How I Designed New Products
Hello friends,
Today I want to expand on how I created the new Sakura products I did this Spring season~ I had so much fun creating them and it was stressful ordering so much D: but I live to try new things. I wanted to go over how I got from A to Z for these items in case you are aspiring to create something yourself!
I’m sorry my poor wallet
I don’t sell a ton of items, so I work in small batches. I also work full-time at a 9 to 5 type job, which I love and don’t plan to leave anyway. So when I make items, its for FUN and a HOBBY for me, with the only goal being to continue to fund my crafting adventure (and what I just spent). I want to mention this as you will need to put more thought into items and their cost if you want to do this full time. You might have to shop around for vendors, find the best deals, order directly from a maker in another country – etc. It’s something to keep in mind.
For this collection I spent on and off 2+ months pondering, designing, sourcing, ordering and listing these items. I started with sketches in a notebook, I have more ideas in there too, I keep a notebook specifically for this, as I have ideas I want to make, but they are all over the place and this allows me to put them into collections or at least sort them out. So keep your time in mind. I am hoping I will get faster in the future, since this is not the first time I’ve ordered stuff but it is the first time I focused on a single collection sale and the organization was a lot of effort for me, personally.
My point is, your time has a price, so you should keep that in mind when selling your items. I am not a good example for this, again this is not my job – I do this for fun, as a hobby. I aim ABOVE breakeven so I can buy the next stuff I want to try to make. My job is marketing and I love it, but my goodness it’s endless joy opening new products. I highly suggest you give it a go if you are curious about it.
Artwork, prep and commercial licenses
YOU DO NOT HAVE TO MAKE THE ART to do these type of projects. Seriously.
I want to emphasis this so its more accessible, I made several items in Procreate but I also purchased Sakura blossom items from Creative Market. Going into this I knew I was purchasing some art from day 1 as I love florals and I wanted this collection to have elegant florals vs just a standard sakura flower.
So make the art you want, buy the art you need – make sure to get the right license. You will need a commercial for up to 500 orders, then an extended for over that. Huge deal, respect other people’s art.
Then it’s all design work from there, which I personally use Photoshop for. I’ve made memos before so I had a head start there on the grid sizes I knew I wanted. I made a 4 x 4 inch file with 300 DPI – and modified layer groups for each one. When I use photoshop I tend to oversize files, as they can always be shrunk down for other projects, but you might want to keep file size in mind as well.
I have ordered paper before as well, in HP size. This is seriously the most expensive item I order and I raised the cost of it, as I do not make anything on it, I just want to own it. It’s so costly but its a good quality which is more important to me. If I ordered a ton of it I would be better off, but I can’t nor do I want to order bunch of a single design. I live in a condo, space is a factor.
Yes I have tried other sources, still trying a few more, but quality is the most important factor to me.
Notepads, washi, the sun catcher, and vinyl stickers were new to me. I’ve ordered charms before as well. I did half page notepads as I felt that was a good size. I printed so many and made so many changes before I went with my current design. The others I had a pretty good idea what I wanted. Notepads were added in last anyway, as I felt like I wanted to give that a go. I LOVE THEM and plan to do a ton more, however I did 50 pages and I think this is a bit much on a single notepad, it makes it a bit heavy, and next time I will do the smaller amount – 25.
Finally, finding sources for your items
So as I’ve said, I’ve ordered memos and paper before. I actually just use Vistaprint for the memo pads, they do a great job. Keep in mind if you have a dark design like I did this time around it’s harder to write on a heavy ink like that. I only got a few as I knew they would need like, Posca pens for them and thus a unique audience.
For paper I use UPrinting. I’ve tested local and vista for uncoated 70lb paper – it all has sucked. Uprinting has been the only one to get it just, gorgeous. It’s expensive to ship, and I wish I had a better solution, I’m open to suggestions. I also used them for notebooks as I know the paper will be great quality. This is important to me, but again, open to suggestions and trying new people. Another great factor about them is you can build custom sizes right on their site – so you are not limited to any specific sizes.
I’ve used and mentioned Vograce before for charms. This time I ordered stickers and washi. I can honestly say they do a great job, so if you are on the fence or looking for low quantity and don’t want to source or Aliexpress yourself, give them a go. I did the stickers here vs mule or app as I was already ordering. I’ve used Sticker App in the past with success on a single design that turned out great. I will say I screwed up the washi on the first order, I ordered 5 CM but I reordered. This is a costly mistake for sure, so something to keep in mind on ordering. I put the wrong ones up at cost, as I think they will still make great washi tapes for borders and such.
For the sun catcher I went through a site and was referred to a manufacturer as I had a low quantity, which worked out perfectly for me. I was emailed info, sent my design. They sent me a mock up and cost sheet and was ready to go. I was so excited to get this item made for myself finally. The company is Rainbow Symphony. I love them, and will do more with them. I also picked up some window cling as I had seen people combine it with vinyl for some removable sun catchers I wanted to try!
Sorting, checking and boring admin
Finally, after I ordered them I had to sort everything, check the quality and package it. I live in a home with a pet so I do use plastic on some items. The most boring part is listing the items D: pictures need to be taken, Instagram planned out, when am I going live? All this has to be considered.
It’s not boring to me, but might be to others but I also made an Google sheet with cost vs expected income if I sell all of the ones I intend to list. I love sheets and math, so this really helped put my head at ease when it came time to dump money at this. Seriously, ordering the paper hurt. It’s gorgeous, but it hurts.
I also usually keep items for myself and give a few away, so I take that into account. I fully intend to stick a sun catcher in my car for example.
If you are thinking about making a physical product I hope this helps you do it, I would love to see or hear about it. I think it’s so fun to make new things and it’s just an amazing feeling I really hope everyone gets to feel the excitement of seeing something they designed or illustrated on a product. I was hooked when I worked my first job and made logos for shirts.
For me, notebooks testing is next,
Happy designing!