Hey guys, this is Steve Knerem an illustrator from Cleveland, America (Ohio) that specializes in t-shirt illustration. You can see my work at steveknerem.com as well as my on-line t-shirt store www.steveknerem.bigcartel.com . In this blog I’m going to talk to you about “artistic confusion” and my experience with burnout, creative block and recovery solutions. I titled the blog Confusing a Monster because I find myself saying “I’ve created a monster!” once I finish a shirt illustration. My shirts generally take between 20-30 hours to complete, literally! I put so much time, attention and love into each piece that it always becomes more than I could ever anticipate. So the question I have for you is what happens when the well of creativity runs dry?
Let’s begin. I’ll break this down into 4 parts: Your Strength, Your Opposite/Your Confusion, Your Rebirth and Stronger than before.

To give a little background, 2010 was an awesome year for me. T-shirt business was solid. I gained new clients, and launched my own t-shirt line. I saw work flow go into 2011 and I was very excited for the future. I figured I should strap in and get ready for the ride, right? Unfortunately I got terribly sick in October, I was tired of thinking, tired of creating and on top of that the holidays were coming. Clients were of course still expecting from me but I had a complete creative block. I remember sitting at my drawing table looking at a blank piece of paper confused, lost and exhausted. “Where do I start?” I asked myself.

Your Strength
Whatever your strength is that is where you begin. Your strengths are your foundation. This is what you fall back on when the well runs dry. As for myself I am really good at drawing people, creatures and ornate objects. That was all I could give. On top of feeling run down I was paranoid I wasn’t going to produce for my clients. I really had to trust myself and my abilities. Once I got through concepts and presented them, they were happy and projects got done!

TIP: Don’t think you are good, know you are the best at what you do and that no one can touch you. You are the only person that can produce the greatness that’s inside of you. There will always be storms to weather so be confident is your abilities.

This experience really showed me that I do know what I am doing. When you are in the thick of working on projects you go into auto pilot and forget to look back on all the good you produced. I didn’t have to look far I just had to look at my body of work from throughout the year and recognize my strengths. DO THIS BEFORE YOU GET BURNED OUT.

TIP: Having a “go to” is important. Know what you can fall back on as a foundation in case you can’t come up with new ideas. Own your craft and make it the best so when you are at your lowest of creative flow you always produce a solid piece.

YOUR OPPOSITE/YOUR CONFUSION

Q: What else do you do when the well runs dry?

A: Have an opposite from your everyday craft.

Doing opposite activities/crafts are vital to your creativity. If you are in high gear all the time you’re going to blow a fuse. Opposites get your mind refreshed. You go back to work revitalized with excitement. In the midst of a busy work flow I still need to do something different and shut my brain off.

There are two types of opposites: the creative and non-creative opposite.

My creative opposites are oil painting and life drawing. These are not for clients or for a dead line. Just shut off the brain and go. My non-creative opposites are landscaping, cooking, camping and weightlifting. If it wasn’t for the exercise I would certainly self-destruct. Know what gives your creativity a rest and apply it to your monthly activities.

TIP: Opposites do attract and they refresh.

TIP: Confusion is good!

In weight lifting there is a term called muscle confusion. Muscle confusion keeps you from hitting a plateau and the inability to grow muscle. YOU NEED ARTISTIC CONFUSION.

Apply this to your craft. This goes hand in hand with “The Steve Knerem Opposite Theory.” A good example of confusion is doing something out of your comfort zone. It sucks and you know what that is for you. Paint with the opposite hand. Color a monochromatic piece. If you say “I can’t draw” go to a life drawing class and frustrate the hell out yourself. There is something about the confusion that will enhance your creativity.

HOMEWORK: Take 15 minutes every day for 1 week and do something you usually don’t do in order to break up the monotony. It doesn’t have to be pretty or ever seen by anyone. You might discover something new!

