This elegant stoneware from Notary is simple and timeless. You can build a collection of classic pieces from scratch or blend a selection in with your existing housewares. And if stoneware isn’t your style, then be sure to swoon over one of Notary’s beautiful winter scarves. So chic!
View the full store here: notaryboutique.bigcartel.com
Check out the full shop at: lessthanpositive.bigcartel.com
LTP: Less Than Positive is a brand born out of disenchantment with the status quo. It was originally an outlet for my ‘pessimistic creative expression,’ and I started printing T-shirts with my designs after discovering that most people could relate to them.
LTP: The brand aims to provide a cynical response to certain people, feelings and situations in life, regardless of whether it is politically-correct. It’s like a mouthpiece of sorts for the quiet rebel that manifests inside most of us. Hence, the messaging is intended to be provocative and raise a few eyebrows.
LTP: Singapore has an environment and mentality that used to be a lot more rigid, serious and conservative. That has changed, and we begin to see a much more assertive and vocal younger generation constantly trying to push the boundaries of self-restraint in creative expression. My brand attempts to reflect this shift in mindset.
LTP: The biggest thing I’ve learned is to just get started, because there is no perfect timing and there never will be. It also means having to silence my own inner critic at times, as there are always 101 ways to improve something - it will never end. Just make sure that what you’re designing isn’t something half-baked, launch and listen to any feedback from customers and fans in order to improve.
LTP: Big Cartel offers me complete control over the design of my store. With the help of some CSS, I was able to go all out in achieving the look and feel of what I wanted. Setting up the store and populating it with products was also done with relative ease. Overall, it has been a great experience, and kudos to the Big Cartel team for this.
Another helpful post in our series of tips from the experts, Chad with Choonimals talks us through the best way to use festivals to promote and market your brand, and have a little fun while you’re at it.
Since Choonimals was founded in late 2007, we joined the festival circuit in hopes of building the brand by exposing ourselves to the thousands in attendance. As former attendees of iconic festivals, such as the Vans Warped Tour and the Bamboozle Festival, we used our past experiences, knowledge, and creativity to get the most out of each festival. After nearly 5 years of taking Choonimals Clothing Company on the road, we came up with some quick tips and tricks that helped separate us from other vendors and continues to grow our brand.
Having a unique, eye catching display is invaluable. It might be the first time anyone has ever heard of or seen your company, and it can be the difference between a customer and someone who walks away or to another booth.
Create an experience that they’ll never forget, and you might turn them into a lifelong customer.
From the booth next to you, to bands you might want to work with, to the festival staff - large festivals provide more opportunities to directly connect with others. Make friends with everyone!
Whether it’s video (Youtube), pictures (Flickr), tweets, (Pinterest, Vimeo, even more videos) or tags on Facebook, creating content that fans can refer to after the festival has ended keeps them interested and will continue to drive traffic to your sites and social networks.
It’s hard to not want to run around and watch your favorite bands, or party given the atmosphere, but if you want to be successful, plan on sitting in your booth from set up to tear down. We recommend a comfy chair and a lot of water.
As we gear up for this year’s festival season, we can’t help but think back to our first festival and how different it might have been knowing what we know now. That being said, we hope these tips can help some of you not make the mistakes we did. And don’t forget to stop by the Choonimals booth this summer at The Bamboozle Festival or on The Vans Warped Tour!
The Big Cartel Support Fort just got a little stronger with the recent addition of Nick Endle. Joining us from Eau Claire, WisCAHNsin, midwestern accent and all, Nick’s background in web design will help answer all of the many coding questions thrown our way each day.
When he’s not offering tender-hearted assistance to our many shop owners, Nick is nurturing his own baby over at deadformat.net. He’s what we call an analog nerd, and we’re happy to have him on board. Please help us give Nick a warm welcome to the Big Cartel team.
Check out the full shop at: jointedjewels.com
JJ: Jointed Jewels represents a union of new and old, organic and industrial, functional and decorative. At the heart of the project is the intention to transform complex and separate elements into a new kind of whole.
A clean and striking jewelry collection was created around this innovative concept. Each piece has been made with the same technique: it seems like an intricately assembled object but is in fact one single piece that was made in one go. Although the jointed pieces share the same birthing process, each item has a different identity.
JJ: That is a hard one - I think I am still working on which direction the brand is going. I have 2 lines that I produce, and I always walk the line of “to produce myself or not to produce (and find another distributor/manufacturer)”. Because ultimately a designer wants to design and not always develop each product in-house. On the other hand it can be very satisfying and fun.
2012 will be the year where things will change a bit, but not sure which direction yet!
JJ: In general, I like to look at shapes and objects that we already know and understand - then I like to create a new perspective. I find that materials and technologies also inspire my different collections.
Questioning value and just questioning things in general, are a big part of how I work and think.
JJ: Make sure you have good images of your products.
Also think about what you would like to know if you were buying your product. What information would you need to be convinced to purchase something?
A clear and compelling design also seems very useful for an online store. Even if people do not buy every time, they will keep coming back to check out new products (or old ones).
