Activity

There are several routes to go regarding branding and art licensing. The most usual is one’s own website featuring one’s own artwork, writing, products with your art such as tee shirts, clocks, mouse pads, etc. This is how I started with my cartoon site in 1997. I didn’t really have anything to sell, but, strangely enough, after my creative team and I produced a few hundred cartoons, we received a call from a San Diego T shirt manufacturer who wanted to buy the rights to 12 of our images for ten thousand dollars. We took it without blinking an eye. That was around 1998. We thought we "had arrived". Many humbling experiences would squelch that thought in a millisecond.

Make your favorite cartoon character spread the message that you want through the t-shirt that you are wearing. It will be a very good choice if you do so since, this will not only make the environment lighter but it will gain you immense popularity among kids.

They got the fire going, and friends and family of the house mates came bearing food and drink. Roger and Jionni came bearing flowers. Mike bragged that he has been in the best shape of his life. He played football on the beach, but could not keep up with Jionni, who everyone said was great for a short guy.

Do some test market research for your T-shirt store. Do some easy test market research with your T shirt business before you start designing your T-t-shirt shopping. Check out some popular spots where your target market shops and check out the designs on T shirts and other apparel. You might be surprised at some of the T shirts that people are buying. Designs such as fantasy images and retro artwork from the seventies’s and eighties’s are popular with many young people. Also evaluate the quality of the T shirts you are going to be selling by getting honest opinions from others, preferably people that are within your target market .You can do this by creating a couple of test T shirts and wearing them around or getting your friends and family to wear your designs.

First, I decided on full color. Then decided on much more text and less emphasis on the brand of characters, and more on the essence/spirit of the cartoon, that is, the theme of the cartoon would be similar, even if the subject matter was often different. There is so much one can "brand" in a single panel. I also realized that I didn’t want to just tackle one subject, but many. So I categorized them into medical, science, law, celebrities, music, sports, relationships, etc. This opened doors to all kinds of potential markets. Keep in mind, if one is marketing to, say, university textbook publishers, and one only creates physics cartoons, not a lot of textbook publishers are going to take a second glance, that is, unless they only publish physics textbooks. Hence the variation of subject matter.

For starters, offer products that are high quality. Only your best t-shirts should be up for sale. Don’t settle for trying to sell tees even you wouldn’t wear.

A great thing to do at anytime is to make a book. A book of family photos of Christmas’ past takes lots of time. There is so much to do at Christmas time that this needs to be done in advance. You can add people you want to remember who have passed away. Photos of kids growing up always makes people smile.

Mike received a gift from Paula, who he has not seen in a week. She sent him two cakes that he shared with the guys. The girls did not eat it because they thought that it could be poisoned.