John Wills, Zazzle shop owner and designer, believes that there's a little bit of a designer in all of us. We start out as young children exploring our creativity through handcrafted birthday cards and craft projects then outgrow that creativity as we tackle life. For some, like himself, however, that creative soul never dies and a true designer is born.In this interview, John shares how he discovered Zazzle, what inspires his designs, and how to build a store brand.
How did you hear about Zazzle?
I had heard about another print-on-demand service on public radio a few years ago and set up a shop on that site. Then one day when I was searching the Internet to learn more about the print-on-demand concept, I stumbled across Zazzle and immediately set up a shop.
The immediate draw to Zazzle, for me, was the availability of neckties. A couple months before I discovered Zazzle, I designed an Autumn Maple necktie and had been struggling to find a way to produce even one tie for my own use.
As I used Zazzle, I quickly discovered many more things to like – the wide range of products available, the intuitiveness of the design tools, the flexibility of the shop layout, and the ability to release my creative energy.
How did you come up with the concept for your shop and what inspires your designs?
My designs reflect what I know and see, what I am passionate about—and that's what comes through in my designs. I have lived in northern New England my whole life. Most of my designs are inspired by nature, wildlife, and rural New England. Covered bridges, lighthouses, autumn foliage, and mountains frequently show up in my designs.
My wife and I frequently spend time outdoors hiking, biking, skiing, and snowshoeing or visiting the rural corners of the region so I always carry paper and a pen to jot down design ideas as they come to me. Sometimes it starts out as a general idea. Other times, I immediately see the entire design in my mind’s eye.
Also, since the target market, for my New England-themed designs, is people who grew up in New England or who vacation here, I want my designs to evoke fond memories of their time spent in New England so I spend a lot of time reflecting upon how my designs, as a whole, represent what is unique and true about New England.
Once in a while, I come up with a design that doesn’t fit the theme of the site and I file it away for another day. Generally, I try to keep the shop focused primarily on nature, the great outdoors, and New England-themed designs.
Your shop has a very nice logo. It ties into your shop name beautifully. It's strong, yet subtle. Can you tell us how you came up with your logo and how it ties your brand together?
Thank you for noticing! The name Yankee Expressions was originally the second choice for a gift basket business my brother and sister-in-law owned. I helped them come up with the name and when they chose not to use it, I grabbed it. it captured my design style well.
The general idea for the logo just popped into my head one day. I then slowly refined the idea. The choice of font for Yankee (except the Y) is intended to invoke a traditional New England feeling while the font for the Y and for Expressions reflects a more relaxed modern twist as well as the handcrafted nature of some of my designs. The choice of green, brown, and tan colors draw on earth tones which reflect the nature theme in many of my designs—as does the image of the three trees. And I gave it a carved look using the 3-D preview function provided by my CNC router software.
I believe a strong logo is essential to brand recognition. Properly designed, a logo says a lot more about your shop than the words alone. The colors, fonts, and imagery can speak volumes about whether your designs are modern and flashy or traditional.
On your site you stated that your design style is "subtly bold". What do you mean by that?
I want my designs to stand out but not jump out. My goal is to create designs that catch the eye because they are distinctly different but are not in your face, not overly bold.
In lighting design, they say the best lighting arrangements are the ones no one directly notices. If a room is lit well, people will walk in and immediately feel at home but they won’t necessarily know why. That’s the feeling I want my designs to evoke.
One area Zazzle shopkeepers struggle with is designing t-shirts. I love that the images on your t-shirt designs seem to float right off the material. Can you tell us how one designs a great t-shirt?
Thanks for the compliment! My first stab at capturing a design idea usually lacks that punch you noticed. I have abandoned many designs because they didn’t come together right in the end. The most important thing to creating a great t-shirt design is to design shirts you'd want to wear.
When it comes to the actual design process, I spend a lot of time observing the world around me and refining my designs. When I see something that I find really appealing—be it a t-shirt design, a photograph, a painting, or a logo that just fits the company well, I spend time thinking about what made that design stand out, what made it so effective.
Then once I get my basic design into the computer, I push my design software to its limits to get a unique look. I further refine that design through several revisions and once I am satisfied with the results, I publish the design. Seriously, I will often rework a design until it gets "there"; often setting it aside for a couple days before revisiting it.
To achieve a borderless look (i.e. no rectangle or square border) I save the graphic as a PNG file with the background color set as transparent. It gets a little trickier if you want to have some white in a design for dark shirts because, on certain design software, you can’t set all whites to transparent. That being said, the higher-end software tends to have a transparent background feature so it's worth the cost. If your budget is tight, and you've purchased a lower-end program, you may beable to set the background to something like red (any color not used in your design) and specify that’s the color you want to make transparent.
If you could share just one design tip to help shop owners improve the quality of their designs, what would it be?
Be unique. Don’t try to mimic someone else’s design or style. Find a way to stand out by creating your own look.
To see more of John Wills' designs, visit him at Yankee Expressions.
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Interview © Alyice Edrich, All Rights Reserved. www.alyiceedrich.net
Artwork © John Wills, All Rights Reserved. www.yankeeexpressions.com
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This post was sponsored by The Dabbling Mum.
For more articles geared towards creating art, check out The Dabbling Mum eMagazine.
