Sooo... What's Up With the Online Store?

Trial and Error. The only way to learn things in business and life. It may cost you a little extra time and money to find your way, but the profit and knowledge attained afterward is worth all the struggle. 

This is one of those moments. The website I was planning on using to set up an online shop has issues with the programming and will not allow me to upload my t-shirt designs. On top of this, the shipping for these shirts takes almost a month. Very inefficient. As a way to alleviate the problem I want to invest in having my own inventory so I can sell and ship myself. Way faster and more reliable. 

Until then. Stay Tuned. 

-TLG 

My rendition of the "I Love New York" T-shirt.

On the way to the Roots concert, I caught a glimpse of this cool tag on a pillar in the 157th street station (Uptown Side). When on my way back home I remembered at exactly the right moment and got off the train and took the shot and headed home. I'm definitely going to keep this in the vault for the future. 

 The never ending love story. 

-TLG 

Anybody Want Candy??

I get my candy fix from this truck. No trust me its cool, he's a good guy! 

Just Kidding. You gotta be crazy.  

I've been seeing this van on and off all summer a couple blocks away from my place. I kept telling myself I would get the shot. So I finally did. 

Future T-Shirt? Perhaps.  

-TLG 

The Status Update.

Since the first post back on WordPress, I've been playing the waiting game. Just over a week ago I received the first sample t-shirt. So what's the verdict??

 I was mildly satisfied with the sample, there are some things that i would like to tweak a little prior to releasing.

The one thing i was satisfied with was the quality. One of the problems that plagued my first line of shirts, was the stiffness of the ink transfer paper. When you put the shirt on it wouldnt bend or flex in the normal fashion. Even worse is if you throw it in the dryer. It felt like some sort of a leathery, reptilian, scaly texture. So somewhere through the struggles i knew i had to find a solution. Compared to the old t-shirts, this new model is more comfortable and washer-machine ready(at least more so than the last ones.) 


One of the problems with the sample was how dark it printed. The original image from now on needs to be pre-adjusted for print. Which means adjusting brightness, lightness, contrast, hue, saturation and converting it from RGB to CMYK. The last setting is specifically for the printers benefit. It makes the colors of the original image duller, but it allows me to see what the printed shirt will probably end up looking like once i get it.
 















 For this specific shirt design, the logo came out a little dark against the background, so i outlined it in white for the actual release.  Here is an example of the original image, converted to CMYK, logo outlined in white, and all the other settings adjusted: 

 -TLG

The Re-Post.

I figured I would re-post the first blog entry on the wordpress site. Just for those who didnt see it the first time and then do an update. 
"I’ve been waiting for this summer to start for such a long time. so its only fitting that I post this on the FIRST NIGHT of summer. Leading up to this point, I was preoccupied with… life. It prevented me from taking any new pics.. spreading the name around.. I did nothing with Tastes Like Gold in my second semester.

So this summer has been an entire year in the making. The summer that I finally put some capital, energy, elbow grease, whatever you want to call it, into Tastes Like Gold. It’s the perfect time to do anything.

My first plan of action.. find an affordable T-shirt printing website, I found more than I bargained for. shirtmagic.com also supplies a very intuitive online shop option that allows the seller to make money off his/her designs. I said “Why Not?”

My second plan of action… create a sample t-shirt. As some of my close friends know, I was making my own designs in my dorm room for about a year. I did all the Ironing. all the printing… all the purchasing.. it was my own creation. Was I proud of it? yeah most definitely.. was it the best I could do.. no. This lead me to finding a higher quality option that would end up saving me money in the long-run. This sample t-shirt is on its way as we speak. the shipping is taking forever (heads up to future customers, it’s a bit of an extended wait period unfortunately :/)  Simple putting it on a black tee, no?"