I'm feeling in the mood to try some different styles of designs. Traditionally I've done pretty pictures or puns or just designs that I think are really f-ing cool but now I'm feeling like there should be more unique wears out there. My latest design strives for this:



I loved working on this design because it truly felt like I was working on two designs at the same time. Plus, if you rotate the design around a little bit it feels like a completely different piece of art. So, regardless of how well or not well it scores I think this is my first truly unique-styled designs. I hope people like it but I know this is a very diverse crowd of voters for Threadless. So my next couple of designs I think are going to be more like optical illusions or very subtle designs that really make people look at them closely. Hope it works out.

Can't wait to get started on the Loves challenge this time. I have been a comic book fanatic for most of my life. In truth, it's what got me started drawing and looking at the artwork of Spiderman, The Fantastic Four, X-Men, and Spawn is what allowed me to grow as an artist and become that much better in all aspects of my art. Don't know exactly what kind of design I'll do (so maybe there'll have to be more than one). Can't wait to get started.

On a related note, my new profile picture was inspired by comics before I even realized there was a challenge to be had. I always sort of saw myself as a villain in comics and never the hero. The villains storylines always seemed so much more mysterious and I always found myself wanting to know more about them since every waking detail of the heroes was practically spelled out for you. So while my new profile pic may be creepy, it's certainly not as bad as headless me :-)

What is success in this business? I've been asking myself over the last few weeks what would make me happy. Obviously, getting printed is the ultimate definition of success on Threadless, but maybe there is another definition. I, like many first-time designers , look primarily at my scores for my designs to define how well I did. I really just hope that each subsequent design does better than the last. "Plan Ahea" my latest design broke the 2.75 barrier. I was hoping for anything above 2.5 so I was thrilled with 2.78. If it doesn't get printed, does that mean that that design wasn't a success? Absolutely not, it just means I need to redefine success.

What makes a design successful for all you other designers out there? For me, success was all about finishing designs and seeing them do better each time, but that's my definition - what's yours?

This is going to be a very stream of conscious rant as I've had a little wine to drink tonight... judge me at your own peril :)

One of the hardest things I've dealt with as a new designer (and I'm sure many of you have too) is dealing with rejection. This may mean many different things to many different people but for me it's having a design not do as well as I'd like to expect. I develope an attachment to my designs, whether it be purely personal or more symbolic there is an emotional attachment to my designs that I can't simply ignore. At times, this attachment becomes almost obsessive, where I double, triple, and quadruple-check how many people have voted for my design or left comments on it. Now I know that I'm being paranoid, but I've put a lot of time into my work and I'd like to think I'm being fairly rewarded for that investment. So how do you deal with a design that doesn't fair so well with the general populace?

I don't deal with it well. I haven't for a while. I don't know what I expect (laurels of gold please). I deal with it by making more designs, by hoping that the next one imprints something on someone that makes it magnificent, not only in my eyes but on their eyes as well. People have told me I have talent and skill, but I'm not so sure I see it yet. There's a lot more left to do and I don't think I can always let myself become too attached to my designs that I lose sight of the bigger picture out there: this site and this dream of mine isn't about one design and one competition, it's about a lifetime commitment to making something better - making myself and my artwork better.

How do you deal with rejection? How do you make that next design your best, when your best before just wasn't good enough?

Sometimes fortune looks you in the eye and spits... luckily that's not what this is about.

I recently sold my business and gained more than just the money from that sale. I also received the gift of time. One thing I've noticed about this freedom is that it isn't what I expected. First, when I didn't have time for design work something amazing happened, I still ended up producing stuff. Granted, it wasn't a lot but it was something. Now that I have time to devote myself wholeheartedly to my passion and talent it has become that much harder to actually produce anything. I suppose it's because I've found so much other stuff to do. Where were all these errands and distractions before? They've appeared out of the ether and each vies for my time. I've still been working but the work has changed from what I thought it was... now I observe a lot more and practice drawing, designing, and using Photoshop.

It's because it hasn't sunk in that this is a job now. It still feels like vacation and no one wants to work 40-50 hours a week while they're on vacation. I'm hoping this feeling changes soon because I think it would be the most fulfilling feeling to have a job in design. Now it's about pushing through the distractions and keeping myself motivated.

Wish me luck, because it's going to be a long road ahead