Cameesa - The Blog

Enough Said, see the pics here:

http://bit.ly/WBcz9

Live Drawing at QDepartment Event from sougwen on Vimeo.

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We decided to ask some friends like Demographic, AssaultShirts, as well as ourselves a magical question that may be handy for Tee Printers:

As a t-shirt company, what do you value most?

Speaking with John and Shane from Demographic (wareyoufitin.com) they gladly answered our questions.

Demographic is run and operated by graphic designers, so like most, we have high expectations when it comes to detail and quality. In a printer, first and foremost, we look for someone who is a true craftsman and is willing to push the boundaries on the production end. Collaboration and communication are also very important. If a printer isn’t passionate enough to present some of his/her own ideas to a certain challenge or isn’t willing to involve us in the production process, then they’re probably not going to be the right fit for us. Price is also very important. Being a start-up, we’re always looking for the best way to create quality products as inexpensively as possible. Having said that, quality still comes first. We could cut corners, but we ultimately choose to create superior products and take less of a profit.

Currently, we’re doing most of our printing with Tattooed Tees – a small design/printing company in Wicker Park that happens to have a few graphic-t lines of its own (tattooedtees.com). Since graphic design is also in their background, you could say we speak the same language. They are very passionate about their business and are great to interact with. Their niche is specialty printing techniques like vinyl, foils and oversize prints, so they’re always up for helping us push the design envelope Tattooed Tees is not the most inexpensive printer out there and they’re not really equipped for large print runs (5,000+) that demand a quick turn-around time. That said, depending on your needs, those could be considered negatives. Thus far, it’s been an ideal match for us.

In addition, we spoke with Tim and Craig from AssaultShirts (assaultshirts.com) and they added further to our conversation.

As a Tee company we look for Skills, Reliability, Quality, Availability, Experience, and Price.  We went through about 10 possible candidates for printers and none could print a good portion of our shirts. The ones that could print our shirts quoted us at nearly 11-12 dollars per shirt. The other problem we have run into with other printers was that they weren’t as readily available to us as we had wanted, and sometimes they are completely unreachable which is unacceptable when you have 25 pre-orders out for new shirts.

We still do all of our printing with the same print company, Merchspin.  We believe we have found as close to a perfect match as we can with Merchspin, and we’ve always pimped them whenever we got the chance because they have the best prices, and nine times out of ten they get our product delivered on the date estimated or earlier. They’re not perfect, but they’re as close as you can get in the printing industry.

Finally, Cameesa put our heads together and came up with a few answers ourselves.

We believe that quality is the most important factor when it comes to our printers.  They should provide us with a product that they have mocked out, as to where we are happy and the supporters are happy.  Unfortunately, we have had a few horror stories where the wrong colors have come in on tees.  These are probably the worst scenarios imaginable.

In addition to quality we feel that responsiveness is a huge factor.  We want to hear back from our printers that everything is working out as expected and that we are on schedule.

One tough issue with Cameesa is that Supporters already have to wait a long time to receive their Tees, so responsiveness for our printer is crucial.

Last but not least, as John mentioned, being a start-up, we try to get a great price for the Tees.  We have recently been trying to find the most cost-effective ways to get things done around Cameesa, without suffering in quality.

The biggest lesson learned is that as time goes by, we know that we are progressing because people continue to support us from every angle imaginable.  There are surely mistakes that we have made, but we try our hardest to correct them, and as long as the communication is clear between us and our printers, AND OUR SUPPORTERS, then we are in the clear.

via ViaComIT

A long long time ago (about 6 months ago) a good friend (Suneet Lad) asked me to write a post about ‘taking advice.’  He said “Kamil, I am sure that people offer you advice pretty often, how do you know which advice is right? and which is wrong?  how do you know which advice to take? and which to leave?”

Well, Suneet, here is that magic post that I have been meaning to write for a long time.

You are correct that we do receive a lot of advice from many people and usually it is all ‘good advice.’  Rarely, do we see anyone offering crap advice.  Receiving great advice makes our job more difficult but considering that we are actual users of the site, the first question we ask ourselves are  “does this advice make sense, and would it benefit me as a user?” Next, we ask ourselves, “what is an example of how this will help the community and solve an existing problem?”  will this make the user’s job easier?  how much benefit will this idea have to the business and/or to the site?

In addition, we ask ourselves: how long will it take to implement this?  how much value will it actually bring to the site?  These are the main question we ask ourselves.

If people offer us Crappy advice we pretty much know it right off the bat, but to tell you the truth I don’t think we have ever received bad advice for the site.

