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the stuff!

the stuff! by colorkitten {jinjur}.
refillable covers for moleskine cahier notebooks (large and small) plus pencil cases. read more here. 

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andyi  Pro User  says:

Oof. Now I wish I were going to Heroes Con. I want a M&C pencil case for myself and a Monster case for gifting...!

Really spiffy. I'm guessing that Spoonflower has a library of background textures and that you provide the foreground character art?
Posted 13 months ago. ( permalink )

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colorkitten {jinjur}  Pro User  says:

:
well, there are a few items left, we'll probably put them up on the hof site once we're all unpacked and settled again. So if you really still want any, keep an eye out!

And thanks! The fabric design is totally mine, Spoonflower doesn't do any of it -- so I actually made those polka dots! The little stars are from the background of one of the monster drawings.
Posted 13 months ago. ( permalink )

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andyi  Pro User  says:

Crimeny, that's some really nice design. Both fabrics have such a perfect background -- in the sense of being pretty and colorful without distracting from the art in any way -- that I assumed they were stock art of some kind. I must have temporarily forgotten that you're also a colorist.

I might have to find a place to write about this. There's an incredible range of items that ten years ago required a prohibitive amount of specialist knowledge to produce, but which today can be created by anyone capable of emailing a JPEG or a PDF file to a service. Heck, I'm having metal business cards cut with a pretty spiffy design. It's just a PDF, and it's affordable. Five years ago, I'd have had to have had special dies made and everything.
Posted 13 months ago. ( permalink )

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colorkitten {jinjur}  Pro User  says:

:
aw, thanks!!

yeah, I agree, it's amazing what you can get done nowadays. metal business cards? crazy!!

unfortunately I'm afraid it may lead to a repeat of what happened when everyone got macs and started doing their own layouts and designs in publishing....lots of "eeeeek!" I also do regret the loss of the trained middleman in some instances where it really is necessary. (Necessary in my opinion anyway.)

But in general, as someone who loves to customize, the ability to customize practically anything (at a reasonable cost) is very exciting!
Posted 13 months ago. ( permalink )

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andyi  Pro User  says:

You know what I miss? Expert signpainters. It's not hard to go for a walk in New England and see these utterly trivial little "Parking For Customers Of Kline Automovie ONLY" signs and whatnot...but they're tiny works of handpainted art. Especially now that they're 30 years old and the sun has faded just enough of the paint that you can see every handpainted brush stroke.

I suppose I appreciate that you can't spend $$$ to have such a simple, functional sign hand-painted instead of the letters being laser-cut by computer. Still, I'm amazed when a business has Nintendo make the big, expensive sign above their door. And it's in Helvetica, and instead of using a properly-condensed version of the font, the computer just squashed it along one axis...ugh.

In high school, my art teacher had a sign-carving business on the side. I still live just a town or two away and i can recognize a DelSignore sign fifty yards away. The type is perfectly defined and kerned, and though it's precise work, there's something analog about it that makes it clear that it was the work of a talented guy with a chisel.

And even THESE signs -- which can't possibly be cheap -- are being ground out by computer. Honestly, if all your sign company has to do is set up the job and load up the blank, what's your excuse for not laying out the letters carefully? What's the excuse for using the same uninspired generic serif and sans-serif font every time?

Okay, end rant. But you're spot-on. It's great when these typographic controls and apps allow people like me who have a lot more passion for design than (a) skill or (b) experience to do credible work. But all too often, it's just a shortcut that results in vending-machine results.
Posted 13 months ago. ( permalink )

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