Designing and Marketing New Products

It's great when new products come out, especially at the beginning of a new season. New products can inspire and get the creative juices flowing again after a busy summer. 

Zazzle has brought in stylish tank tops and leggings to be creatively designed. It's great when we get products that are items that people are interested in buying and wearing. Clothes that are made of good quality fabric and provide comfort as well as great style.  

The tank tops are an all over print in a versatile style that can be printed on front and back.

• Unisex sizing- fits both Men and Women.
• Material: 100% white spun polyester that's soft and comfortable.
• Superior sweat-wicking material.
• Custom designs printed in vibrant prints are soft and touchable. 

The women's leggings are a full length style made of  a high spandex content that hugs and fits the body in all the right places. They are also made in Canada. 

• Material: Ultra-stretch ecopolyester spandex blend (88% polyester, 12% spandex)
• High spandex composition means compression fit won't lose shape
• Machine wash cold, lay flat to dry
• Vibrant print won't fade after washing

Leggings are a wardrobe staple for most women these days as they are a versatile piece to have in your closet. Whether you wear them to the gym to do your workout in or layer them under a tunic or cozy sweater you'll look great and love the comfort and ease of these. Teenagers especially tend to love these leggings with cute patterns and bright colors that show off their personality. Personally I think these would make great gifts this Christmas season for a teen in your life.  

Here are a few examples of the tanks and leggings with some cute patterns. Check by the shop to see more as I'll be busy creating new patterns for these over the next couple of months. 

Pink and Black Leopard Pattern 

Blue and Black Flower Pattern 

Blue and Black Flower Print Tank Top

Pink and Purple Flowering Trees Tank Top

Pink Smiley Cupcake Leggings

Paint Programs That Can Help You Get Started

So you're new to designing, perhaps you're just in the throws of wanting to start an online business where you create images or graphics for products that you sell.  I thought I'd share some of the digital paint programs that can help make the design process easier for you. Over the years as I have developed my design style and methods that I like to use to create I have tried several different paint programs. Now first I'll say that I have not spend a great deal of money on  any of the programs I've tried. For instance,  I know Photoshop is great, complicated for beginners and it does cost a few bucks for that one, so it depends how much you're willing to invest and learn. Today, I'll share a couple of the the free ones as well as a low-cost paint program that are great for a beginner and intermediate artists. 

Paint.Net - This program runs on Windows and is free image and photo editing software. Has a 4 star rating. Offers an intuitive in inter-face with layering, special effects and lots of useful tools. Provides help, tutorials and plugins. (The tutorials are great for beginners) 

MyPaint - A painting program that is designed in a simple format making it easy to find your way around. Includes lots of great features with a toolbar and menu bar across the top of the interface. A large variety of brushes to choose like pencils, markers and paintbrushes. An easy to use color selector and this program supports layers.   If you're a beginner you'll have fun with this one and more advanced users will appreciate some of the more technical features. 

SumoPaint - This is a free online image editing and free paint program. Aside from being a great tool Sumo also has an online art community of users from around the world. The community is for sharing, commenting, exploring other's art. You can choose to use it for this or just use it as the paint/image editing tool. This is the program I have mainly been using the last couple of years. One thing I love about Sumo is that if you purchase the Pro Version (only $20) then you can download Sumo to your computer and work offline. They have added some really cool features and filters that can really enhance your artwork. This program allows you to edit pixels too! Lots of great tools to use in your designs. Sometimes I create things that I had no idea that I had the skills to do! lol I find SumoPaint really simple to use,  it just takes a little practice and soon you'll know your way around too! 

If you're just starting out in this arena check out one of these free programs, you might be surprised at what you can create.