Studio Weblog

Currently in the process of starting a very small independent clothing label called "The SteamLion Apparel Co."  This has been a dream of mine for some time, and due to some recent luck in finding a quality white label printer, it's becoming a reality.  I'm currently developing a business model that can make this dream real, and sustainable.  For now, the project can be found on the "Merch" page.  Once I've established a means with which to get hang tags at a cheap rate, I plan to keep the project on this website until such a time comes when I can spin it off into it's own thing.  I've also thrown a few basic designs on Zazzle to showcase a few of the designs I plan to implement down the road.  They are purchasable, however, they don't represent what the final product will look like or feel like.  I'm not sure where this will lead for me personally, however It feels good to take on a new project and utilize some of the contacts and knowledge I've amassed in my days of retail in Forest Hills, Queens on Austin Street. 

  More as if unfolds, and to those of you who are in on this now at it's beginning stages I offer my deepest thanks for the support, and for putting up with my obsessiveness.  

To keep things Interesting, I'm working on a few T-Shirt Ideas.  Whether or not I go through the process of producing and selling them is another story.  I might create a few for myself to wear and see what kind of feedback I get. 

-J 

For what appears to be the second night in a row, Blog.com is down.  No homepage, no blogs, no answers.  When viewing their facebook page, you are greeted with no announcements.  Upon checking your inbox, there is no "we're sorry for your inconvenience" email.  There is nothing. 

As a designer, to be frank, I'm both appalled and embarrassed by this because I have suggested, endorsed,  and in fact EMBEDDED blog.com blogs into the websites of clients.  After this experience, I'm making absolutely certain I NEVER do that again.   

To those of you I am currently working with on projects, and those who'se projects are complete and are using this blog, I'll be contacting you in the coming days to go over solutions as far as a suitable replacement.  There are not that many of you out there, thankfully but we'll get it taken care of. 

Had a little downtime, and designed a T-Shirt for my daughter today. Zazzle has a pretty neat set-up.  More on the quality of the merchandise when it arrives. I've been meaning to try this out for a while.  I'm very much satisfied with the user experience on this one.  The design program that you use is extremely simple and intuitive, and seems to take into account the way clothing behaves as far as folds and how text and images look on clothes that are actually ON.  

Now, I'm not saying i'm going to get into the T-Shirt business, but having the option to put a logo or some text on some apparel for a client is great. 

I like it. 

A little shameless plugging never hurt anyone...

To those of you who use Blog.com as your primary news and update sharing platform on your website, the Blog.com site is currently down.  No word on when it will be back up and running.  Users are experiencing a "This page is temporarily unavailable" message.  

Once the site is back up, users should be able to see their embedded news pages displayed properly on whatever page news is shared on. 

Thanks for your Patience. 

Project Update- 

Finished the site for Fox Aircraft LLC. We’ll be posting this one on our “work” page this morning.

It was great working with Steve and I personally look forward to flying with him this summer.

To book a great charter tour, please visit www.foxaircraft.com

Thanks Steve! 

I won't say how much the package was, but it was enough to make me cringe.  

I then called into their customer service department and pressed "3" for tech support.  Imagine how surprised I was when I found that I was not connected to tech support but sales.  The agent I spoke to was absolutely no help at all (not even answering the most general of questions for me since I wasn't authorized on the account).  After thanking him for his help, he replied with a "No problem man."  

Perhaps we can chalk this up to inexperience using GoDaddy's hosting platform, but after a few hours of fiddling with it to no avail I'm going to have to give the whole thing an "A+" in presentation and marketing and a big "F" in overall customer experience.  

To any one who stumbles upon this post, I'd be interested in hearing your experiences.  

-J