Cameesa - The Blog

There are opposing opinions when it comes to doing business with friends. A common argument is that business should never be done with friends as professionalism goes out the window. Depending on the friend this may very well be the case but not in all instances. Some of the best business relationships are formed through genuine friendships. It’s harder to go the extra mile with business partners in the absence of such friendships. Complimentary skill sets, passion for the endeavour and commitment are all required. If this is not the case don’t do business together unless you value the friendship.

Kamil and I became business partners not solely based on our friendship but based on the fact we had complimentary skill sets and work well together. The friendship alone is not enough to sustain a venture. Since we both bring something to the table the friendship enhances our productivity.

Zappos is an excellent company and Tony Hsieh differentiated the business solely on caring and customer satisfaction. The one thing he mentioned (via the TWiST podcast) which I found interesting is that he allocates company time to allow co-workers to hang out and build these relationships with each other. His thinking this is that in a tough situation friends are more willing to go out of their way to help each other out at work. In turn this positively contributes to the business in terms of employee retention, customer satisfaction and ultimately the bottom line.

Some lessons learned early on from the Cameesa side. Don’t bring friends into the business who are not compliments to your team. The skills required in a start-up differ from those in a corporate environment. Entrepreneurial types that can make an immediate impact are required. There’s no need for professional management or those who cannot make an impact immediately. Some people’s skill sets are better suited to larger environments. Ex. A financial analyst, accountant, executive, etc is not required if you are not getting funding. This also depends how far along you are in your development as a company. When you are starting off it will cause you more pain than anything else. You need people who are passionate and intimate with the problem you are trying to solve. In addition, you should have people earn their way into the company so they have some skin in the game. This benefits all parties involved. The individual and the company are in a far better position to evaluate each other and figure out whether it is worthwhile to keep the relationship moving forward.

To conclude. Good relationships and passion can you take you a long way. Choose wisely.

It’s been quite a bit of time since we embarked on this crowdfunding experiment (2 years… in internet time) and we’ve learned a lot a long the way. I can write a complete separate post on startup lessons so I’ll restrict this post to crowdfunding lessons learned.

1. Don’t call it crowdfunding

Like the term crowdsourcing, crowdfunding is a coined term that we Internet nerds like to use amongst ourselves because it captures the concept in a single word. The media also likes to use them use because they are buzzwords. However, these terms can be confusing to the greater public and potential new site visitors. Anytime I tried to explain the idea to friends or people inquiring about Cameesa and used the term crowdfunding it would take twice as long to explain. Explaining it as the public giving money directly to artists to produce a product understanding the concept became easier.

2. Collect funds after a goal is reached.

Never get people to commit money up front to a project. It causes a lot of friction. People don’t want to commit their money to a project in limbo. Which in the case of Cameesa is a T-Shirt design reaching the goal of $1000.00 in funds to go to print. However, if the commitment is conditional on the goal being reached people are more willing to take the chance. After we made this change we immediately saw an improvement in the number of people supporting designs.

3. Quality control is paramount

The quality of projects is important especially when you are trying to grow a community of artists. It is extremely difficult for an artist to submit their best work when submissions are open to the public. The best way to enforce quality is to have an invite only system for artists and have funding open to the public.

4. Intellectual property and control belong to artists.

I think there are a lot of options out there when it comes to T-shirt competitions. These include Threadless, Tee Fury, Design By Humans and a never ending list of others. I think the biggest mistake we’ve made with Cameesa was printing and branding the shirts. In the context of “crowdfunding” the artist should be empowered to set the funding limit and ultimately produce the shirts with their own branding. The connection is between the artist and their supporters. In this scenario the artist has more control over the quality of the product. Although we do post mocks for the community to provide feedback on I don’t think we have the right to make judgment calls on how the design gets executed or brand the work. The artist should have full control.

I think one of the key things we’ve learned is that people do like to fund and support the endeavors of artists and that it is a viable commerce model. Co-creation and collaboration with consumers is a more meaningful and social commerce experience that benefits both the supporter and artist.

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.

As some of you may have heard, I am leaving to Poland on April 14th on a one-way flight.  My 97 year-old grandfather is not doing too well, and we will be visiting him in Dabrowa-Bialostocka, Poland.

After my trip to Poland, I plan to travel across Europe and spread the word about Cameesa.  I will blog about my experiences.

One of my friends asked me “why don’t you just write about your personal travels in your personal blog instead of the Cameesa blog?”  And I said, “cause I’m a pimp and I do what I want”  :)  Just kidding.  No, but seriously, if you guys have recommendations of what i should do and how I should promote overseas then let me know.

p.s. If you live in Europe and want me to visit you just shoot me an e-mail at kamil@cameesa.com and let me know where you live.

