New game! When we get our newly printed shirts off the press, we’re going to take a pic and share them with you.

We’ll upload them to Flickr. Be our newest contact!

We’ll tweet the Flickr link. Follow us!

And we’ll post them to our Facebook wall. Be our fan!

Last month, we entered our first two screen printing contests ever — and won First Place in both!

The first contest, put on by One Stop Inc. (a basic apparel provider) and sponsored by Anvil, awarded us First Place in the “Multi-Colored Screen Printing on Dark Garments” category for a shirt we printed for Zombie Liquorice.

The second contest, put on by TSC Apparel (a basic apparel company that also owns Tultex), awarded us First Place in the same category for a shirt we printed for our BFFs, Stereo Bear.

We already knew our stuff was top-of-the-line — but wow! We are truly flattered. Thanks so much to everyone involved.

First of all, we want to thank you all for waiting so patiently for the launch of our DIY Stores. (Believe me, we’re excited, too!) To let you in on why they haven’t launched yet, here’s a little update…

As you know, we put loads of effort into creating our Store Admin Panel. Now, we’re working to make shopping just as fun and easy-to-use as having a store is.

With our “social shopping” features, we’re creating unique ways that shoppers can interact with products and with each other, enhancing their overall experience on the site. Many more details on that will come soon. We now plan to launch our DIY Stores and social features at the same time, because by combining these launches, that’s one less major change that we’ll have to interrupt all our users with.

As for when, we can’t yet promise a specific date, but let’s just say that if we’re not launching everything in the next month or two — we’ll be more upset than you!

***

And just for fun…

From the Storenvy archives, here’s an error page that Scott designed as a joke ages ago. Too good not to share!

Storenvy hearts all things handmade. But we especially heart the ones that are photographed well — first impressions are everything in e-commerce!

For the awesome new artists and crafters joining SE, I wanted to share these two well-traveled sets of instructions for taking pro product pictures at home, with DIY lightboxes.

Option 1 is from Strobist, a photography lighting blog. The needed materials cost $2-$10, depending on how many you already own, plus your own flash or other light source. It’s framed by a cardboard box. Temptingly easy and cheap, plus a video tutorial on the post. Full instructions here.

Option 2 is from Craftershock, a DIY and inspiration resource for crafters. It costs about $25, including the lights. It’s framed by dowel rods that you nail together. It’s a more permanent option than the first, perfect for regular hobbyists who have a basement corner to reserve as a mini photo studio. Full instructions here.

One “bonus” tip the Craftershock post offers up is to use your camera’s macro setting — on my PowerShot this is the tulip icon — which is designed for close-ups. I’ve found that with this setting you can even toy with focus more than you might expect, but as always, the right lighting is key.

The results:

From Strobist, shot with one flash, as pictured.

From Craftershock.

My own photo, taken on my PowerShot with the tulip (macro) setting, lit by daylight.

Stores come in many forms: hobbies, experiments and livelihoods.  Our goal at Storenvy is to make setting up and outfitting your store as painless as possible, regardless of what you do.  But, in the end, it’s up to you and your products to win people over and sell, sell, sell.

Our friends at Willoughby Design took a few minutes to examine how Storenvy “customization” works and implemented a winning design that accomplished exactly what they set out to achieve.  Willoughby’s storefront features the “Willobag”, reusable shopping bags made of 100% ripstop nylon that can be folded into a 5″ x 5″ carrying pouch.  Check out their store and get your own Willobags in time for Christmas.

Let’s take a look at 3 simple things that Willoughby realized to implement their design:

1.  Background Image.

In your store’s admin panel, you have the option of uploading your own background image.  This image is centered at the top of the screen and repeats.  Willoughby made great use of this to make the image of the shopper flow behind the main container of the store.  If your first idea doesn’t work, don’t give up.  Remember, this is money we’re talking about!

2.  Header Image.

Designing the right header image for your store can make all the difference.  Do you need space above or below?  Build it into the image.  Would you like the background color or image to show through?  Be sure to save it as a transparent PNG.  Would you like your image to stretch the full width of your storefront?  Be sure it’s 980px wide.  Willoughby wanted a rotating image in their header.  They built a simple, but effective animated GIF to do the job.

3.  Colors.

The right color scheme can draw the buyers attention.  The wrong color scheme can send them away crying.  Be sure to take time to choose colors that complement and accent each other well.  If you need help, Google it, there is plenty of documentation out there on complimentary colors and color schemes.

A few other hints and ideas:

• Choose an avatar that fits your store personality well, be it a logo, product image or something else.
• Take care with your product photos.  Find a good camera, a good background and a good model.
• Upload multiple photos for each product.  Show the buyer what it looks like from all sides.  You can upload as many as 5 photos per product.
• Fill out your Store Details on the Settings page.  Give the buyer a good description of your store, where you are located and where else on the internet you can be found.
• Product descriptions could make or break the sale.  What is it printed on?  Is there anything special the buyer might want to know before they buy?

Happy Store Building & Happy Holidays!

One week until election day. If you do nothing else on November 4, VOTE!

And until then, support your candidate with these lovely tees from the Playnice Apparel store. We appreciate their diplomatic inclusion of both parties — we vote for a non-partisan Washington, too.

Barack (Obama) the Vote

John McCain: Oldie but a Goodie

Those of you who know the grand vision of Storenvy know that we have a long way to go before we can sit back and relax, but we reached a big milestone last week.  We launched our Store Admin Panel.  We now have 85 happy campers using our admin panel to manage their store.

As we were building the admin panel and store system, we had two main goals.

1. We set out to make the system as simple as possible while still allowing people to control as much as they want.
2. We wanted to make it fun. Just because it isn’t the front end part of the website, doesn’t mean it has to be ugly. This is the part of the site our clients are going to be spending their time using so it should give them a positive experience and make them happy!

Well, the verdict is in and our clients LOVE IT!

HOLY COW! Admin panel is awesome. You guys are the shit. Nice work! — Louis Montorio, System Recordings & Double Blind Music

Currently store owners can:

• Manage Products:  Edit product details & pricing. Upload rearrange pictures. Create and manage categories.
• Customize The Design:  Store owners can edit their store’s design with a live preview using an easy color picker.  They can also upload heading and background images themselves.
• View Orders, Live:  See sales as they occur.  See where your sales are being shipped.  Find out what items are being ordered together.
• View Live Sales Stats:  See how much money you’ve made this month and in previous months live.

If you want a store, please let us know!