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Artist => General Art Discussions => Topic started by: kirkage on February 18, 2014, 10:16:11 AM
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Can anyone put a dollar value of customink.com's t-shirt creator app? I don't like when people bring designs that they made from that site to be re-done. I want them to design and have the vector ready to go by the customers using my own app.
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Can anyone put a dollar value of customink.com's t-shirt creator app? I don't like when people bring designs that they made from that site to be re-done. I want them to design and have the vector ready to go by the customers using my own app.
There are several services out there offering the same thing as that does, but some are buggy or crap. I think Sam had one for awhile? Some are 10's of 1,000's if you bought it outright.
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Can anyone put a dollar value of customink.com's t-shirt creator app? I don't like when people bring designs that they made from that site to be re-done. I want them to design and have the vector ready to go by the customers using my own app.
Does this mean that you have branched out from only selling your own pre-print designs?
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I would assume all of custom inks online software is proprietary and written by them.
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your customers are NOT artists..
YOU are.. take what they give you and make it better.
if you can design an app to do that, good on you.
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your customers are NOT artists..
YOU are.. take what they give you and make it better.
deal with it bro because that's the way it is.
You should see the screen printing around our area, not at all artists LOL.
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The idea for the next website is one where you design your own shirt and it gets posted to the page. If it sells 10 units yours is free and you will get one dollar for each one sold thereafter for life. I plan to use social media to have customers promote their own design thereby promoting the website. I have written a t-shirt designer (80% complete) app that will work on mobile devices as well as the web. I do a few custom jobs for friends and what not and they are a pain in the butt. (the art). I wonder if there is a market for my designer app where customers can design t-shirts that produce the full size "clean" art for the screen printers. This app could be by used by screen printers who send their customers there to design their hearts out knowing they will get good clean art on the other end.
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Curious as to the licensing of clip art used on these designer sites.
Does the design site operator need a different license than the one we get when we buy a disk or download a package (assuming commercial use included)?
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I've had people ask me to what my quote would be for "this" from custom ink. My initial reaction is that I would not put that sh!t on my worst enemy. It usually has multiple colors and they usually want just of few... I usually say, "no thanks". But there has been a few times that we landed a decent gig by vastly improving the art.
But to the point of "having that kind of software", for me, I don't see much of a profit over costs benefit at this point.
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I like it when a customer emails me a design they created at Custom ink, and ask what my price would be. I then go to Custom ink site and plug in the design info they sent me and price it a little under Custom inks price . I think it is a great tool
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We used to get orders from schools all the time where they would just send us the design link from customink. All we had to do was open it up, enlarge it, drop it in vector magic and roll with it! It was great!
@kirkage checkout inksoft or openshirt. They have done what you want already, there are like 5 other ones I just can't think of them off the top of my head.
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Wouldn't it be unethical to use their artwork?
Roger
RT screen designs
Www.rtscreendesigns. Com
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Illegal I am sure.
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There are some figures in this article that will give you an idea. http://techcrunch.com/2013/11/11/customink-40m-ted-leonsis/ (http://techcrunch.com/2013/11/11/customink-40m-ted-leonsis/)
Their site is proprietary and the cost likely has few commas in it.
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Thanks for the info everyone. I am going to proceed with finishing the design app. At the very least I will make it part of the admin system for swellshirt.com so that we can design and upload new shirts quickly and have the art ready for burning the screens.
Frog, as far as the clip art, I have found a ton of free vectors over time as well as fonts. I am going to roll with it.
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Bodek offers a free one that works pretty well.
The buzzkill is that they give you .png files. You know, because a smaller scale, low to middling resolution .png is just perfect for printing.
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I'm most impressed with Customink's little kickstarter type app, very smart way to capture business.
Customink is perplexing to me. I can't understand how they are doing so well when the pricing is completely uncompetitive with local screen printers and, on the other end, many screen printers approached by Customink for contract work speak of policies that are simply too risky to accept. I just don't get how that's working out for anyone, except Customink of course.
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They do well because their customers don't have to get up off their couch to order decorated apparel.
We have (I think, it might not be there anymore) the Bodek thing but really not used much.
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They do well because their customers don't have to get up off their couch to order decorated apparel.
We have (I think, it might not be there anymore) the Bodek thing but really not used much.
Brian is dead on. It is all about the ability to sit at home and place your order. Ever try to deal with an awkward 16 year old in your shop trying to explain what they want? Well give them custom ink and viola done!
The one part of the linked article is where the writer said customink has 250 million in sales of a five billion market and as yet only captured a small part. WTF a quarter of a billion isn't enough for them?
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That makes sense.