YOUR REBIRTH
So I went through this period of feeling tapped out. I relied on my strengths and did some opposite exercises. One day I noticed that I got through it! I really felt renewed especially after being sick for two months. Here are a few things I learned along the way:

1. Rest, rely and know what my strengths are.
2. Always take time to stop and look at the work I’ve done.
3. I actually did discover something new for my own shirt line. I am more focused on what I want to produce and how to do it. I can hardly wait to start drawing and get the shirts printed up.
4. The last thing I understood but fight like crazy to do is sleep. I really hate that I have to sleep. If had a super power it would be that I would never require sleep. Rest is good.

STRONGER THAN BEFORE

Overall I came out stronger and wiser than before. I would never want to go through this again but the weird part is that in order to grow, certain things need to happen in life. Embrace the change, pressure, frustration and challenge.

During the time I was sick I picked up a book by Robert Kiyosaki called “Before You Quit Your Job.” This book talks about everything you need to think of in order to go on your own and become a successful entrepreneur. An eye opening section talks about using the negative as a positive and being a person of solution and not complaining. My point is there will be adversity but think about the solutions and turning the negative into a positive. Know that you have strengths to rely on, you now know strategies to keep you going and the best part is that you come out shining like gold stronger than before!

Good luck with your artistic confusion!

Conact me anytime with any questions. Follow me at any of my links below. Thanks for reading and stay glued to what I AM THE TREND is doing in 2011.

steve@steveknerem.com

www.steveknerem.com
www.steveknerem.bigcartel.com
www.steveknerem.blogspot.com
facebook.com/steve.knerem
twitter.com/SteveKnerem

As with almost everything in life presentation is the key to success. Many wise men have once said “you only have one chance to make a good first impression” and those wise men were right. Presentation of your product to your customer can be a make or break situation that results in a sale or a missed opportunity.

What exactly makes up the “presentation” when it comes to t-shirts?

In the previous three segments we have talked about packaging, printing and price these undoubtedly make up the core layers of your t-shirt presentation, but there is always more to think about.

Website
Most indie clothing lines are strictly based online and that online only atmosphere comes with a HUGE disadvantage, not being able to touch, feel and try anything on. So the question then becomes how do we turn those negatives into positives?

The key here is creating an online experience for your brand. You must think of your online store just as if you were building a bricks and mortar store for your brand. One of the biggest turn offs and mistakes a clothing company can make is cutting corners when it comes to developing their online store. When a customer comes to your site the first thing they are going to take note of is your website. In the first two seconds a customer is going to decide if they can trust you and if they want to buy from you. The key here is coming off looking as a reputable company and not a fly by night operation. It is completely okay if your working out of your parents basement or do this in your part time with every bit of extra change you can gather, but by no means come across looking like that.

Keys to making your website the best it can be.
BRANDING! Another huge pitfall that indie clothing companies fall into is not creating a recognizable branding image. Quite simply there are just way to many clothing lines out there to do just a mediocre job and succeed. The brands such as Johnny Cupcakes, Ugmonk, Electric Zombie, Glamour Kills and Pyknic all have one thing in common, they are instantly recognizable. Take a second and visit those sites if you haven’t already, those website clearly and effectively reflect a brand image that their shirts portray.

Take quality photographs
A picture is worth a thousand words, and when you are trying to sell products online a picture could be the difference between making money and losing money. As stated before it’s just not possible for a customer to pick up and feel your product through the internet but they can visualize what it would like on them through good pictures. Pictures along with your website can tell a story and create a brand image, so make sure to take that into consideration when you are doing your photo shoot.

I also HIGHLY recommend taking two different sets of product pictures, pictures for your look book and pictures for your store. Look book pictures show your tees or clothing “in the wild” or in everyday situations while shots for your store should be straight on shots that really show the detail of the shirts. Photos for your store should be done against a plain background (I prefer white), as to not distract a customer from what you are trying to sell, the product.

Functionality
This sounds like a no brainer, but make sure customers can EASILY navigate your site. There is nothing more frustrating for a customer then trying to jump through hoops when making a purchase. Quite simply they wont, if you make something difficult on them they are gone. BigCartel and Storenvy both offer very simple, cheap and customizable solutions for setting up a web store.

