4 Takeaways I learned from the Book "Thread's Not Dead: The Designer's Guide to the Apparel Industry" by Jeff Finley:

Back to basic in times when AI invaded our designs. In today's blog post, I would like to share to you the 4 takeaways I got for the book Thread's Not Dead: The Designer's Guide to the Apparel Industry by Jeff Finley. But before that, I would like you to check this design here with discount within 48 hours. This design is the result if the ideas I got from reading the book. Grab it here. 

Now without further ado here the things you can learn if you read the book:

1.  Strive for a hand drawn design or something that looks like a hand drawn illustration. This means that if you know how to draw then by all means draw but don't be discouraged if you can't. As long as you can make your design looks like a hand drawn you are doing it right. Fortunately, I know how to draw and paint. Even when I am not yet starting a print-on-demand t-shirt business, I was already drawing a lot of subjects (buildings, woman, anime, and flowers). I was also hand lettering a lot which means I am drawing letters. When I read this, I felt I was back with my first love which is drawing. When I was starting out I was relying on AI for my clip arts. Now, things will be different moving forward because I don't want a design that can easily be copied by others using the AI website. I want a personal touch in my every design even when it would take me a while to do it. 
2. It's the Brand that sells. Capitalize on developing a t-shirt brand. "The most important thing in branding," according to the boos, "is consistency (design, website, packaging, social media presence, the way you talk, email signature, verbiage on website. The number one thing to remember is you are setting and meeting customer expectations. Work hard to make the entire customer experience a great one that consistently please and exceeds their expectations. Make sure all your designs look like they belong together and aren’t a smorgasbord of various design styles and themes. Be human in your branding and marketing. Craft a story behind your brand and put a face and voice to the company that customers could relate to. Cultivate relationships by doing things like surveys, allowing customers to vote on designs, showing them the process of taking design from sketch to shirt, and even showing them how a shirt is printed.” I am planning to dig deeper in branding my t-shirt design soon. 
3. You design must have meaning to the one who will buy it -- your target audience. The book said, "Have a solid idea and purpose behind it. It should mean something to your client or customer. What moves them and makes them feel good?" The design you are seeing here as an example is intended for the gardeners. Why I come up with this? It's because based on my Pinterest Analytics, most of my audience are looking for gardeners design. So I give what the customer are looking for. However, I would like to create also for Book Lovers because I am both a gardener and a book worm. I believe that in order to create a great design, the designer also like what she's doing. She herself is also proud of wearing what she created. 
4. When you are just starting out, you must focus solely on perfecting your design and nothing else. I fall short here because instead of focusing in designs I busy myself finding another means of earning online because I want to quit my job. I think of affiliates, copywriting, opening more store in different designs etc. I overload myself with more side hustles that I forgot I should be creating and sketching more. I have no focus and I open am overwhelmed. 

Now, I want you to take a look of this design and let me walk you through in my new process that is aligned from what I learned from the book. 

This design is  hand drawn starting in this sketch here--a pencil sketch to plot all of the needed elements. Then, I trace it with a red ballpen so I can see the letters in photoshop. 

The next thing I've done is tracing each element using a brush tool in photoshop. 

After that is re-arranging of letters, it's spaces in between and kerning. Then I proceed to cleaning. I erased all the unnecessary lines made by mistake as well as some dirt around letters. As you can see here, I already colored the letters.

As someone who's not very well trained in color combinations, what I do here is to find a t-shrit onlne with my intention color already executed in the design. I don't want to think too much about the color combination. I just need to find one that's already working and selling then use it. In the above screenshots, you can see that the background is white while below, the background I used is black, This is because I want to make sure that my design works in both light and dark t-shirt.  

The below screenshots shows how I added lines and arrows pointing to a flower in the middle to avoid white spaces. The flower that I created here was also coppied and placed below near the dog drawing because there were awkward spaces there.

This is not necessary but I do it anyway, I placed a "stroke" around letters to make the design pop-up even better in dark background. I don't know but I like doing this because this final touch make my design look like I don't draw it myself 😅

I made some few more adjustment like adjusting the arrows, the plants and the flowers, erasing those extra-elements that looks more as distraction to the design.