Look at the size of their staff in the articles picture. That many people are processing a 1/4 bil in revenue? No wonder they want more, they are likely pulling in a very high net by contracting everything out. And lord knows they'll have no shortage of print shops enticed by the promise of their work to keep pushing their customer service costs onto. Just imagine for a minute if a client called asking for "one more Medium" at the same rate as the 1000 pc run they just had delivered and you could just say "sure, no problem" because the printer you contracted with was footing the cost for it. They're smart, for sure.
I think having an e-commerce equivalent of a screen printing wal-mart will have a positive impact on most of us, it will reinforce the appeal of local, independent businesses. We'll be the local supermarket that people would rather support and hey, our pricing and often our product is better to boot. If a group like Customink does expand on the level being brandished in that article our fight will be to somehow offer a similar package of bells and whistles and compete on an apples to apples level. This is where software as subscription services will become very important for smaller businesses who need to offer "accessories" like that kickstart T-shirt fundraiser portal to clientele but cannot afford to build it from scratch on an enterprise level. Most of us can easily afford $50-a few hundred a month to add such a perk.
I would like to see the SGIA put out a report on how ecommerce has impacted the industry over the last decade or two. I've noticed how prolific screen printing shops are in my relatively low population area and noticed that most are successful generally speaking. My hypothesis is that, like the ubiquitous micro breweries and distilleries here, we are not primarily competing with each other at this point but with national companies selling online just as the breweries are pulling drinkers of Bud, Sierra Nevada and the like rather than pulling drinkers from each other. I think something happened in the last 10-20 years where what was once local print work went online/national and the market share us local outfits are capturing now is being pulled back down from local clients using the online/nationals. Not unlike how local brewers once produced the vast majority of an area's beers. I think the stories might be similar, just in a different spot on the timeline. More and more I hear of how many local businesses "get their shirts online" and how we should talk to them and bring it back home instead. More and more this equates to a lot of increased work for us. I believe there's a solid connection there.
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Rumor has it from numerous sources they are adding their own production plant to print in house. Depending on how well they pull it together it could mean the end of contract printers doing the work. Them being at the shows may not only be to recuuit shops to print but also posiably personnel to run their plants.
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CustomInk's success is based on giving the average Joe who at first, may not think or care to go through the process of getting garments decorated, the ability to do so with the same effort as composing an email or creating a social media profile and posts..
You see the GUI is the same as far as buttons, check boxes, and menu bars that all of their (potential) customers use on a daily bases, minus the screen print jargon. Their customer's are already gratified by just going through and completing (successfully) a gamified sales funnel to place an order.. The prints could feel like rubber on the shirts, but too late, the customer already feels rewarded for their self made masterpiece that arrived at their doorstep in an awesome trophy case (have you guys seen their shipping boxes?) We could talk about quality but most of them are not artist and are quite ecstatic about the results.
CustomInk clearly understands who their customers are and so can sell them genuine dinosaur wallets.. It's not about the "screen prints" it's about- who are your customers?
"They" always say give the customers what they want.. Customers don't have a clue about what they want until it is first offered to them..
Sent using Tapatalk
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Rumor has it from numerous sources they are adding their own production plant to print in house. Depending on how well they pull it together it could mean the end of contract printers doing the work. Them being at the shows may not only be to recuuit shops to print but also posiably personnel to run their plants.
They already have a production facility in Reno Nevada a few miles away from Sanmar
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They do well because their customers don't have to get up off their couch to order decorated apparel.
This is why IMO our business model works. All internet basically. If we had a quality online design software I wonder if it would boost us. Most still come to us for custom artwork before printing though.
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Customink should change there name, what's custom about them, everyone can go there there site and get the same art with different text...they should be Just ink, but if does help when a customer has some kind of art and a clue of what they want.
Darryl
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I have one person that I freelance for that honestly continuly sends me designs that she gets from her customers.. mostly students... that are designs they did on custom ink and then send to them to get printed. Sometimes I am allowed to re-create based on that image and sometimes it says.. Please duplicate EXACT... I just keep on keeping on.. I am forever grateful they can't download the vector..
dlac
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We bought http://www.productsdesigner.com/flash-tshirt-designer-v4 (http://www.productsdesigner.com/flash-tshirt-designer-v4) for several grand. It has never worked and they don't answer email. I would suggest staying far away from this one.
Matt
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At the end of the day, if people design within a program and you get art ready to sep, it would save us a ton of time. I would think that you could tell customers to use the design program to avoid art fees or bring us your cocktail napkin and you'll spend 30 bucks an hour for us to clean it up.
When our app is done I hope some of you will test it out and give your opinion.
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Count me in! I am dying for a program that works.
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Man, I sat in on a meeting with a player that deals with online processing. Some crazy stuff coming down the pipe real soon that could change our industry real fast. Kinda scary seeing whats out there and think what it would potentially do to the mid size guys like me.