BUT ISN’T THAT EXPENSIVE?
You have to spend money to make money, but you also don’t have to be stupid about how you spend your money. Ask around, use social avenues such as Twitter and Facebook to help strike deals. Maybe you aren’t a pro photographer but ask some of your friends. Chances are that if you ask around someone is bound to know someone that can take decent pictures and most likely for free or on the cheap just for recognition.

Also using storefronts such as BigCartel and Storenvy can be done for extremely cheap or nothing at all. But by no means just sign up for a cart, slap your logo on it and call it a day. If you cant afford someone to design you a custom theme there are several sites that offer pre-created themes for $150 and under.

As I started this out article out with, you only have one chance to make a good first impression. I get several emails everyday from clothing companies asking me to check them out and their website and presentation is usually what makes me run for safety or investigate further and there is no reason not to think customers aren’t the same way.

If you missed any of the first three segments make sure to check them out below:
Part 1: Packaging
Part 2: Printing
Part 3: PricePrice

Written by: Andy owner of Rethink Clothing

If you’re tired of giving people DVD’s they’ll watch once, cologne they might use, or books that sit on a coffee table look to Tshirts as the answer. The trick to giving a great shirt is finding the right one for the right person. So here is a list of 50 shirts for almost anyone on your list from the nerdy brother to the boozing best friend.

Lets get Started!

Shirts for the drinker/partier:

umm yes lets party, Sebei

Liquid courage meets old school bad ass brought to you by Rethink (yeah that’s my companies shirt)

Have your shirt say what your liver can’t by Awesome Laundry

All natural fuel sources baby, Rizzo Tees

If that wanted my Beer it can have it.

Shirts for the Nerd and Gamer:

Exploded Phone – My phone did this on accident

ET and Star Wars…Get it at Glennz

Big mac…ughhhh yeah Print Liberation

What nerd doesn’t love the old school nintendo and its offspring all lineagificated by Nerdy Shirts.

Robots,robots,robots from ChopShop

CHEWWWWWYYYYY….Kindres Market

Shirts for the artsy/creative:

Good advice by Bananas Tee’s.

It’s Rainy and freedom will keep us dry from communism

Ugmonk makes clean and clever shirts with sweet typography

text+lines+moon=artsy heaven at Vicious History

Ink+cannon balls=artsy fun at FullBleed

Shirts for the Photographer

Need I say anything?

Awesome photograph on a tee by Prestigious

Just Photo fun from Rethink

Shirts for the Zombie Enthusiast

Scare your little sister! Deez Teez

BIG ASS ZOMBIE courtesy of Electric Zombie

Everyone wants a piece of this Zombie Liquorice shirt

This and a ton more zombie tees all at I Came From Nothing.

Shirts for the Animal Fan

Bullshit, You can’t catch a tiger. Headline Shirts

Random yes, Pigeon yes. Thanks Random Objects for this one.

The Ninja Turtles were animals right?

My Cat Sucks compared to this Threadless cat

Uhhh fuckus thatus RUNNNN from this 410 BC tee

Seahorse, Seahell Paperoot Clothing

So many awesome Bear Shirts. Subeco

Omunky is getting very sleepy!

Shirts for the Music Lover

This should cover anyone who likes music. Chop Shop.

Shoulda, Coulda,Woulda Buddha by Owl Movement

Give me a few beers and I see anything like this DBH tee.

Great new spin on the classic broken record by Simply Complicated

Great Shirt, Great Cause, Cavata Clothing

Music and Astronauts by Branded Baron

Shirts for the Foodie

I scream you scream we all love R and R’s tees

Astronauts don’t just eat Tang

Yeah Dinosaur tell em! Seibei killing it again

Johnny Cupcakes new Make Cupcakes Not War Tee is Yummy!

Cherry Sauce Clothing makes me afraid to eat cupcakes

Shirts for people who like awesome shirts (categorically hard to define)

I have always liked their logo and think it deserves its own shirt

Merry Xmas

Random as all hell at KKBB apparel

Seriously, automatics are for the lazy.

