Girl Startup.

Brilliant Trees Collective has been a great supporter of mine on Twitter, but I’m not returning the favour because I feel obligated to. I honestly love her tea towl range. They’re awesome! Don’t you think? And a fellow Aussie to boot

I was in a rush, so I am by no means saying these cards are brilliant in design. But I needed something as an interim solution. Will act as a business card and bag tag

Laptop Image

Came across a really nice product by a fellow Melbournian, under the name AMBETTE and has a similar interest to me, well almost the same actually Designing bags and textiles. I love seeing other creative Melbournians. We’re a creative bunch.

I really love the fact that she uses bright colours against natural textiles. I think it works really well.

You can catch her on her blog at http://ambette.blogspot.com/

Ipad Sleeve

I actually avoided doing work today, and instead decided to in fact work on my landing page for nomuu.com Go figure? I decided that in fact I did need a landing page, as I want to email sites, shops etc with my details and I think this is the cleanest way!

Nomuu Hello Typographic Messenger Bag

Nomuu Messenger Bag - Raindrops and Veneer

Nomuu Messenger Bags - Quirky Abstract

Nomuu Messenger Bag Deers - I can't take the right photo for this one!

Close-up of Nomuu Messenger Bag Tag

Yes, yes I am still around. I have a feeling some people may think that I just popped the messenger bags up and now just waiting idly by, for things to happen. Not so! Nope I’ve been immersing myself in the Etsy.com way do things and designing and taking photos of new messenger bags. This all takes time.

So what have I learnt so far with Etsy?

Well they have very in depth articles/blog posts/forum user feedback on marketing, SEO, tagging systems etc. So it’s been a very interesting read. I have also been testing out some of their suggestions, but no sales yet. I think I will make a sale soon, it just takes time I guess. I am not too concerned that my bags have not sold. I have had a lot hearts and visits, which is good, because I have been reading in the etsy forums that long time user are finding they’re getting no visits at all. And from the sounds of it, it sounds like there is a little downturn on etsy, the overall feel is that sales are not increasing. I’m not sure if I am even about to talk about it, because I think it’s encouraged not to talk outside Etsy, which is somthing I really do adhere or I enjoy. I mean what happend to keeping everything open and honest? There’s also some issues with google indexing on there, or at least there was. It certainly has taken some time for my products to be indexed, and really it’s the one that got huge hits that was indexed, and I haven’t checked if my other products are indexing yet.

The main thing I am trying to concentrate on is my photographs. I’m finding that the most time consuming thing, and Etsians are right, that’s a pretty important part of it. You’re products are only as good as your photos. It’s all about branding. I mean if I just took happy snap of my bags, in bad light with a flash, it’s not really going to help my brand is it? No it will cheapen the product. Incidentally the photo I feel is best, and has been critiqued as the best, is the product that is getting the most hearts and hits. The hello typographic one. If only I could get my photos to be as good as that one. I just was lucky with that one, right time, right lighting outside and positioning of product and trying to reproduce something similar has been way too time consuming, and I haven’t succeeded anyway. I’ve also come away, not being too impressed with my lumix LX3. My old canon camera was much better. I found the LX3 has too much blue tones, and the photos are always dark. I understand that I have to play around with my settings, but with my old canon, I could just point and click and the colours and lighting was fantastic. So I wouldn’t buy a lumix again. I would go back to a canon for sure.

So I’ve added some new products, but the photographs don’t really do them justice. They don’t tell the right journey, so I will just have to percervere.

Oh also I now have nomuu tags on the bags, just to add an extra proffesional touch! I rather like them.

So what I my plans now, well I actually think I will approach some botiques in Melbourne, Australia. I’m sure the profit margin wont be much, but for me it’s more a tool for getting the product out there, and seeing if it’s actually liked.

I’m even thinking of markets. But I will need at least another 10-20 bags for that.

I’m also working on getting my own website up, that wont be too big a deal. It’s just finding the time to prioritise what comes first. I mean do I concentrate on marketing, talking and contributing forums, get my photographs right etc?

I personally don’t think a personal website will help too much at this stage. I mean I think I need to get the word out there more, and I think my blog and etsy is sufficient for that for the time being. I mean look at my nomuu.com  theme site that doesn’t get any traction at all. I also think that’s another area I could offer on etsy. Is showing people that I have a free blog theme. There are a lot of users that are just using blogger blogs, or are not sure how to use wordpress and set it up. So if any etsians see that feel free to contact me and I am happy to help you out.

Ps- Would love feedback on the latest designs.

Also interested to know if men would classify  the “Hello Typographic” as a mens messenger bag?

Colourful rainbow, by girlstartup

The hardest thing for me, with this journey of  self discovery into creativity, is the fact that I don’t know when to stop. What I mean is, that my design interests are so eclectic, that I tend to want design everything. Sometimes I think this is good, because I have an elclectic mix, but other times I question wether this is such a good idea. Should I find a style and stick to it? I admire people that have a style, I’m not very good at it myself. I go off on tangents, and then I confuse myself, because I wonder am I really designing for me or what I think is “cool”. I don’t know how to rectify this matter? One course of action is to just create everything that comes to me, and just see what works and doesn’t work. But then I also wonder if it would be better to find a style and stick to it, because then the journey would be much more clear cut. I would have some sort rules and guidlines to follow, and when I try to veer off on a tangent, I could say, “come back, come back”.