We have been fortunate enough to be covered by some major media outlets like Time Magazine, the Wall Street Journal, and CNET.  I often get asked how we get such major coverage and which agency we use for our PR.  Well, today I shall receive our secrets.

Our PR firm is named “Chmielewski and Bezic Productions”.  They have done an incredible job getting our name out there and getting people to talk about us.  They understand the industry and the web incredibly well.  They do whatever it takes.

You should definitely look them up if you are searching for PR representation.  However, they are not for hire.  Astute readers will recognize “Chmielewski and Bezic Productions”:

Kamil Chmielewski - Lead Developer, Partner at Cameesa
Viktor Bezic - Lead Designer, Partner at Cameesa

That’s right.  We have no PR agency.  Our product is the agency.  We never pitched Time Magazine or the Wall Street Journal, they came to us.

I think this speaks volumes about the work done by Kamil and Viktor.   Our website looks good enough and functions well enough to speak entirely for itself.  When someone new comes to the site, they are able to grasp the concept and understand what we are doing.  They are able to easily navigate the site and interact.  This makes it very inviting for press coverage.

Bravo to “Chmielewski and Bezic Productions” for landing us more great press coverage!

Loud Splash by Carolina Molina

Females are always requesting more female designs on Cameesa. They want to see designs that are more appealing to themselves, and their taste in clothing.

We got a chance to interview Carolina Molina (aka Cmolina) from The Dominican Republic, a female artist who answers many questions that we have had from day 1. Carolina is a great artist with designs that literally scream out at you.

Could you please give us a window into your background, and personal life?

I come from the a little island called Dominican Republic, though most of the time I think I come from LALA Land. Ive been painting since I was 7 years old, and I just loved colouring and making things from scratch. I love all forms of art, music, theatre, plastic, you name it, I probably love it.

I think of myself as unique, just like everyone else. My native language is Spanish, though Ive been speaking English since I was four. I attended a private British school owned by the sugar factor in my town. I moved to the United States when I was 18 yrs old and stayed there for about a year and half. I try to go as often as I can, at least once a year, though I plan to move there in a year or so.

Describe your typical day.

Carolina Molina

I wouldn’t say typical day, because I create at night. Basically I’m like Superman, I live a normal life during the day and create t-shirts by night. Unfortunately I cant fly, working on it though. I sleep three or four hours a day, and work during the morning and design at night.

Where else can we find your artwork, other sites, stores etc.?

Well I am working on a project right now called Unique 909, and you can find it in zazzle. There is not much to look at right now, but soon I will post many designs Ive been working on. I guess I want to post them all at once. In addition, I have started a new group on MySpace, called Tees and T-shirts. Come by and check it out.

How did you get into design, and what do you like most about it?

I haven’t been designing t-shirts for very long, but design has always been part of my life. I started designing t-shirts for 5th and Ocean in Dominican Republic. And found out it was something I wanted to do, and I learnt as much as I could about the printing process, and all of that good stuff. They were not too creative, or aloud us to have a voice in the designs so I quit and decided to fly solo.

Favorites

Carolina’s Inspiration, her backyard

TV show: When it comes to TV, I watch whatever is on…I love TV.

Magazine: I don’t really read magazines, I rather read blogs, and I read many different ones, not one in particular.

Artist: Ha. These are my favourite questions. Let me say Jason Mraz is playing wildly in my ipod, I usually play it when am designing, that and The Doors.

Favorite course in school: In school I loved math, yes I did, I still do.

About 10% of our artists are female, do you encounter any challenges being a female artist? If so, what are they and how have you overcome them?

I think the biggest difference is that although a lot of girls wear t-shirts, they don’t wear them as often as guys, so the main audience people want to target are guys. Guys don’t want to wear flower and cute designs, so some girls might find it hard to create designs guys will like.

So far I haven’t encounter that problem because I started by making t-shirts with slogans instead of designs, and I take pride in being a tom-boy, so thinking about phrases that dudes would like on t-shirts was not hard.

We have had numerous requests for more girly designs on Cameesa, do you think of this when designing or do you just go with what your hear tells you?

It is possible to make designs that girls and guys could both wear. If you mean butterflies and flowers on a t-shirt, then that might be challenging. I think of things I want to say, or wish I could say, or moods I am in. Its nice to have t-shirts that represent the mood you’re in or that says something about you.

Carolina’s Workplace

In your opinion, what is the difference between a male and female artist? What is the difference in their art?

See, Ive seen a lot of t-shirts designed by girls that you would not imagine it came from a girl, or the concept that girls like girly things. Maybe not too many female artists are recognized, but people assume they are guys because they don’t see rainbows and unicorns. Not that there is anything wrong with unicorns, I like them.