Lincoln in his most Bad-Ass role yet at Enclothe

Get it? giggle Rizzo Tees

One of the First Indie Tee’s I ever bought, Thanks Tenbills. P.S(put out some new stuff please)

Miles to go always dishes out awesome and this tee is no exception

Even though I didn’t own a clothing line at the time, I knew if I ever wanted some illustration work done, Mike was on the top of my list. So fast forward some time and myself and my business partner for Pong Deck were brainstorming how we wanted our cards to look, Mike’s name popped into mind. I immediately hit up Mike and pitched him the entire Pong Deck concept. Two weeks later, 18 custom illustrations and one t-shirt design in the books Mike had single handedly developed the Pong Deck image.

Before we get into the interview, I just wanted to say if you are in the market for an illustrator definitely hit up Mike, he was by far one of the quickest and most friendly artists that I have worked on a project with. You can email him directly at mike@cherrysauceclothing.com or visit his portfolio at: www.krop.com/mikegaboury

Mike Gaboury Interview

So before we get too deep into this, why don’t you quickly introduce yourself!

Hi! I’m Mike Gaboury, I live in cold-ass Canada, love videogames, illustration and energy drinks.

When did you first realize you had a talent and love for art?

I drew monsters, videogame/comic characters, and doodled all the way through school, instead of paying attention. I’ve always loved it. My mom would bring home giant boxes of printer paper from work and i’d sit there and draw while watching cartoons for hours… not much has changed. Fortunately for me, some people like what I draw, and actually want to pay me for it! WIN!

Did you go to school or receive any formal training in art, or our you completely self taught?

I took a few drawing classes growing up, I remember a comic book one, and maybe a few traditional ones through high school. Went to college for digital media production ( graphic / web design ) and focused mainly on illustration, design, and flash games. When it comes to shirt design, I learned how to properly do it when I first started up Cherry Sauce, reading through resources on Emptees and whatnot. Attack of the Cupcakes and Curbstomp were my first actual illustrated shirts.

Aside from being an amazing artist you also run a clothing line called Cherry Sauce. When did Cherry Sauce start, and where did you come up with that name?

My friend Jason and I used to hang out and talk about businesses we could start that would be manage-able for a low cost startup, eventually came to the decision of starting a clothing line. Our first idea was an “all zombie” brand, I think we were going to call it undead apparel… SO glad we didn’t end up doing that haha. For the longest time our official name was going to be Composure (yes, from the name of the august burns red song) There were too many brands with similar names and a whole lot of copyrights, plus we ended up not wanting a darker, angry, metal sort of brand.

*PAUSE FOR NAME EXPLANATION*

Jasons family has a cabin, and our group of friends and go out there often. When gassing up the boat, the oil mixture for the gasoline was a goopy, bright red substance, and we called it “Cherry Sauce” but we said it kinda funny (like someone who had been eating oil, pretending it was cherry sauce.) and we ended up saying “cherry sauce” all the time, kind of a code-word for boating/having fun. Just goofing off.

*AAAND BACK*

So when we went back to the drawing table, and were scouring thesaurus.com and random name generators… nothing was turning up. Being bored I decided to type out CHERRY•SAUCE in some sexy helvetica bold, and jokingly showed it to Jason, who absolutely loved it. After convincing me on it, we looked up the domains…. Uh oh… cherrysauce.com is a porn site, AWESOME! Sooo we ended up buying the domain cherrysauce.ca. After a 3 shirt line we sold mainly to friends and family we decided we needed to up our game a bit. After securing some funding, contacting artists, and getting things did, we launched our first REAL line on my birthday, July 24, 2009.

How hard is it being the both the artist and business person behind running a brand. I have always wondered why more artists don’t just start their own clothing lines!

