No pigeon-holing, please, even in P.O.D.

Some years ago I decided I was going to try out something different from just drawing on paper or designing for clients. Always having been interested in printing trying out to do some silkscreen printing was somewhat of a flop. You just cannot start trying to screen print at even a small scale with a family running around you in a small flat (well small for five of us and five cats). Especially not when one of them happens to be a toddler.
This was really when I started to realise that what I actually wanted to do was get my work on t-shirts, for it to be worn. Logistically it was always going to be a challenge. A low-wage earner at the time, and when I saw low I mean low, even buying the equipment required at the lower end of the scale was going to be a stretch, yet I still ventured to do so. Of course it was a flop, but not quite the total flop.
I suppose the one thing you have to do is learn from your mistakes and it’s the one thing I did. Realising that to print to get the screen I needed to go digital the flop led me to look at other options which is where print-on-demand came to the forefront.

Using sites such as redbubble, teepublic, designed by humans and spreadshirts I have found an avenue which has allowed me to grow some of my art.
I have never wanted to be pigeon-holed into one category or style and print-on-demand in many ways challenged my perceptions and styles.
As you start creating new artworks you have to look at how it fits on the product, how it will be seen. Importantly you have to ask yourself why would anyone wear it or hang it on their walls, or put it up as a decoration?
This led to trying new styles, from the comic oriented cartoon based illustrations to the graphic textiles, abstracts and typographical works and even the the doodling cake in.

Now with some 500 designs my decision not to be pigeon-holed might seem like a mistake because I will find it hard to grab a niche market but when you have someone in Australia, America, Germany even somewhere in South America purchasing one of your designs it can be quite gratifying. Not that I will get rich with it, I mean sometimes getting ten or twelve pence because someone bought a sticker will do little for my pocket, but from the days of just throwing stuff away or placing them in drawers to seeing your work purchased it’s quite fun just keeping to the challenge of being able to do something someone might consider wearing.
Print-on-demand, however, is one form of keeping my art moving forward which I will not give up. Among one of the things I like about it is the very fact that there is no wastage of resources, neither at my end or at the production stage. One person wanting one t-short means one t-shirt only being printed, not 100, where you are left with 99 left behind. It also means that there is a uniqueness to the product as it’s not mass produced. Persons wearing my designs know they are probably the only ones wearing it, or among a very small numbers. It’s not like going to the big store down the road and buying a t-shirt, or graphic-tee which you later find half the world is wearing. In my own little way I’m reducing the carbon footprint on that design. It might cost that little extra but if you buy it it is because you like it, not because it’s the only one on offer.

I recommend any aspiring artists, or even those already established to check these sites out. All of them are excellent in one thing, even if it’s a small amount you do get your little royalty payment even if it’s just one quid and it’s probably cost you more to send it than you are getting back. But the joy of it, along with the dreams that maybe one day you will sell thousands, yes dream because no matter how much they promise you must be among that rare breed who are so unique and so good that thousands will buy it, by which time someone somewhere will take you out of that system and contract your or licence your work.
Now, of course, it would be stupid of me concluding this post and not inviting you to check out my work on these site, so please have a quick browse at stephenignacio.redbubble.com.

My main art galleries including photography can also be found at stephenignacio.smugmug.com