How did you find Cameesa?

I came across Camessa in the Pop culture t-shirt blog.

Being a new Artist on Cameesa, what advice do you for other artists out there?

I remember reading the comments on the first t-shirt and using it as fuel for my next design. The first one might not be the one, or maybe the 20th, but if you read the comments you will be able to produce better designs.

Cameesa is a site were the comments are usually constructive, not destructive. They will always find a thing you did right and point out what can be improved. So don’t give up!

What are you most proud of?

Im proud of being a free spirit, it takes a long time to able disconnect from the real world.

What is your advice in Life?

Everything comes on its own time, no need to rush.

Her by Cmolina

—
Thank you very much for you great insight Carolina, we look forward to seeing more of your art very soon.

This past Wednesday, Andy and I were very fortunate to be interviewed by Jeff Woelker from The Chicago Tech Report.  This was our first video interview and we actually did not know what to expect.  To tell you the truth, I was a little nervous.  Andy says that I get really goofy when I am put in a serious situation (I guess it’s some sort of defense mechanism, a good one at that.)

Jeff did a great job as an interviewer asking great questions, and keeping things informal (nice work Jeff).  Since we were a little anxious, we stuck to the format of the interview and didn’t branch out to talk about much more.  One thing that we regret was that we failed to mention YOU, and we learned this very quickly.  YOU, our Supporters, our families, and friends……a huge reason why we are still running Cameesa.

So, we want to thank you all for everything that you have done for us.  From responding to forum posts and Buying Tees, to telling your friends about Cameesa and putting stickers on your MacBook laptops.  2008 was the beginning of Cameesa and we look forward to our first full year as Cameesa in 2009.  Thank you.

1. Watch the interview by clicking here, The Chicago Tech Report Cameesa Interview.

2. p.s. WE WISH THAT WE WOULD HAVE SAID THIS AT THE END OF THE VIDEO:

We spend so much time in the Cameesa world interacting with different types of people every day. Every once in a while, we come across a person that is extremely devoted to Cameesa and its success. You can probably find this person in the forums, leaving design comments, and interacting with everyone in the community.

Today, I would like to introduce you to a Cameesa Artist, Daniel Newman, also known as Quakerninja. Daniel is a talented artist that has submitted many great designs to Cameesa, one of which was printed - Aubyn Beth. He has a passion for art and design, and has been a great help in building our Cameesa community. You can check out his blog at Quakerninja.com or support his newest design, Pink Gorilla. Without further adieu, I give you Quakerninja (what does Quakerninja mean anyways?)

Who is Daniel Newman?

I am a 29 year old maker of doodles based in Newberg, Oregon.  I’m just an average Joe that has an ever growing love for drawing. I’m a rather indecisive, and shy guy in person sometimes, maybe. I would say that I am a very visual thinker, so for me I see the world in shades, lines, colors, and shapes. I enjoy nature, the changing of the seasons, classical music, and a good old book. And The Arts of course, all of them.

I studied both the preforming arts, and visual arts in High School and college, with hopes of becoming an actor. Actors don’t work from home that often, so the fine art won out in the end, but I wouldn’t turn down a script should the situation ever present itself. This “Want to do it all” approach is the real driving force behind what I do artistically. I would hate to think of what I might be missing.

How did you get into design, and what do you like most about it?

I could talk for days on this topic. I have been making artistic expressions in one way or another ever since I was a kid. Some of them ended up looking good enough to frame.

Here is a watercolor I did in the 8th grade, I was 13 at the time. It’s one of the oldest examples of art I still have, that’s not in an attic somewhere. For me, what makes a style work is the most interesting part. The technique, what type of lines to use, the values and shades Colors and so on. The bones of the artwork. I would say most of what I have learned by drawing is a result of trying new things and lucky guesses in regards to what goes where on the paper or screen.

I rarely use a pencil sketch, I will go right at it with a pen or stylus. I frequently use reference photos, or in some cases for people drawing, I will use Poser 3d reference models. To answer the question, I only really got into art professionally in the past year or so. I got a Wacom Bamboo Fun Graphics Tablet for my birthday, and never put it down. I am actually holding my stylus as I type these words.

I got into tee shirts be accident really, I was new to digital art and looking for some stuff to use, and came across the Go Media Arsenal Vector packs. I played with that a bit and was looking for a place to show off my new skills and came across Emptees. That lead to a lot of great people and opportunities including being invited to be a beta tester for Cameesa.

Who has inspired you and why, in both life and design?

