Just a quick update and reminder there's still time to get yours. Even if you don't buy one please share and help me get the word out. Thanks everyone!
âSafety Firstâ now available on @cottonbureau. Make yourself highly visible as you precariously meander through traffic, private residences, and underwater aquariums as you try to catch them all. Available two weeks only.Â
omg I completely forgot to tell yâall about this thing I made with @cottonbureau itâs available for one more week then never again probably thank you and bye bye
The Aquatic Plants t-shirt is now available, for a limited time, through @cottonbureau ! The design was inspired by a recent visit to the aquatic plants room at @brooklynbotanic. The t-shirt comes in several different styles and colors:Â https://cottonbureau.com/products/aquatic-plants
Following on from the success of âHENCHMANâ and âHENCHWOMANâ, we are proud to present âDEATH BEE BEE KEEPERâ, designed in @macaffinity and produced by those paragons of Pittsburgh pixel-working, @cottonbureau!
âDeath Bees have long been a regular part of the Great British honey industry (with the Royal Society of Deathbee Bee Keepers doing their part to keep Big Honey out of the United Kingdomâs apiaries⊠and Death Bees out of the membershipâs skin), but now Gotham City (and North America, in general) is now seeing a new British Invasion!
_ Who needs four Beatles, when you can have swarms and swarms of useful and not-at-all-evil Death Bees! Holy guacamole!_
_ Show your support of these deadly and much needed pollinators, by wearing your RSDBK pride, quite literally, on your shirt!â_
For those who may not be familiar with the concept of a Death Bee, this is the vine that started it all, courtsey of @batlabels
Fonts used for this design were the open-source Sorts Mill Goudy from the League of Movable Type, the free-for-commercial-use Cast Iron from @jeremyvessey and Columbia Titling from @typetanic (purchased in one of Design Cutsâ fantastic font bundles
British designer and illustrator Matt Hamm hit a thread with his Deathstar Interior Lighting shirt design - itâs one of our top 20 all-time best sellers. Pretty impressive considering itâs been on the site less than nine months. We sat down for a quick interview on the man behind the shirt. Read on to hear about the risk he took in starting his own studio.
CB:Â Let's start with a quick history - how did you become Creative Director and Co-Founder of Supereight?
MH: I was working at a web design agency in 2009 with a very talented web designer Pete Orme. Increasingly I found myself thinking that I could do most of the work here like new business, project management and accounting as well as designing and front-end development.
That week, I met up with my ex-boss from a larger design consultancy, that I had worked at previously, for a bit of extra freelance illustration work. We starting chatting about the idea of setting up my own company, using some office space there and becoming part of the consultancy's network. He was also offering to become a silent investor and feed me work from the consultancy and the network. It all seemed like an offer to good to refuse.
He also suggested finding another designer or developer to work with and Pete Orme, my colleague at Kyan, came to mind immediately. I suggested the idea to Pete and he didn't even need time to think about it. He said he was in and even had a feeling that was something I might suggest to him before all this happened.
We waited a few weeks and then dropped the bombshell that both of us were leaving Kyan. Kyan were gutted, yet really good about it all and completely understood.
As the time got closer to us starting our new company, now called Supereight, the whole deal with the design consultancy fell through and we were left to start this thing on our own. We were gutted, but we had already made the first leap. Looking back now after 7 years, it was the best thing that could have happened to us.
CB:Â Wow. What a rollercoaster of emotions that time must have been for you. How did you go about making sure the new studio was able to stay in business without the safety net of your investor?
MH:Â We only had one project lined up and we didn't really pay ourselves much for the first couple of months. We didn't have an office space initially so our overheads were pretty low. We managed to get our company noticed by our newly designed website being listed on lots of website galleries and got some interaction going on a few social media channels.
We were lucky to have a few bigger projects roll in after that from word of mouth. Once we had a financial buffer in place we were able to feel a bit more stable and continued getting work from recommendations.
It did feel risky at times, but that was part of the excitement of starting up a new business. We put in the hours and that time paid off.
CB:Â A little hard work (and luck!) can go a long ways sometimes. What's the best thing about being your own boss?
MH:Â The best thing about being your own boss is the flexibility of working hours and how that fits around family life. You call the shots. If you want to go for a ride mid-morning because it's a nice day, you can.
CB:Â You're a pretty avid cyclist - what's the connection between cycling and designing? Is there one?
MH:Â I don't think there is a link between cycling and designing. Cycling, like running or any other sport, is just an activity to get you away from the screen and clears the mind.
CB:Â Ha - fair point! How else do you spend your free time?
MH:Â Most of my free time is spent with my family. I have a beautiful wife from Venezuela and two lovely kids, aged 7 and 4. I've been doing lots of DIY recently. We moved into a new house last year and I ripped up all the horrible dated carpet and laid solid oak flooring in every room. I really enjoyed doing it, it looks amazing and we saved a hell of a lot of money in the process.
CB: Sounds like quite the undertaking! Thanks for chatting with us, Matt.
To see more of Mattâs work, you can check out his personal site or follow him on twitter, instagram, and dribbble. Sign up for the next printing of Deathstar Interior Lighting here.
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