Friday, June 29, 2012

Floating Lemons

Your shop name *
Floating Lemons
Zazzle to me is a... *
Full time job - with part time pay
What is the best advice you have received from a fellow shopkeeper about your shops or designs you would like to pass on to another shopkeeper? *

The best advice? Patience. And hard work. Keep at it and don't give up and you'll eventually get results. My motto ... Bit by Bit.

I can never stress enough the importance of good quality in all aspects of your work. I make sure that my artwork is cleaned up properly, and I do take the time to ensure that my illustrations are designed well on each and every product. I've had to learn the basics of design on my own in order to better present the products, but the whole learning experience is part of the challenge.

And yes, I have filled out several requests for clones and am still waiting for them to arrive.
What PODs do u currently use or have shops on? *
  • Zazzle
  • Cafepress
  • Printfection
  • Spreadshirt
  • MySoti
  • Greeting Card Universe (GCU)
  • Imagekind
  • Spoonflower
  • Redbubble
  • Other
What did you do with your free time before zazzle or other POD's....and what do you do with it now? *
I used to read and write. A lot.

Now? I no longer have any free time! Fortunately, I love my work and art, so spend pretty much every minute I have on it. That includes research and tutorials and learning how to market myself better, leaving barely enough time to eat and sleep.
What programs do you use to make your designs *
  • Photoshop (any version)
  • Illustrator
  • Other raster software
Tell us more about what you like and do not like about each software you use, what makes it special. *

I love Corel Painter 12! I'm a beginner but whenever I have the time I dabble in it and hope something decent enough appears. In my non-digital art I use mainly colored pencils so it's quite lovely to wield digital brushes and get a sense of the paints without getting all messed-up.

Apart from Corel the software I use most is photoshop, though it's mainly used to clean up my illustrations to prepare them for .png based files. And to draw out my typography designs from the scanned sketches.

I'm still pretty much a beginner in both the above programs, so am constantly looking for tutorials and tips, as they've become essential to my work.
Will you make custom orders? *
Yes - but only for people I know personally
Elaborate on your answer above regarding custom orders... *
I used to do custom orders, but stopped because it takes me a long time to draw (in colored pencil) illustrations or create hand-drawn text designs, and unfortunately, I found that more often than not the customers who ordered them would just disappear.

I have to prioritize my time, and custom orders end up taking up too much of it for too little reward either emotionally or financially.
List your shop URL's *
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