Productive but tiring!

My design tends to come in waves. I have times when literally all I can do is sit and create, and others when that's the last thing I want to do. Right now seems to be a creative time. Which is great, but exhausting. I designed all weekend. I've spent all day today working on a logo for a veterinarian in Chicago.

My head. It sort of hurts. On the other hand, I've got lots of fun new designs to share! It's funny that Dobermans are MY breed but I've been lax on getting dobe designs up. Better late than never. I still need to get the dobe silhouette up as well.

Back to the grindstone...

It's Friday!

I got a new Rally design up last night before I quit for the day, and today I've been sort of shiftless if you know what I mean. I have a logo design to do for a non-Zazzle client, as well as a web page to start, and have caught up on one of my regular websites that I maintain.

The economy is horrible, but if I can get my Zazzle site publicized enough to bring in some steady income, I think I'll be okay.

shuffle, shuffle...

This morning I reorganized my product lines. I decided they were getting sort of out of line. So now all my breedwear is under "Dog Breeds."

I also discovered that if you aren't careful, Zazzle "appends" your search words. Not only did they change my search words for my German Shepherd wear, they misspelled the name! I do try to put common misspellings and nicknames in my search terms, so I'm now being careful to check the box to NOT append search words.

New Design

This is all Ann's fault. See, I used to show Saddlebreds, lo those many years ago. I actually attended William Woods University on an equestrian scholarship. But those days are long gone. I haven't ridden a horse in years.

Today Ann G emailed a video of a racking horse to a small group of friends. Which made me go find some World Championship Horse show video. And after I watched some of that, I dug in a closet and pulled out a drawing I did in 1988. I've been having a ball with it all darn day. Of course since it was 18" x 24" and my scanner is 8" x 11", it's also taken all day for me to scan it in pieces, put it togther, make it seamless, and then have lots of fun with colors and shadings. Enjoy!

New design

New design, and I actually used my template!

More nuts and bolts

I am now sallying forth to try the template feature. I want to add some new designs. I only want to use certain representative products, not the whole Zazzle line. Unlike Cafepress, in Zazzle it's smart to show, for example, one men's shirt and one woman's shirt then allow customers to choose an alternate shirt. But Zazzle doesn't allow customers to take that design and apply it to, say, a coffee mug. So I try to make a variety of items available in each design, but not so many that it clogs up my viewer with repeat after repeat of the same design.

Back later with anything else I learn.

This promotion stuff is exhausting!

You know, I think I have some really good designs. But promoting them in the marketplace, that's hard work! Treading the fine line between legitimate promotion and spamming is incredibly difficult. I want to shout to the world, "Look! These are cool! You will like them!" But if I push too hard, I'll be (rightly) labeled a scummy spammer.

Hence this blog, reciprocal agreements with other designers who are also in the same spot I am, and today, reupping my old ddgraphix.net address. See, I was in business for myself for years as a graphic designer, before Zazzle. But with the economy sinking, so did my business. So I let my ddgraphix.com address go. And it was scooped up by domain name pirates. Instead of trying to deal with them, I went for the *.net name.

All this makes my head hurt and I find a lot of it incredibly confusing. It's also annoying to be spending so much time doing this kind of infrastructure work instead of what I really want to do, which is design. I have so many ideas and even though I'm not working I still seem to have so little time to actually do what I like best.

I know, I know, bitch, bitch, bitch. Oh well, I'm done for the day anyway. Time to take Pinhead and Crazydobe to the training building!

Welcome to DD Graphix blog

Here I'll share the trials and tribulations (and designs) from my DDGraphix store. I'll showcase new designs and share discounts available. I'll also feature other stores with designs I especially like!

Most of my designs are dog related. I have been training and showing dogs for over 20 years and currently show in agility as well as teaching classes. I'm a graphic designer by trade. Like many others in these economic times I was "downsized" last year. That has allowed me to step outside the box and explore other income opportunities! Hence, offering designs for purchase through Zazzle.

Why Zazzle? Well I do have a small store on CafePress as well. But I was disappointed in the quality of the clothing in CafePress. I've found that the variety of clothing and giftware at Zazzle is better. Hence, Zazzle it is!