I love it… most of the time. Having FULL creative control over lots of your products is both a blessing and curse. I get to oversee a shirt from conception to sales, but I also tend to overthink and spend way too much time on stuff for my own brand. Luckily, when I’m just not feeling it, or just can’t seem to get my ideas across on paper, we contract amazing artists like Matt Girouard and Nils Vogeding to design for us.

I agree with you though, most artists SHOULD have their own lines, the problem… I can imagine, iiiiis money, as starting a clothing line requires a solid chunk of cash to get going. Plus most of the best artists are illustrating full-time, and either a) don’t have time to add even more designs to their workload, b) probably don’t want to spend their free time doing.. what they do for work

Where would you say you pull most of your artistic inspirations from?

Videogames and comic books play a large part. I like to base my style on a mixture of saturday morning cartoons, tattoo art, urban/hip-hop, and whatever is on tv. Lots of my ideas and brainstorming occur while I’m driving to and from work actually.

What are some of your goals and ambitions for both your art and clothing line?

That’s a tough one to answer, my goal for my art/design is that I would love to really get my style nailed down, to a point where people can see my work and know instantly that it’s mine. (see godmachine, shantz, nicolo etc..) My goal is to spend more time drawing on my free time, and work on my linework and quality so work sees growth, if you aren’t getting better then what’s the point right?

For Cherry Sauce, I’d love to do all (or at least a large portion of warped tour) next year, perhaps start attending trade shows, and get some designs done from popular artists for a more diverse line. I hope our fan growth continues and people see and like what we are doing!

Working with you first hand on my Pong Deck project I’d have to say you are one of the most timely artists that I have met. Have you always been that way or something that you continually work on?

I’d actually say that’s one of my weakest points to be honest, one of the disadvantages of doing contract work on the side, is that when you work a full-time job, and have a clothing line, sometimes there isn’t a whole lot of free time for contract work (and it piles up fast) So one of my goals is to perhaps look into time management tools, and help speed up my workflow!

So as far as Pong Deck goes did you find it difficult to come up with 18 different ways to portray a plastic cup?

At first I was a little overwhelmed, how on earth am I going to make a CUP so animated? Then I thought to myself… if Disney can take the most random of things, and turn them into fully animated characters, it can’t be that bad! So I looked up animated characters, and the process people use for designing them. Found out if you draw the face first, the rest comes easily, doodled for awhile ’till it made sense, and went from there.

Any last minute parting words or shout out?

Stoked you guys chose me for your Pong Deck illustrations, I have nothing but good things to say about working with you guys and am sure Pong Deck will catch on and be a hit! You have yourself an awesome product.

Shout outs to my brother Matt and girlfriend Amanda for helping me with ideas for some of the cups, Jason (other half of Cherry Sauce) for being patient while I worked on contract work instead of Cherry Sauce, and the rest of FNAM for input and suggestions.

Take care and stay awesome!

Check out Cherry Sauce Clothing at: www.cherrysauceclothing.com
Or Mike’s Portfolio at: www.krop.com/mikegaboury

-NEVER hang them! After about a month or 2 the tees will get permanent crease marks and if they are a V-neck or a softer material neck the back of the neck will fold down the middle pointing out and it looks bad.

-Fold them correctly. Do not fold the neck on half. Yes you maybe able to get the folded shirt smaller but it is stays folded in half you will have stretching of the collar and permanent fold crease where it was folded. I suggest picking up one of these bad boys. (or making one yourself out of cardboard!)

4Sales4now.com has them for like $18 shipped and for me its totally worth it. It is also makes it easier to poly bag them because you can measure the folded size and all your products will be the same size! Which brings me to my next point…

I would recommend always poly bagging your tees. Why? Because it protects your investment! What if it was raining while you were on vacation and came back to find out you had a small leak in your room were you were keeping your shirts and the water fell on your tees ruining 20 shirts. Now if you had paid the 2-5 cents per bag to fold them then you would been saved.