JJ: Big Cartel is really a super easy way to setup an online store - it is user friendly, it has similar features to the larger back ends, but it is much more comprehensible. So it is a perfect way to open your online store.
Whether you were a child of the 80s, or just into all things retro, you are certain to love the over-the-top decade love from 8-bit Zombie. Their apparel and accessories, featuring 80s movie icons and video game legacies, are radical to the max.
View the full store here: 8bitzombie.bigcartel.com
Check out the full shop at: patternsfromabove.com
PFA: We are two ambitious artists with a passion for photography and the arts, with a particular interest in aerial photography. For the past 5 years, we have been flying around in a Cessna 172 airplane photographing the spectacular terrain of the United States. It began with the Sonoran desert of Arizona, working our way down to the southern states of Louisiana and Texas, then back up to the spectacular gorges of Oregon and the Northwest. We became increasingly amazed with what we were able to capture from the air, which included so many wonderful textures and vibrant colors printed into the terrain.
The farther we explored, the more intrigued we became. Over time, we found letters engraved into the earth and faces printed into the mountaintops. Each photograph reminds us of how connected our wonderful world is. It became apparent to us that everything in daily life is echoed throughout the patterns in nature.
PFA: Most of the locations are spotted while airborne. When a high priority area is found, it is marked on our flight map so we can return if there happens to be complications due to haze, cloud coverage or fuel shortage not giving ample time to fully photograph the terrain below. Most all of our aerial photos are in locations no one would bother visiting from the ground because they don’t know about it. We constantly find ourselves scouting locations on the ground with a vision of what will be there when photographed from the plane.
Patterns from Above came about after we had accumulated thousands of aerial photos from flying around the country for 5 years. We had been looking for an avenue to display and sell these unique pieces of art when an opportunity presented itself in the form of Patterns from Above.
PFA: We are pretty content with our coverage of North America, however Louisiana is one state we wouldn’t mind photographing again. As for other countries, first and foremost, Greece would be at the top of the list. Following would be Switzerland, Wales, Japan, New Zealand, Brazil, India, and Morocco just to name a few.
PFA: It has been a lot of fun! We got featured on fab.com and written up on a variety of blogs as a result. We send our PayPal receipts to a local giclee printer, and they fulfill and ship the orders. So, each sale is a simple as one email.
PFA: Our friends and collaborators at Good Apples (www.goodappl.es) recommended using Big Cartel. They customized and built the site.
We’d like to send out a huge thanks to everyone who made it to the meet-up in New York City last week. With a couple meet-ups under our belt, we felt like we knew what to expect, but we were once again floored by the talented artists and entrepreneurs who showed up to chat. From completely custom leather belts and accessories with hand-printed bags, to unique Choonimals tees and Brooklyn Bombers hoodies, this NYC crowd stepped up our expectations and kept us on our toes.
We definitely plan on making it out to a few more cities this summer and can’t wait to see what you all have in store for us. Thanks again, New York. We’re kinda developing a crush on you.
Feeling neglected in your neck of the woods? Let us know where you’d like us to plan our next meetup.
Thanks to Miguel from Inspired by Design for the photos.
These delicious cheesecake bites from Chee’Bonnet taste like a million bucks - they were almost worth a million bucks too! This little-shop-that-could made it to the final three in Macy’s Million Dollar Makeover contest last week. So order up some dessert and taste what the fuss is all about.
View the full store here: shop.cheebonnet.com
Check out the full shop at: ocularinvasion.bigcartel.com
OI:I can’t speak for all illustrators, but my life is a pretty lonely one. That may sound negative, but I assure you, it’s not :) I’ve always worked best on my own so quitting my job and working out of my home was a very natural decision for me.
I typically wake up around 6:30 am and head down a couple flights of stairs to my basement/office. The first thing I try to work on everyday is my daily drawing project An Exquisite Beast. After that, it’s pretty much working on whatever’s on my desk at the moment. My wife is in grad school so while she’s spending all her time studying, I spend my time working. Admittedly, it doesn’t sound very exciting, but getting to draw and design all day is all the excitement I need during the week. Nevertheless, I tend to get pretty bad cabin fever when Friday rolls around so I like to play board games and brew beer with my friends on the weekends!
OI: Typography is an effective way to get an idea across—you get the chance to say something literally and metaphorically. One saying can have any number of meanings based on how it’s depicted visually. Trying to emphasize or contradict the intention of a phrase is a fun visual puzzle. Some contemporaries that really inspire me are Simon Walker, Dan Cassaro, and Erik Marinovich. The list goes on and on, those are just a few off the top of my head.
OI: I’ve recently been watching A LOT of Saturday Night Live. The fact that they crank out a consistently good (I know some people might disagree with me) show every week astounds me. They have a short time-frame to take common experiences and present them in an engaging way. It’s something I try to do with my work.
OI: Selling my work online something I’ve been toying with in various forms for a few years. I’d never really been serious about it until I became comfortable with my artistic abilities. That’s when I wanted a more personal place online to sell my work.
OI: Customization is huge for me. If I was going to start selling online more seriously, I needed a place that could feel like me. It’s really important that my shop is able to reflect a little bit of my attitude and work!
