West Coast Craft in San Francisco this weekend!

I'm excited to be back for my second West Coast Craft event this weekend in San Francisco.

I've been working away in my studio making a lot of custom one-of-a-kind jackets.  I'll also have some brand new posters and custom totes.

WCC vendors had a chance to customize Converse Chuck Taylors to benefit Youth Art Exchange.  I'll be honest, I misread the instructions and thought these were going to be auctioned for charity, so I put in a little extra time on them hoping that they'd raise good money.  

But it turns out they're going to be sold at the regular price of a pair of plain sneakers!  Note to self: read more closely next time.

They're children's size 11, but I didn't intend them to be worn like any old pair of kids sneakers.  They're small enough to be bedazzled paperweights, so maybe an adult will buy them.  

If you're in San Francisco, please come see me!

WEST COAST CRAFT

FESTIVAL PAVILION @ FORT MASON

SAT 6/13 & SUN 6/14 - 10A TO 6P

FEATHERWEIGHT STUDIO @ BOOTH F44

FREE & OPEN TO EVERYONE

Preparing for West Coast Craft

I'm knee deep in preparations for West Coast Craft next weekend.  I can't believe it's almost here!

I'm making a lot of one-of-a-kind items for my booth.  Here's a sneak peek:

Please join me next weekend at West Coast Craft:

Featherweight Studio @ West Coast Craft - Booth F44

June 13th & 14th
10am to 6pm
Festival Pavilion @ Fort Mason Center
San Francisco, CA
FREE & open to the public

BAND MERCH DESIGN: Success for Dead Rock West

My friends in the band Dead Rock West recently asked me to design a T-shirt for them.  They have a new record coming out on July 19th called "It's Everly Time!" (it's an album of Everly Brothers covers).  I love how Cindy and Frank honored the songs by staying mostly trew to them, but they also added in their own signature harmonies.  I also love how the production is all sunny, glamorous, vintage California yet with a modern polish.  Fantastic record.

Usually I give anywhere from one to four sketch ideas to start, and I gave Cindy four sketches to choose from.  She loved two of them, and I was able to quickly produce one of the designs in time for them to sell at their April 30th show at Hotel Cafe in Los Angeles.  

The popular Dead Rock West baseball tee

The Hotel Cafe only holds about 150 people, so it was an intimate show.  Over the years I've been to hundreds of live shows, and I know that sometimes at a very small show the band might only sell a couple of T-shirts, or even none at all, so my expectations weren't too high.  I was just glad to get one of their designs to them in time for the gig.

Cindy called me the next day, saying the shirts were a success:

Transcript:  "Your shirts are such a hit, I've been having a barrage of emails all day of 'Where can I get those sent to me?'...To the point where if I even send them...they'll just be sold out!  I've never had this happen before with a T-shirt. (laffs)  It's amazing. They're really awesome and they were just a superb hit.  I just thought I'd tell you that...thanks to you the merch was a swimming success."

When I called Cindy back and talked to her, I asked how many people called or emailed or commented on Facebook about the shirts.  Five?  Ten? She told me she must have heard from 30 people.  I think she's exaggerating, though she swears she's not, so I'll take it.

They've already re-ordered the baseball tee design, after a single show.  It's a win for me, a win for the band, and a win for their fans.  I love it.

Breaking in a New Screen Printer

I'm beginning to work with a new screen printer today, organizing a reprint of T-shirts for some upcoming John Doe shows.  Last year I intentionally created a perennial design for JD that wasn't tied to a certain album or tour, so that he could sell them anytime.  My strategy has worked, since he's been using the same design with different T-shirts & ink colors for about a year.

The design was based on his tattoos.

Here are a few things I need to suss out when beginning to work with a new screen printer: 

• Communication style - is phone better? email? how quickly do they respond?
• Vibe - friendly? just-the-facts? accommodating? fussy?
• Pricing
• Turnaround time - especially important for band merchandise
• Specialized techniques - this time around I needed discharge ink, tag printing & had customer supplied goods
• Location - for timely pickup, and in this case dropping off customer supplied goods

So far, so good.  I feel lucky to live in the East Bay where there are so many screen printers to choose from.