The beginnings of my portfolio

Hello,

I've been working for a a few years now on graphic design. A while back I noticed a site called Zazzle.com that allows independent designers to upload their own creations to shirts, mugs, etc.. In the past, I never considered myself an artist and I lacked basic art talent, so I didn't bother with it.

But, fast forward to the present and one hobby led to the next. In 2009 I began to create Android games as a pass-time. In order to make these games I needed to learn to create my own art simply and quickly. This led me to The Gimp, because it is free and I could not afford the astronomical price of Adobe products at the time. (They have since applied a subscription service that is much more entry-level price friendly. If you can spare the change, Adobe products are worth every penny!)

I still don't know all the ins and outs of The Gimp. I get a little better every few days. I can make caricature art and cartoon work quite well now.

Anyways, back to Zazzle. I decided the drop programming (although who knows I may write a program for something now and then) and focus my efforts on product design. I actually owned a small time T-shirt printing business about 10 years ago that used old fashioned silk screens in wood frames. Those products were sold on eBay and I was moderately successful. Without the hassle of producing the product, Zazzle is a perfect fit for me these days.

So on December 28th, 2014, I started a brand new Zazzle account.  www.zazzle.com/milfords

As of the time of this writing I have 365 products. I've read the forums on the official site and hear that new designers often will not experience their first sale for a month or two. I also hear that January was the slowest month of the year because it is just after Christmas. I made 3 sales so I feel pretty excited about that. I posted to the message boards and received some good feedback on avoiding trademark infringement (made that mistake oooooo a dozen times or so, then I figured out how not to be stupid) and better description and tag management. Basically you cannot use anyone's name (except politicians), the name of any product, the quote from any meme (mostly, lots are just generic expressions that cannot be trademarked, RESEARCH!), and ANY.... let me repeat... ANY artwork you do not draw yourself. Even using public domain art (which has been beat to death) is occasionally risky as some expired copyrights still include trademarked characters and phrases. And just because you draw a picture of Bob Marley doesn't mean you can put it on a shirt. It may be your art, but it is his image. His estate owns the rights to anything with even the likeness of Bob Marley on it. You also have to be careful about fonts. Most fonts are not free to use in whatever you want, even the ones that came with your computer. Using the fonts built into Zazzle avoids copyright issues and also allows the customer to change the words if they like. I still occasionally use my own font as part of the image, but I carefully select fonts that are free from commercial use.

Bonus report: Very positive comments were received by ProZazzlers on the high quality of my designs! Based on the early sales during a typically dry period I feel as though my chances are exceptional if I stay persistent.

You see, persistence is key. Constantly uploading new designs/creating new products keeps your store fresh, and from what I perceive from the forum peeps, your rankings higher. I've got a little trick for that. Each time my kids are on restriction for bad grades or whatever silly thing they do to get themselves in hot water, they can each earn some video game(boy)/cell phone(girl) time if they make a few extra products for Dad on Zazzle. Usually I'll just make one product of each new art design and the kids put the design on other types of products. Sneaky, yeah, but it's also teaching them basic business, marketing, and design skills. When not on restriction, I give them an allowance bump for helping out. So far it's been slow to get them motivated, but I'm hoping they will get better over time.

I'll upload some of my favorite pieces now and then to let you know how it is going and what inspired me to create a specific item.