If the advice is business based and not a change to the website, and we are not sure whether it will be beneficial. then we perform some market research (broad answer) before we make any other changes.  So basically, we implement advice that will give us most quality for the least possible amount of time taken to implement.  As the 80/20 principle states that 20% of input will result in 80 % of output and results that you want.

As for the paper, or essay you had to write, you were getting advice from many people and you weren’t sure which advice to take because all of it was probably good.  You would have to ask yourself, how long will it take me to validate this information? do i agree with all of it, or is there a flaw? and if i decide to write about this advice how long will it take me and how much value will it actually provide to my paper?

I know my answers are very generic, but that’s how we do it.  Enjoy.

StatAttak presents shocking statistics from African countries such average life expectancy and other indicators of quality of life. The medium for spreading the word: the T-shirt. Profits from sales will go towards building an orphanage in Mozambique.

Today in Tampa, FL is the “Back In Black 2” T-Shirt Exhibit. It showcases original, one-color t-shirt designs by some notable digital illustrators and designers in the US and Europe. You know some of them. Heck one of them has a printed design on Cameesa. Showcased artists include Hydro74, munk one and Jimiyo. If you miss it, limited prints will be available until the end of May.

What man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for a worthwhile goal, a freely chosen task.

- VIKTOR E. FRANKL, Holocaust survivor; author of Man’s Search for Meaning

   An American businessman took a vacation to a small coastal Mexican village on doctor’s orders.  Unable to sleep after an urgent phone call from the office the first morning, he walked out to the pier to clear his head.  A small boat with just one fisherman had docked, and inside the boat were several large yellowfin tuna.  The American complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish.
“How long did it take you to catch them?” the American asked.
“Only a little while,” the Mexican replied in surprisingly good English.
“Why don’t you stay out longer and catch more fish?” the American then asked.
“I have enough to support my family and give a few to friends,” the Mexican said as he unloaded them into a basket.
“But… What do you do with the rest of your time?”
The Mexican looked up and smiled.  “I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take a siesta with my wife, Julia, and stroll into the village each evening, where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos.  I have a full and busy life, senor.”
The American laughed and stood tall.  “Sir, I’m a Harvard M.B.A. and can help you.  You should spend more time fishing, and with the proceeds, buy a bigger boat.  In no time, you could buy several boats with the increased haul.  Eventually, you would have a fleet of fishing boats.”
He continued, “Instead of selling your catch to a middleman, you would sell directly to the consumers, eventually opening your own cannery.  You would control the product, processing, and distribution.  You would need to leave this small coastal fishing village, of course, and move to Mexico City, then to Los Angeles, and eventually New York City, where you could run your expanding enterprise with proper management.”
The Mexican fisherman asked, “But, senor, how long will all this take?”
To which the American replied, “15-20 years. 25 tops.”
“But what then, senor?”
The American laughed and said, “That’s the best part.  When the time is right, you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich.  You would make millions.”
“Millions, senor?  Then what?”
“Then you would retire and move to a small coastal fishing village, where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take a siesta with your wife, and stroll to the village in the evening where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos…”

I arrived in Poland safely and am actually typing this as I sit in my grandparent’s home.  I was absolutely stunned when I found out that they have Internet.  Poland has come a long way since I was here six years ago.  On our drive from Warsaw to Dabrowa Bialostocka, we passed by a green picket fence, and in large, white, bubble letters the sign on the fence read ‘Polish Army,’ I chuckled and thought ‘good luck guys’.

On a more serious note, my grandfather died before I flew out of Chicago and his funeral was held the day after I arrived.  I have very quickly learned that many Polish traditions are beautiful and I am very proud to be 100% Polish.

My grandfather, Jan Zarzecki, was 96 years old when he died on April 14th, 2009.  He was a father to 3 girls and 2 boys, and grandfather to 14 grandchildren (of which 11 were male.)

As he was dying, he insisted that after his funeral we celebrate and party.  He said “I want Vodka on all the tables, and dancing throughout the night.”  A Polish novelist, who served in World War II, and lived to tell many stories of his near-death experiences.

One of the many Polish traditions: my grandfather laid in the casket, in our living room, until the time of his funeral.  Two purple flags were placed on the house fence to notify others that a close one has passed.  Throughout the day, many village members arrived to pay their respects with flowers and with prayers.

The day of the funeral, we walked with the casket, from our home to the church.  The minute we stepped onto the street of Dabrowa, the church bells began to rang.  As we walked, family members joined at the hands and time stood still.  It was truly an amazing and eye-opening ceremony, as walked down the street, the entire village stopped what it was doing.  During the burial I had realized that my grandfather created everything that I was looking at: my parents, my aunts, my uncles, and my cousins all existed because of him.  He was one of the many reasons that I existed in this world.

Rest in peace, Jan Zarzecki, April 14th 2009.