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BIG UPDATE: Diversifying, merchandise??? - OPINIONS PLS by SpartaDog
Hi guys!
I'm sure some of you have noticed I've been a little sparse for awhile. That's mostly because battleferrets was here visiting for a month and a half, and it turns out cuddles and smooches are really distracting in the best way possible. I had to stop streaming for a bit at the beginning of the visit for Furpocalypse, then I did a little bit, and then I stopped again because I wanted to spend as much time with him as possible for the last week or so. But, now he's back home safe and sound in Canadialand so I should have my schedule back to normal by next week.
I also want to get back to more furry and monster art, and also diversify beyond what I do already. As I'm sure you all know, I kind of got hooked on Overwatch, and then my Overwatch art became really popular on Tumblr pretty much overnight. That motivated me to draw more of it, but it's kind of....all I've been drawing for about 6 months lmao. And don't get me wrong, I still love drawing it. I don't plan on stopping Overwatch fanart any time in the forseeable future. I just don't want to be just The Overwatch Artist. I've always been that way. I don't like being pigeonholed, because I don't like being limited in what I get to draw. I get bored if I do the same thing for too long. That hasn't happened with Overwatch yet, but I want to re-diversify before it does.
So yeah, I'm going to be doing more furry art. I hope to be opening commissions soon, and I have two Christmas-themed YCHs planned that should be up within a week or so. Also, we went to the Philadelphia Zoo this past weekend, and that's got me wanting to do more wildlife art (I got some amazing photos of the Siberian tigers, snow leopard, lowland gorilla, and a few snakes that would make awesome artwork). And on top of that, my boyfriend being here and playing Arkham Knight rekindled some of my love for the Batfamily and Rogues Gallery, so I might try to do some fanart of that too. I've got a picture of Poison Ivy in mind...
And finally, I've been dipping my toes into the merchandise pool. I have Genji dakimakuras that were a surprising success, with at least one or two more OW characters lined up. Maybe I'll end up doing some other fandom characters, or some generic furries, if there's enough interest. It also got me thinking about other forms of merch. T-shirts, bags, electronics cases, etc. I already have a RedBubble that lets you put my art on all of those things, but they're extremely limited in the content I'm allowed to upload due to copyright and content laws. That wouldn't be a problem if I was printing and shipping it all on my own. And now with my Storenvy up and running, it's not overly difficult to do that either.
I actually have a few questions for you guys in regard to merch:
- What kind of merch do you buy? Shirts, posters, phone cases, etc
- What kind of art do you buy on merch? Fanart, generic furries, wildlife, fantasy, etc
- Are there any pieces I've done already that you'd be interested in as merch?
I think that just about covers it. I do have a couple big projects coming up this month that I don't want to talk about just yet, but I'll announce them soon enough. I'm super excited about them ;)
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I tend to buy little trinkets like stickers, buttons, keychains, and such, because they make good gifts and don't break the bank. I am also a weirdo who collects silicone bracelets, which I see a lot of vendors getting made nowadays. I love shirts and would definitely buy some if they had a design I liked! Custom leggings or tights would be awesome. I personally am not a print kinda gal, because I lived in a place where I could not display them up until recently, but I think they're one of the big sellers at cons.
As for content, I like fanart, and when it comes to furry stuff, items featuring species I'm fond of (cheetah merch will almost definitely get my dollars). I prefer wildlife/animal designs over anthro stuff, and prefer items I can use or display anywhere, so nothing overly furry (e.g. busty wolf ladies, references to fandom terms like fursuiting or yiff). I don't buy prints, etc. of other people's characters unless they are nondescript enough to look like a generic member of their species. -
Hmmm. I feel like generic furries are the best way to go for prints and merch. The kind of stuff I like to see is anything useful, like phone cases as you mentioned, or little decorative boxes, jars, bandanas, etc. Anything that has a little bit of practical purpose is what I lean towards. I keep an eye out for things that are red panda themed of course, but I buy other species just as much when I'm gift shopping for friends.
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My merch adventures have been kind of successfull this year I I gonna share what I learnt:
It is totall ramdom, you meet the mainstream market with your art great, you cater a niche, also great, both can bring you about the same amount of money, unless you get a retail deal, which hardly ever happens.The stuff I made most of my money with are t-shirts and bags, I felt alot of furries seek for a design that is somehow furry aka animal related without screaming "furry". Be sure to give the design a twist, a style that makes it yours and fits well on tshirts. I see alot of people putting normal
Illuatrations or just a head dunno on a shirt and that's it. While fullillustrations can work well for allocer print, it still is a very thin line between cool and trashy. I'd go for a more symbolic, graphic kind of design. Browse the best selling category on rebubble, there are alot of good examples and you can find your own voice for apparel.The other thing are buttons, stickers and prints. Buttons: a cool slogan or saying beats everything and if you can wrap it up with a great design: you win!
A friend of mine did very well with "pun buttons", me with monstery, teeth-ish stuff on buttons. Or cute stuff, but since i'm not too much for cute stuff I can't say too much about that. Same with stickers. I sold color versions of my tshirt designs and people loved it and mostly bought a shirt and a sticker as addon. (That's what my boss calls: create demand)
As for prints: just do what you feel like, just remember: OCs are not the best idea, random characters or well known ones (be it your design of a book character or fanart) are a better idea. For me random characters, be it humans, monsters, animal or furries are all good for a print.
People need a point where they can fall in love with the piece itself, no matter what topic: it speaks to them = you sold it.
I had a candygore-goo-tiger with kind of strange colors ( https://twitter.com/winterbalg/status/760865329044127744 ) this year and this print sold so damn well it's nuts. Normally I don't take more than 20 copies of a print with me to a con, this time I had 40 of this one, happy accident, sold 39 in 2 days (and that was just this one print, the year before I sold like 5prints overall in 2 days) But this can be the total opposite next year or at another convention, online, wherever.Personally I love buying lanyards and pins and those things seem to be very popular right now.
But Taste changes and merch always is a gamble! Do what you want, make it a good, finished, "closed" design and create demand with it
while presenting the solution for this demand. And most important: advertise the shit out of it!Good god that one is long x.x I'm sorry I just hope this helps a bit.
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Haha no problem! I've been selling prints for a few years now so I know how that goes, and I have a general idea of what styles work well. But this is my first time really attempting to manufacture on my own, so I was mostly looking for what subject matter and objects are most popular.
This was very helpful, thank you!
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Haha glad it helped. I tend to get a bit overexcited and throw every single thought at people, when it comes to that topic, sorry for that.
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keirajo
Having gone to a few conventions, I know that the things I notice people buying a lot are dakimakuras and prints. I'm in that category..........I love prints, because you can usually find them in many sizes and can pretty much be put almost anywhere easily. I tend to be drawn to anything that are wolves or other canids............but I also love fantasy and sci-fi stuff, especially when they've got nice backgrounds (and aren't just a character).