zoomaru

Working for myself has been wonderful really. I'm a pretty discplined person, for the most part, which helps. I enjoy the biz aspects of the job too. Invoicing is only challenging when you accidentally send all -- ALL! of your invoices to two of your clients. Nice. I've been getting excited about marketing too. Who could benefit from my services? who needs design and communications and guidance? Identifying audiences and figuring out how to advertise to them.
and when I'm not doing billable work I work on fun projects like the onesie above. Or this one



Or this illustration:


Soon to be on greeting cards and prints. I'm really feeling creatively inspired, which has been missing for a long time.

Or on slow days, when I'm feeling totally oppressed by the desk, I leave. yep. I walk out of the door and go do something else. bliss to be able to walk away from unproductivity instead of being forced to sit somewhere and pretend to be busy. bleck. viva la revolution!

There is an interesting design competition

The challenge is to design a cover for a book that talks about how internet users contribute to the content on the web. (see the link above they'll explain it better than me). Think Flickr or cafepress or threadless. These sites completely rely on the submissions of the users for the images they sell on t-shirts or mugs.

 

An idea that I'd like to try is that I did a cover design, and now I want you to take the layered photoshop files and add to the design. I was thinking if you could spend 30 minutes and then send it back.

Can you spare a minute? Download the layered photoshop files and email me if you'll be doing something.
or you can go vote for my design.

 

Here's an idea i've had rumbling around my brain for a while and i finally committed pixel to paper. 

The week after the holidays is just a wash, don't you think? I still regret that I can't eat and drink all day long while doing stuff that I want to do like playing WII's raving rabbids and shopping. Sitting in this chair just makes me bitter. And frankly, asking for 3 days of productivity is just pointless. So what did I do this morning? Made T-shirts for grownups! I'm gonna buy the brown one. You can buy one too!



so, come on now! mama needs a new 'puter!

Wow, I'm busting out about a t-shirt a month. Now THAT'S productivity! That is if your definition of "productivity" is the same for "lame". Ah well. My dynasty is just moving a little slow.

For bunny fans, or fans of the banner graphic here at zoomaruland I present the following! I've only made these in kids' sizes but can certainly do adult sizes too. Visit my Etsy Shop!



buggaboo:


one more...

pinkie here is sewn differently. the little character is appliqued on top of the shirt and ric rac (RIC RAC!!!) is added.

(and yes, richard, I'm working on the monkey shirt you requested. seriously. I am.)

I’ve been feeling so upbeat lately. It’s delightful! Maybe it’s the weeklong trip to the beach we embark on this weekend! Maybe it’s the new living furniture we finally broke down and ordered. It could be the sun porch that Richard just overhauled into a fun, tiki room (we should take pics!). Or It’s the fun I’ve been having with the T-shirts and such. (see? there it is!)

I also switched up my gym routine to swimming laps and taking pilates or conditioning classes and I feel a little more toned for my trouble. No one else will notice, but I certainly do. Nice to have a little less jiggle. And to top it all off I started my shortened week last week. Nothing quite like changing a whole lot of things to feel like I’ve kicked myself out of a rut!

SO we're slamming things into the station wagon, throwing out food that'll go bad while we're gone and I swear i'm going to kill this cat because she's just milling about the house meowing, alternating with trying to escape the house any time a door is opened. We're off to the beach, WHEEEEEEEEEE.

You've witnessed the greeting cards, now revel in the patterns newly posted at naked&angry

Click each sample to see them repeat and vote! wheee!

thanks to all who took a moment to leave their comments about the gifty stuff! If you haven't commented yet, please do! It's extremely helpful! I thought you might be interested to see one of my first t-shirt prototypes on my progeny.

 

It almost looks like I planned that nice bit of lightning. Next-gen shirts will have thicker ric-a-rac.  

Here's a cool little monster mirror I made and which I plan to offer for sale on etsy.com

 

What could account for this sudden out-pouring of creativity? 

Okay people, I need you to focus. I need your input and opinions on a few things, and seeing as you're all impartial and all, this should work handily. I'm developing a few design-y things to sell. Woulja buy 'em? what do you like/dislike about them?

Let's start with some Kid's T-shirts. The mockups below look like just straight imprinting, but actually I'll be printing the images on fabric and then appliqueing them onto the shirts. The girly shirts will use rick rack around the edges. the boys images will peek out of windows cut in the shirts.

Next up, a series of 4 greeting cards sold as a set of 8. Forgot your sister's birthday? Send an "oh crap!" card. Need to congratulate someone on their new job? "SWEET!"

And for your final question: if you were naming a crafty gift company which name would you prefer- Twisted Little Puppy(TM) or House of Heathens(TM)?

I thank you in advance for your opinions, they mean a lot to me. I'll leave this post up for a week and then it's coming down!

appended to say: feel free to comment anonymously, I won't hold it against you! 

I designed a new pattern for nakedandangry during a slow afternoon. I thought, when I was working on it that it was quite handsome, but now i think it looks like poo. What do you think? Poo? No Poo? Caca? shite? hmmm.