My mom is also an artist, so she is my biggest fan and inspiration. If I were to list all the people it would reach the moon. I think there is no such thing as bad art, just underdeveloped or untapped potential. It doesn’t take a genius to know what looks good. I think everyone has some hidden artist inside. Or at least a need or want to express something in some way, words drawing songs whatever it is.

What do you enjoy doing on your free time, other than designing?

I know it may sound strange but I really do draw all the time. From when I wake up to when I go to bed.  The first thing I do is get on my computer and open up Adobe Illustrator and just make some squiggles and go from there.  The only other then designing thing I do is the occasional trip to the Oregon Coast with my family, or camping with friends.

Favorites?

Book: The collected works of Edgar Allen Poe. It’s a big book, I’m still working on it.

Movie: Trainspotting. One of the few movies I can watch over and over and enjoy every time.

Song: November Rain. Guns N’ Roses (Ironically also my least listened to song. I don’t want to spoil it you know)

Magazine: Cosmo Those quizzes crack me up.

Band: Aubyn Beth (http://myspace.com/aubynbeth) of course.

(more…)

Have you been anxious to recommend a new feature on Cameesa?  Well here is your chance.  We have implemented a new ‘Feedback’ feature on Cameesa and we’d love to hear your recommendations for the site.

You can either:

1. Go directly to our Feedback Forum, or
2. Click the ‘Feedback’ link on right-hand side of Cameesa.com (see image below)

Let us know what you think.

Secret Tip to all my PHP geeks out there: The new Eclipse PDT 2.0 was released today….I’ve been waiting for this moment for a long time.

I learned a very valuable lesson this week: an entrepreneur must wear many hats and, at times, he must learn how to make his own hats too.  I was relying on a few friends and professional photographers to give me some pointers about taking new Cameesa product shots; fortunately, they were very busy and I decided to learn Digital Photography on my own.  Within a few hours I realized that the basics are actually pretty simple, and we were off to new product shots in no time.

Here is a quick explanation of digital photography and our new product shots.

When it comes to digital photography there are 4 important factors you must consider: lighting, film speed/ISO(sensitivity to light), aperture(amount of light), and shutter speed(time exposed to light).

Lighting

For quality shots, you want a well-lit background and an even better-lit subject.  Mark Apsolon has a great video on which lighs to use in your photo shoot.

In our case, we had five lights, two diffused lights shinning on the background wall, and three lights illuminating the subject (Andy).  Moreover, Andy stood 6.5 feet in from the background so his shadow did not appear in the shots. 

Film Speed/ISO

The film speed determines the saturation of the colors in the photograph.  Fast film (ie. ISO 80) requires a shorter exposure to the subject, and requires very good lighting; on the other hand, slow film requires (ie. ISO 1600) a longer exposure, but can be taken in darker areas.  If you are in a well-lit place, and objects are standing-still, then you want a low ISO,  like ISO 80.  However, if you are shooting something in a dark place, or are shooting fast-moving scenes, then you want something like ISO 1600.  Keep in mind that a high ISO number correlates to granularity in your pictures, so your pictures may come out blotchy.

ISO 100 on left; ISO 3200 on right

In our case, we shot all of our pictures with ISO 80 in a well-lit environment.

Aperture (f-number)

Aperture controls the amount of light that gets into the camera.  The higher the f-number, then the less light will get into the camera, and more of the scene will be in focus; for example, f/32 will let little light into the camera and the entire scene will be in focus.  In addition, if you want the background to be blurry and the subject to be very focused and stand-out, then you should use a low f-number such as f/2.  Basically, aperture is used to adjust the depth of field in the picture.  Keep in mind that as you zoom in, the aperture may increase automatically.

f/5 - wide aperture	f/32 - narrow aperture

In our case, we used f/2.8 for all of our full t-shirt pictures because we wanted the background to be blurry and the subject to stand out. 

Exposure Time/Shutter Speed

Shutter speed controls the amount of time that the subject is exposed.  A fast shutter (1/500 sec.) can stop droplets of a waterfall because it is a quick snap, and has a short exposure time;  however, a slow shutter (1 sec.) speed can get that motion blur of a waterfall in moving pictures because the shutter is open for a longer time.  In terms of a stand-still picture, you want an exposure of about 1 second or a little lower so you can absorb the colors in the entire scene.

Long exposure of 25 seconds

In our case, the exposure was usually around 1/50 second so the colors in the picture were taken correctly

Summary

Majority of our pictures were shot at an ISO 80, with an aperture of f/2.8, and an exposure time 1/50 of a second.  Hope you guys learned a little about picture taking, and feel free to give us feedback on our new Cameesa product shots.

For more information

Check out this Tutorial on taking digital pictures