Then, it's ready to be posted in Teepublic and gifted to the gardeners in our lives. The niche is the "Plant lovers" cross niche to a "Dog lovers" in typography style with doodles and kawaii. See in real life:

I hope you learn from this blog post. What do you think of the design?

Berry Yourself in Good Vibes! – Cute Strawberry Lover Design!

Being inspired to create a t-shirts collection for women, I come up with this design. Designing this t-shirt does not come on a whim. I've been contemplating about it for the past week. 

Every week's a realization. This time I realized that even when I am creating t-shirt designs for every occasions or holidays, I still did not define the gender of whom I really want my design to be. 

Now I know that my t-shirt designs should be for women. It should enhance the femininity in them. Make them stand out. And of course, the funny design should make them smile. Sprinkling it with inspiration to make them keep going despite of the challenges. 

Grab this design here.

Speaking of challenges here's the latest story.

Yesterday, I meet agents to help me secure a property. I brought my family to meet up with them. The day went smoothly at first until the afternoon comes when my husband and I has to sign a hundred of documents for the condominium that we're vying for in Alabang. 

By 6:00 PM, we're still not through signing. Then at around 9:00 PM during the last interview, I failed because they said that my salary isn't enough to buy a condo unit costing around Php 2.2M. One of the agents said, "We can't push any further." Suddenly it became clear to me why I wasn't able to secure a property on Acquired Asset.

Check this out!

My heart sank in desperation. I knew that my salary is enough if they would consider the allowances on top of it. However, they said it's not included. My mind suddenly becomes cloudy in hopelessness. Will I ever get a property? If not now, I know that my age a year or two from now will also go against me to loan a Pag-ibig Fund. 

We're heading back home inside my agents' car when I mentioned out of nowhere that the salary capacity can also be based with the price of the property nit just age. I asked, "Is there a  property with much lower cost than the one I failed to buy?" Then all of a sudden, Lady Agent said, "If that's in Imus, then there is." Imus is a little bit far from Taguig. I said, "Then I'll get one from Imus."

That's the end of conversation, I was able to reserve the property. Just a few steps more and I know I'll have it. 

Sticker's version and matching products here.

What I can't remember which put me in total ease was what the Lady Agent said, "I believe that God will direct you in a place where you are more suitable to live. I believe that what happened was Him being in control of the situation." I heard it from Papa before when  we first transfer to Makati then my husband lost his job. He said, God will not bring you there if He has no plan for you. And that has been my prayer also, that God would direct us in buying my very first property. 

The process had been tedious and sizzled with doubt. In between, I thought, buying property isn't for me. I am old and the salary that I thought is large enough suddenly becomes not enough.  

Yet, the ending of this story proves that when God opens the door, no one can shut it. Just a month ago we're in Imus, Cavite looking for a house. We already had a glimpse of what will going to happen. 

God knows we've been through a lot of troubles renting a house. God knows all of my sacrifices in raising my family. I believe that it is Him who is at work here. I may have many options and wishes, but for as long as I'm sure that God is there with me all along in choosing my best property, and He allows me to get it, then I have nothing to worry or feel guilty about not getting anything else. Ito talaga ang para sa amin. 

Who wouldn't create an inspiring funny design in this situation? When you are down, you'll tend to look for something that will inspire or encourage you to keep going. Such is the "Berry Yourself in Good Vibes! – Cute Strawberry Lover Design"

Cap and matching products see here.

It add a berry sweet touch to you and your loved ones life with a design featuring a plump strawberry standing confidently in a swirl of golden jam! Topped with the feel-good phrase “Berry Yourself in Good Vibes!”, this design is perfect for strawberry-loving girls who radiate positivity and good energy wherever they go.

Whether you're headed to a farmer's market, a summer picnic, or just vibing with friends, this cute and vintage-inspired design brings the fruit-forward flair and upbeat attitude. With playful colors and a charming retro vibe, it’s a must-have for anyone who believes in staying sweet and sunny — no matter what.

And since this is a new design, you will receive a discount when you purchase within 24-48 hours. 

Until next for my designs and life's update. 

How I Made my First Sale on TeePublic?

In today’s blog I will share how I made my first sale on TeePublic.

I can’t remember when I started exactly in TeePublic last year (2024) but after uploading around 90 designs I made my first sale last December. After a few days, by January, 2025 I made a total of seven sales.