Inspiration & Project Management

January 16, 2007 at 6:19 am · Filed under CafePress Tips

I always carry around a journal so I can jot down design or shop ideas & sketch whenever the mood strikes. I think it’s a good habit to get in, because often inspiration would strike and I would forget later on when I opened Photoshop. Now, I just look through my notes to find what I’d like to do for the day.

I used to keep all my notes on paper, but when I got my laptop last month, I started looking around for something that would help me get organized, better manage my time and keep track of projects. I am the type of person that is always working on at least a dozen things at once, and really needed to get my act together. In fact, it’s my resolution for the Lekker Shops this year.

I had used ACT in the past for a similar situation, but it is not available for a Mac. I found Daylite and haven’t looked back. You can create project pipelines to track the progress of projects. I have set up pipelines and activity sets that lay out all of the steps of design development, from concept to stocking. I can easily see where I left off on something, even if I haven’t touched it in a while. I have areas to input description copy I have finalized and tags that have come to mind. I also use it to keep track of when my Google Base uploads expire, CP chats, etc. Now when I get a new idea for a design, I just open a new project in Daylite. I can categorize it to the specific shop, and make smart lists that pull all projects by shop. I really like having everything in one place.
Daylite offers a free 30 day trial, which for me is almost over. I will be purchasing a full version, because I find that it really does help keep my stuff in line.

Comments

kuler

January 13, 2007 at 2:51 am · Filed under CafePress Tips, Design Tips

I like to offer customers a few color choices for most designs in the Lekker Shops. Since there is so little overhead with a CP shop, offering my customer options doesn’t cost me much. I had started this mostly to accommodate our first colored shirts - the Jr. Ringer T-Shirt. I also can’t make up my mind a lot of the time.

My favorite recent find is Adobe Lab’s kuler. It’s a free, web based color theme creator. Once you sign in with your free Adobe ID, you can create and publish color themes. You can also save your themes as swatches to use in Adobe Creative Suite (CS or CS2) applications. With the exception of custom color themes, it’s all based on color theory. It’s far and away the best kind of color program I have seen around, and a great tool for CP Shopkeepers. It’s a fool proof way to expand your color horizons.

Comments (2)

A book every Cafepress Shopkeeeper should own

January 12, 2007 at 6:57 am · Filed under CafePress Tips

Success with Cafepress.com is a book I wish I had when starting the Lekker Shops. Daniel is not only a great asset to the CP community, he’s one heck of a nice guy. Even seasoned shopkeepers will find useful information, like a list of all products (at press time) and their image dimensions and printing options and an endless amount on customizing your shop with html. I have given this book to many friends when starting their shops. I reccomend getting the spiral binding - it’s a lot easier as it lays flat on your desk.

Comments