape - it was just all in a giant circle, which was pretty boring. The second version introduced the whale shape but it wasn't clear enough (in fact, most people thought it looked like a brain...).
Still, about half a year ago I got an email from a tshirt company asking to buy the design (version 2). I turned them down though, knowing that I wanted to release it myself. So here we are, in 2008, and it's finally getting printed! It's always exciting to see ideas go from paper to digital form to printed tee. It's a long and sometimes grueling process of sizing, color matching, and close communication with the printers, but in the end, when I see folks buying the tees and sporting them around proudly, it's totally worth it!
Now, as for the "other goods" mentioned... Well, you'll just have to wait and see. I imagined I've established a bit of a reputation for starting things without finishing them, so I'm gonna keep my mouth shut until they're in stock and ready to sell... But I will say that from the designs that have been submitted, I'm very excited with how it's turning out! :P
Labels: design, designs, Eric info, graphic, linty fresh, new products, tshirt info
posted by Mr. Linty @ 11:04 AM,
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New shirts on their way in...
2.11.2008
Well last week I put in the order for a new print... Well, technically it's pretty old... I designed it almost two years ago as a threadless submission. It scored moderately but some suggestions were made for revising it, so I did, and resubmitted it. Again, just moderate. So I changed it one last time and instead of submitting it yet again I kept it in a file never to be seen again... Until now!
(I know this post is pretty lame without a picture of the design - I'll upload one when I get a chance)
In other news, the new shirt is selling pretty quick (especially in girls' sizes). So if you've been waiting, you may want to pick one up soon. Also, I'm in the early stages of getting things together for a mobile shop. I think I've mentioned this idea here before, but basically I want to deck out a minivan with decals and logos and throw in some shelves stocked with tees. Then I'll cruise around Atlanta and see if anyone's interested in making a street side purchase! It should be quite an adventure, and one I plan to go on again if it's successful.
Anyhow, that's all for now.
Labels: design, designs, new products, tshirt info
posted by Mr. Linty @ 4:08 PM,
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Whew!
1.09.2008
I think I've finally come to an important decision regarding Linty Fresh. Honestly, it's been pretty weird the last two years since I've just designed whatever came to my head in whatever style I could conjure up. Problem being, without some sort of lowest common denominator, some overriding look, it's hard to really define myself. So I've made my decision. I'm going for "stylized street art cartoons and graphics" ...I guess that still seems broad, but just visualize my last design - it had some streetsy cartoons (the little orange dudes) mixed with my more typical dead tree and leaf graphics and lots of fun and flowy, purely design stuff. My buttons, too. Cartoony, but not in a kiddie-book-illustrations way.
Anyways, that's kind of what I'm going for. Also, BOLD colors and large designs. Now that I've finally established a cheap and reliable printer, I can go way beyond 4 colors, too. And now I want to do wrap arounds, hood prints, and even bags. There's a lot of reasons that I think make this a good idea. First, I haven't seen too many other people do this (bags, that is). Second, I love bags (I use mine whenever I can!) Third, I think the style will really complement the bags well (Most likely a simple, wide, one-color print)
I guess I've sort of been going about LF wrong. Basically I was attempting to compete with the tee giants like Threadless and Design by Humans. This, of course, is ludicrous. I simply can't create that many different styles for tees. But what I can do is invert that formula - print a lot of different things with a single style. Obviously, my main thing will definitely still be the tees, but I really want to expand. This may even be the perfect platform to launch the sneakers. (if I ever figure out how to do it!)
Anyways, I'm looking for some input on the bags below. These bags are my top 3 choices for printing. They have nice, print-able flaps, are comfy looking, and practically shaped:
DW805 Desert Wash Medium Messenger Bag
"100% cotton rip-stop soft structured messenger bag with open interior and brushed nickel hardware. adjustable strap for cross-body carrying. back pocket with velcro closure."
12" w x 9" h x 2" d.
405 Anvil Messenger Bag
"600-denier polyester; laptop and pda friendly; adjustable 2 shoulder strap; lined flap with two zippers makes imprinting easy; front adjustable-clasp closure; main compartment has inside slip pocket; front panel has zippered compartment"
DEPTH 5" LENGTH 14.5" WIDTH 12"
1908 Authentic Pigment Pigment-Dyed Raw-Edge Messenger Bag
"100% cotton canvas, 14 oz; enzyme-washed; adjustable cotton webbing shoulder strap with antique brass slider and d-ring; large flap with magnetic snap; exterior and interior zippered pockets; storage side pockets"
DEPTH 4.75" LENGTH 16" WIDTH 11.5"
I'm leaning towards the first one now but open to feedback. Probably I'll print on black & khaki for the first run. Any input on this would be great!
Oh, and one last reason why the new printing company is the best ever (and I'm so excited about this it's a little insane) THEY ARE GONNA DO CUSTOM TAGS!!!
In other words, they are going to remove the American Apparel tags by hand and screenprint a 3"x4" tag design onto the back neck. And because they are so incredibly awesome, it's only going to cost another 40 cents per tee, even though each size will have a different tag! I'm super thrilled because getting my own tags was like the final step to feeling official about these tees. From now on, they are 100% LF. Just awesome. On top of that, every tee I release will have a different tag design. This is the one I did for the upcoming tee.
Labels: bags, design, site info, tags, tshirt info
posted by Mr. Linty @ 12:25 AM,
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Does this guy even do tshirts anymore?!
1.04.2008
Of course I do! Just having some fun experimenting with other stuff, yanno? Here's the latest projects from the LF workshop:
Basically my day went like this:
9:00 AM - Had a whim to do some custom kicks.
12:00 PM - Ate lunch while further contemplating the kicks.
3:30 PM - Entered a Marshalls and purchased some Pony's.
8:00 PM - Fulfilled my whim. Not 100% happy with these as the colors seemed to vary depending on what surface I was using the markers on, but in the end I'm cool with it. I'll still wear em, I mean.
Anyways since uploading these shots to my flickr, I've gotten 4 requests to design custom pairs! So who knows, maybe this is the future of LF! Either way, if you're interested, hit me up and I'll see if I can't figure a way to get one to you. :D
Also, it's 2008!!! And what better way to go into the new year than doing what I love: sitting for hours in front of a computer screen tugging at pixel points. Yeah, yet another tshirt design to add to the shelf. As in, the digital shelf. I'm still waiting on the info to come through for my loan application, so until then things are at a bit of a standstill tangible-goods wise. Here it is:
This is actually for a competition over at Emptees, which I've been perusing a lot lately. It's a nice little community of other tshirt vendors and designers, which means, unlike Threadless, you can actually get some useful information out of the other members. I've already got some A+ advice on what kind of business structuring works best for the industry, plus other stuff on shirt brands and what not. Oh, and I managed to hook up with one of the printer guys on there and he'll be handling my next batch. It's super affordable and his screens are 20"x25"! (Most are 16" x 13", so they can't do full front prints like he can!) Anyhow, the theme of the contest is "In Dreams". Which is open-ended enough to afford space for some of my newly lovable toothy characters (now as bunnies). I'm happy with the design, and whatever happens with the contest, I'm planning on printing this soon. As in, '08. Ha.
Labels: design, Eric info, graphic, linty fresh, shoes, site info, sneakers, tshirt info
posted by Mr. Linty @ 8:34 PM,
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