January 2011

First off, yes, I realize this post is being made on February 1st, but I'm calling it January. Deal with it.

2010 was not the year for Sukduk that I had envisioned that it would be a year ago. It was a fairly busy year for me though, and that's why I let Sukduk falter. I suppose this is the spot where I say 2011 will be different, but 2011 is already really busy for me. Halfway through January, I left the company I spent the last 5 1/2 years at and joined a firm with a much higher commitment to sustainability, and way more opportunities to use the information I've been culminating. I've also picked up some contract work here or there. The contract work, after some initial costs, will be going almost directly to Sukduk.

There are a number of things I want to do this year with some of the graphics I've created.

1. Buttons. Anyone that was around me around the Christmas season will know that I was campaigning fairly heavily for people to chip in and buy me a button maker for Christmas (it didn't work).

2. Press. If I can muster the money for it, a silk screen press will make it much easier to make shirts and also lends a lot more easily to making shirts with more than just one color of ink on them. The other part of the problem here is the space I'd need for it.

3. Cushions? A friend is really interested in having the Jon Hamm poster I made for her put onto a cushion. As it stands, I think this is going to require the press to make. The picture is 6 colors right now, that would mean 6 screens (3 if I can just divide each screen).

4. Starting over. I don't mean quitting or anything here, or that I've done anything I'm not proud of. Basically just a note to myself to take all the screens in and have them cleaned out, then bringing them home and re-emulsifying them all with images. At the very least the Winnebago needs to be done, and last time I looked the logo needed it as well.

5. Enforcing the brand. I'm very attached to the Sukduk logo. I'm very proud of it as well. Not proud in that it's something I created, because I didn't create it, but proud that I was able to do something with it. I'm thinking of getting a vinyl print of it to put on my car's rear window. I'm also thinking of getting it tattooed on my wrist. I'm sure that's a wicked painful spot.

6. The website. At the time of writing, the website is down. I want to redesign it to work a little better than it was before. I also have to renew the hosting, which means I'll be looking at difference options this time instead of just going with the first place I see. I also want to see if I can figure out how to also get sukduk.com, in addition to sukduk.ca.

7. Posters/Artwork. The posters I've made have been some of the most fun I've had. I think my last post here was back when I first designed up the Lee Marvin and Bruce Lee ones. Those two are now hanging in my living room. I ended up just printing them off on some heavier stock paper and putting them on wood frames. They look pretty good as long as you're not right up in it and seeing that it's just paper.

I'm sure there's more to add to that list, but I'm going to cut it short there. I'm still never sure if anyone reads this. I think at least one person has it in their subscription list. As it stands it's mostly a to-do list, and hopefully I'll be able to cross a couple things off this year.

Here's hoping it doesn't take me another 6 months to post.

New Things

So I haven't been as diligent as I'd hoped to be after moving into the new place. Still haven't taken the time to just get down on some shirts and get a bunch made. Hopefully soon I'll feel motivated to do it.

Over the long weekend, I did come up with a couple of things for the new place though. When I was in Bellingham with some friends back in May, we saw these acrylic paintings on the wall of the place we went for dinner. They were face shots of pop icons (Lee Marvin, Charles Bronson to name a couple). I thought they looked great, and knowing what little I do about Photoshop and Illustrator, I figured I'd be able to create something at least wall worthy.

So here's the result. Each are 24"x24" and will be mounted on frames (just paper at the moment, not canvas).



Essentially my first real foray into some sort of graphic design. It was fun to make them, and to be honest I'm a little bit proud of how well they turned out.

Yikes?

Ok, so yeah...

It's been a year down to the day, and I haven't updated this blog. A lot has happened in a year! This isn't a personal space, so I won't get too far into it here.

Sukduk.

Where's that at? Well I've made a couple shirts here and there. I've given quite a few out for free in the hopes of spreading some word of mouth around out there. To this day I've only received like 3 calls from people wanting shirts, but I was never in this to make money or anything.

Going forward:

I've recently moved into a new house. Only this past weekend did the Sukduk stuff (light box, inks, screens, etc.) find a home there. I plan to do a lot more with it this coming summer. I'll try and keep this blog much more up to date with what is going on, and I hope I have a lot to talk about. Still working on getting some sort of business card/tag thing going on to attach to shirts I give out so that people know where they come from and how to get ahold of me. Still working on some new designs. One of the new designs I'm working on even requires two colours, so that has the potential to be exciting and/or tragic.

I don't know how many people are actually reading this blog anymore, or even how many people read it a year ago when I was actually doing more with it, but if you're out there and you're reading it feel free to drop some feedback and let me know.

Coop/Chuck Lumber

Harrrooooooooooow!

Monthly update time!

Haven't been doing too many shirts, just one or two here and there. Made up some Le Freedom and Livin' Large shirts this weekend. I had planned to try out the white ink on a number of shirts and see how it turns out.

Well it doesn't turn out too great. The first shirt (the essential 'test' shirt, so I don't screw one up I'm making for someone in particular) turned out fine. It wasn't until I was getting ready to do the second one that I noticed the problem. Well no, that's not quite true. When I first pulled the lid off the white ink, I noticed the consistency wasn't the same. It was thicker, more viscous. Closer than ice cream than to the pudding that the black ink is like. I figured, different ink, we'll just try it and see how it works. Anyway, as I start the second shirt, I go to wipe the screen down, and most of the white ink leftover was already starting to harden. This is about 2 minutes after I started the first shirt, the usual timing I'm on. The black ink doesn't do this.

I'm still waiting to see if the white ink has ruined the screen it's on or if it'll wipe off. Apologies to Mat, your shirts won't be done until I figure this problem out.

Marketing Pic

Finished up a couple of shirts this weekend. Arranged them and took a picture of them. Here it is:

Status

Don't want anyone to get the wrong idea and think that things aren't progressing. Things have been hectic at work (ie. I actually have work to do at work), so I haven't been putting foot to concrete on the t-shirts as much as I could have been.

In terms of progression, the shirts are coming along. There are now screens made for the Livin' Large and Love Parade designs. I inked up a bunch of Livin' Large shirts on the weekend, as well as some more Le Freedom shirts. In total I did about 12 shirts and I didn't screw a single one of 'em up, so things are getting better. I can still see some areas in the process that could be tweaked for improvements to efficiency, but those will have to wait for better facilities that are not my living room.

In overall news, I'm looking at incorporating the company or registering it as a trade name. Not sure which route I'll be taking with it at the moment, so there's a decision to be made there. Obviously I'll post something when I do decide.

There's still some updating to do with the website as well. There's display issues for people. I'd like some feedback if the website looks screwy when you go to it. Let me know what's happening (provide a screen shot if possible).

Still pursuing a shirt supplier. Lots of people have suggested organic t-shirts. Only one person has actually referred me to a website though (the MEC website). My only problem there is the limited colour selection (at least for online ordering). This weekend I want to go out and grab a couple and see how they print out and subsequently wash. My goal is to try American Apparel and MEC shirts.

So there. That is where Sukduk is at right now. Hopefully next week it'll be even further. I'm really hoping we'll be able to print some bowling shirts before my birthday.

The Website

After a couple days of work (including a number of hours of learning and relearning how to use Flash and Dreamweaver), Sukduk now officially has a website up and running.

www.sukduk.ca

Mat again worked out the design on this. All I did was put it together.