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If I ever (God forbid!) have to go in for brain surgery, am I going to bring some sketches, to which the Doc should refer, while he's working ? Some things should be left to pros...LOL! IMO, the worst thing to happen to my job has been the proliferation of the home computer...Client: "I gots me some software that came on a photo CD from wally world...I made this up all by my little old self ... I've no idea of any of the 37 fonts used names...can you use it?
Me: " 'Can I?' the question should be...'Should I?' Go away...please...just go away" oh,noo...Can't tell em THAT! I hafta polish these turds...Grrrr! (Waves grumpy old fist in air) MUCH prefer sitting down with the person making the decision, spending 20 minutes with them, making them feel special, and myself somewhat useful..."Instant artist, just add computer"...feh!
There! I feel better...Thanx!
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They are hiring printers and P Managers
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They are hiring printers and P Managers
They have a bunch of new presses too.
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Man, I sat in on a meeting with a player that deals with online processing. Some crazy stuff coming down the pipe real soon that could change our industry real fast. Kinda scary seeing whats out there and think what it would potentially do to the mid size guys like me.
Can you elaborate? When I bought my first manual press DTG was going to put screen printers out of business in the next 5 years. I have not see that happen yet.
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There's always some big company thinking or trying to put the breaks on mom & pop shops or mid range shops.
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Curious as to how long they uphold their eight color six piece re-orders now that they are on the other
side of the press so to speak.
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They aren't going to do all the printing themselves still. Probably leave the low or no profit stuff outsourced if I had to guess.
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I'm sure most their high color/low quantity orders are decorated via DTG. Blue Cotton out in Kentucky had a bunch of videos of their production floor and they had 2 or 3 Kornits running daily, along with a bunch of autos for the bigger jobs. They have a more polished Customink business model it seemed.
I've contemplated giving Inksoft a try. Looks like they are making it better and better, but I'm still not so sure it's there yet. My other worry is that I don't plan well enough for the chance it is a huge success. As nice as it would be to wake up one morning to a ton of orders, I'd be pretty much a chicken without a head trying to keep up with it. Of course, that's assuming it takes off.
I think I'm just going to stick with my current website for now. I have a meeting with an SEO company next month. I've been using the paid Google ads to drive traffic to my site, but I really want to boost the organic SEO.
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. I have a meeting with an SEO company next month. I've been using the paid Google ads to drive traffic to my site, but I really want to boost the organic SEO.
Ahhhh SEO. Internet version of crack..... Land of smoke and mirrors.... Endless commitment to spend lots of money with absolutely no commitment for ROI..... A constantly changing landscape that very few can navigate thru efficiently ...The have already marked there territory and have the big guns to roll over any wanna be's....some times doing business the old fashion way still works best... The internet is a viscous play ground at best..... I have spent many thousands of dollars to learn this.
I took all the money I was spending on PPC and put it towards customer retention and feel I get a far better return.
JMO
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Endless commitment to spend lots of money with absolutely no commitment for ROI.....
A good friend of mine has been an internet hosting/development company for the last 20+ yrs and he loves nothing more than to take a clients money for SEO work. He laughs all the way to the bank.
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. I have a meeting with an SEO company next month. I've been using the paid Google ads to drive traffic to my site, but I really want to boost the organic SEO.
Ahhhh SEO. Internet version of crack..... Land of smoke and mirrors.... Endless commitment to spend lots of money with absolutely no commitment for ROI..... A constantly changing landscape that very few can navigate thru efficiently ...The have already marked there territory and have the big guns to roll over any wanna be's....some times doing business the old fashion way still works best... The internet is a viscous play ground at best..... I have spent many thousands of dollars to learn this.
I took all the money I was spending on PPC and put it towards customer retention and feel I get a far better return.
JMO
The majority of my business over the last few years has been strictly internet based. This year I'm seeing a lot more referrals while still getting pretty decent results on paid Google ads. I guess location comes into play. I live in North New Jersey, about 10 miles from NYC. Everyone around here seems to prefer doing things over the internet.
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There will always be some shops that are able to make it fine with no or very little internet presence. I strongly believe this to change though for many shops if they expect to make it in the future long term. We can all make fun of Customink or the like right now. Someday someone is going to hit the right formula for quality and service and they will be all internet based and they will be easier to do business with than the next guy and they will have you beat. Its coming, maybe not 5 years from now or maybe even longer but remember this much. The generation of kids (customers) born now are using the internet even more than my generation did and we are addicted to it most would say. This will only lead to higher internet use to find what they want and need. I check the internet for basically anything I need before I buy it.
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I check the internet first too, but as a business owner in my town I have learned what it means to buy local and I will pay more to do business in my town. Everybody wont, but some will.