This is what I would call a conundrum.

What do other creatives do this? How do you stick to a style? What’s your process?

Typographic Hello Messenger Bag

Hi everyone,

New bag design. Love feedback. What do you think of the design and photos?

_________________________________________________________________________________

Denim bag (with stiffening) with typographic design at the front, printed on cotton.
Fabric is an original design, so wont see it anywhere else.

Small Bag size 10″ w x 12″ h (inches) approx 2 inches deep.

Straps
Adjustable seatbelt strap to approximately 26″ long or for a shorter length it’s roughly 12″ in length.

Grey polyester lining with a single pocket.

Magnetic clap.

Please note: slight imperfection with print, shown in picture 3.

Can be purchased at etsy.com

Denim bag (with stiffening) with typographic design at the front, printed on linen.
Fabric is an original design, so wont see it anywhere else.
Small Bag size 9″ w x 11″ h (inches) approx 2 inches deep.

Straps
Adjustable seatbelt strap to approximately 26″ long or for a shorter length it’s roughly 13″ in length.

The print is slightly cropped on the side, like in photo.

Grey polyester lining with a single pocket.

Magnetic clap.

Can be purchased at etsy.com

Please note: I would not recommend these bags, as a laptop bag, as this is a light bag/not cushioned and because made out of denim, it’s not waterproof resistant. It does have a waterproof coating sprayed on to it, but not enough for me, say it would be suitable for electronics.

Added an extra one to show denim color.

Agghh I’m just exahusted. I keep holding off putting up pictures of bags, because I want them to be absoultly perfect before I show them, but you know what trying to make it perfect is making it exhausting for me. All these ridiculous thoughts go through my mind, what if I don’t capture the right angle? What will one think if the colours arn’t accurate? What if I just take a crappy photo and someone decides to post it on a blog? What if, what if ! Yikes. I then think about, should I post it on my blog first, should I post it to etsy first? Do other people do this? It’s driving me nutso!

So here is one of the bags, as best as I can take today. The other bag, I am still not happy to show yet…you already had a sneak peak of it below.

Let me know what you think the good, the bad and the ugly.

Fabric and bag designed me. Yes the fabric is my original design

It’s roughly 10″ wide 12″ h. I say roughly because the side edges actually make the bag slightly wider and longer than that. I can actually custom make the size, to suit. However, you might want a more waterproof bag, for the ipad. Remember there is a not a lot of padding in the bag, just denim, and lining.

Purchase at etsy: etsy

Hello Mr Mojo are you under my bed covers? Are you under my bed? Are you in the backyard? Come out, come out where ever you are! This last week I have been totally flat. I guess this is normal? I mean what the hell is normal, anyway? It’s probably called, “I’m freak’in scared, I’m doing the wrong thing”. I hate these weeks, because it makes me question what I am all about, and if I really do know myself as well as I think I do.

Lets face it, my dream is to have a passive income, and do something I am passionate about at the same time. I pretty sure I know what that is. But then I read all these posts about “passion wont get you anywhere”, “affiliate marketing makes your life easier, blah, blah” and I’m like totally back in fetal position, squeezing my teddy bear and rocking back and forwards, saying “mama, mama”. Can you picture it? Yes not a pretty sight… I can tell you, especially the  ”squeezing my teddy bear”, part

I mean this whole affiliate marketing thing, I just can’t get into. It just seems so insincere to me. I mean everyone that I have seen doing affiliate marketing says “we’re different, we’re not like the rest, we have a different approach” and then 5 minutes later in your “inbox” you get spammed with 500 emails promoting their product. Oh the irony of it all. I mean what happened to good old fashioned building an actual propper product, that adds value? I know, I know…affiliate marketers will disagree, and say they do “add value”. I personally can’t see it being a viable solution in the long run. I mean surely people will eventually catch on that you have to sift through so much crap, to find someone with the actual shiz. I mean my theory is this, the “rock star” affiliate marketers are the one’s that are milking it, by getting the dreamers and newbies to opt in and purchase their products, paying them some whopping monthly fee, to be taught some rehashed sales pitch. Wow someone is on a roll tonight (looks to the left and to the right…oh moi). Oh but I know what your thinking, how do you know so much about affiliate marketing? Well I don’t really…quickly runs back to the corner, in a fetal postion again. Yes ok I admit I was one of those newbies. I’m caught, I confess…I am a sucker. Quick take me to an AA meeting right now. I mean I did maybe two, where I only had pay a $1 for like 15 days or something. I say, it was all under “research”. I did a Frank Kern one, and some other one…that I can’t remember. The Frank Kern one was ok, but again it just seemed like mass spamming of products. It’s not like I was learning to create a quality product or anything like that.

Who knows maybe it’s because I am quite creative, I actually like to see something tangible and awesome developed in front of my eyes. Maybe I just like pain…maybe that’s it? I mean I don’t know I am making a bag range,  designing fabrics, it’s something I would be proud for others to use. But today I’m having freak-out today, because all my creative fabric designs ideas have gone away, and I wondering if I just had a fleeting moment of creativity and now, now it will be taken all away and I will have to go back to Frank Kern, and say “spam me, spam me now Frank Kern”.

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