Here is a great site to get bags. Of course I recommend getting recycled or biodegradable bags
www.papermart.com

The site is ghetto but I have been to their warehouse and it is anything but small and ghetto the place is huge with hundreds of people working there! Prices are great and have a huge selection! I also recommend
getting the self seal tab at the end that way it looks more professional and is easier then taping each one shut! I learned that one the hard way!

That brings me to my text point of actual storage. I would suggest putting and transporting them in a clear or frosted colored tote. You can get them at a Target type store for around $6 each. I suggest getting some
that have a side snap on clip top and that are at least 18″x26″ and a good 20″ tall minimum. I use a divider in the middle to separate the designs.

What is also an advantage to doing this is taking them to events you do you can put multiple designs in each bin and with a divider you can put a piece of tape with the design name written on it and it will make the
design very easy to find when in a sales rush! It will also be safer for your product because no one can reach in and grab them like if you were storing them on a shelf at an event. Keeping the products in a tote bin
at home or where ever you store the products can also help cause if any natural sun light comes in it will discolor your products over time. I also suggest getting a colored tote bins. I have blue for the guys and
pink for the ladies stuff that way I can go to the guys bin or ladies bin directly and it cuts down time when at an event or filling an order.

After poly bagging the tee put a small round sticker (about 3/4″ to an 1″ round and put the size on it. A simple XS,S,M,L,XL,2XL and so on. This makes it very simple to find what size you need at an event. I suggest
always putting the size sticker on the same side. For example, I always put the size sticker on the bottom right because I am right handed and when I pull out the bin I always grab for the bottom right so it makes it
easier to just flip the tees until you get to the size you want.

I also think that if you did a hang tag and it can be hung outside of the tee in the bad I think you should do that as well because (in my opinion) it looks more professional. Especially when you have a tag that is unique
or is pushing a sale or advertising something that it should be showing that might make someone checkout your site or sale you are having because they instantly saw that unique tag when they first pulled out the poly bag from your mailer.

Those are just a few tips I have learned over time.
Keep up the good times,
-Tim Hyde
Subeco
www.wearsubeco.com

If you enjoyed this article please visit facebook.com/subeco and “like” the page!

Tell me which one is your favorite in the comments and I will pick two winners for FREE SHIRTS! Also PLEASE Retweet and Share this article if you enjoyed it!

Ugmonk $42

Ugmonk $48

Electric Zombie$40

Electric Zombie$40

Electric Zombie$45

Stheart: $39.95

Stheart $37.95

Glamour Kills $39.99

Glamour Kills $39.99

Threadless $45

Kill Brand $42

Kill Brand $35.99

Free Bird Couture $48

Unleash Hell $65

Seventh Ink $45

Seventh Ink $45

Ruckus Apparel $46.95

Ruckus Apparel $46.95

Threadless $45

604 Republic $56

The Editions $49.99

Dead Bury Dead $39.99

Miles To Go $38.99

Akumu Ink $48.50

Akumu Ink $48.50

Akumu Ink $48.50

Johnny Cupcakes $64.99

Johnny Cupcakes $64.99

Dark Earth $45

Snakes & Suits $39.99

Snakes & Suits $39.99

Built For Sin £10.00

Built For Sin £25.50

Disturbia £40.00

Disturbia £48.00

Zombie Liquorice $39.00

Drop Dead £45.00

To Die For $50.00

Paint the Stars £22.00

Paint the Stars £28.00

Rockett $45.00

Rockett $45.00

Dekay $40

Enclothe $40

Arkaik $40

Iron Fist $50

Iron Fist $50

Fatal Clothing $44.99

Live To Love $40

Rip N Dip $20

Prestigious $35

KKBB Apparel $25

Threadless $40

Panic Pop $39.99

Cherry Sauce Clothing $40.00

Heroine Clothing $39.95

Hide And Seek $45

SkillaFashion $45

Pause Designs $44.99

I Love Antix $44.00

Wonderful Life $27.99

Threadless $40

Fuzzy Ink $40

Fuzzy Ink: $40

Branded Baron $35

Mumford Clothing $40

Pure Imagination $42

Choonimals $40

HealClothing $49

Threadless $40