Artist Alley: General Hospital

Crafter here (plushies, amigurumi, needlefelt), trying to get inspired to make stuff, especially a range of different priced items. Because I work in retail, I didn't create as much as I would've liked during the holidays, so now I'm trying to get back to AA stuff.

I think every year I have the same problem of not having a particular theme of goodies and barely touching fan stuff. Now that I have a PC, I hope I can produce a few photo prints with craft stuff than drawing.

I was wondering if any other anon's did Anime Impulse this past weekend? From what I saw, sales were slow, and talking with other artists some of them did pretty good and others did really badly.

It was my first AA. I think I did okay for a first time in an AA and not having a huge variety of stock, though I didn't get my booth costs back.

>>9322649
Go on Etsy and look at all the novice-made, low quality, things on there that still get favorites, sales, and raving reviews. Best inspiration in the world.

Does anyone else get serious eye strain from sitting at their table all day? I don't know what it is, but when I sit at a table all day, my eye seriously start to bug me, even putting in extra eye drops. After the AA closes and I walk around, its fine, just sitting in that one place does it.
Any ideas on why that happens or to fix it?

>>9323482
This has been happening to me a bit lately. I think it's mostly because you're trying to focus on every single little thing you see, focusing on lots of people and trying to make eye contact.

Try shifting your focus from something close to you, then something far away. Do that a few times. Your eyes are also able to relax better if you have them open in pitch blackness instead of closing them. If you can skip away to the restroom to cup your hands over your eyes for a minute or so and let them rest it can help.

Lol yea

>>9323482
yah, and my whole body hurts too. the best thing for me is to find a helper then I can walk around and rest up. if you can't find one I find that chatting up with people while standing up usually helps to break up the stagnant mood. Speaking of Health in AA, I find that wearing orthotic shoes, brining granola bars and putting my sweater/jacket on the chair as a pillow ( incase I need to sit) really helps.

So this is really petty, but does anybody else get annoyed with how accessible AA is now? Like yes, there have been shitty/subpar artists taking tables since they started, but it feels (to me at least) that more and more alleys are getting flooded with amateurs with mounds of rushed/shoddy FOTM fanmerch.
It feels much less like an 'artists' alley and more like 'amateur dealers' now.

Hello there! I was wondering if there is some european here willing to lend me a hand.
I've been searching for some Europe-based sites where I can get holographic prints done, but the only one I found is Beespoke, which is currently closed. I know I can order from Alibaba o Catprint as well, but shipping and customs may end up way over my budget.
So does any anon have any other good recomendation? Thank you!

>>9323820
>It feels much less like an 'artists' alley and more like 'amateur dealers' now.
I think its obvious. Once an artist gets really good, they move from AA to the dealers room. I know several crafter artists who get a dealers table since it means a bigger space. I even get a dealer's table at smaller cons when it is cheap, and been thinking about moving to dealers room permanently one day.

>>9323820
I don't know what cons you've been attending, but I feel like the overall numbers of shitty artists has fallen in the last 10 years. Do you do comic or anime cons? What region? I'm thinking back to Megacon in 2006 and how many bad artists were there.

>>9323820
Can't tell what you mean, usually dealers implies someone who makes a lot of money so are you complaining about shitty artists or artists who make too much money? Or are you implying shitty artists make more money than you?

>>9323892
Personally, I hate this. I understand it for crafters with original properties (unique machine made plush, etc), but the dealers hall is no place for fanart. There needs to be a separation between official goods and fan work, and the fact that so many fan artists are blending into the dealers hall from the artist alley is most likely why Funimation has started throwing a shit fit.

I don't say this because I hate fan art - I mean, I sell it for christ sake, I love fan art. But we're already operating in a legal gray zone where it's technically illegal, but everyone looks the other way. Fan art sellers are allowed specifically because we ARE our own entity, and operate with different merchandise and standards from official goods. With fan art turning into fan merch (acrylic charms, body pillows, pencil cases, etc) the line is becoming blurrier, but for our own sake we need to differentiate between the Artist Alley and the dealers hall. Lawyers don't like blurry lines, and I can see this going south legally, and stricter regulations being put in place by conventions to protect the interests of dealers. Such as Sakuracon literally sticking Alley in a different building this year.

>>9322649
>>9323309
And then remember that no one will actually pay etsy prices in most AAs for items that took you hours upon hours to make.

>>9323820
I mean, I kind of get what you're saying, although there are certainly less bitchy ways to say it. Getting your own merch made is now cheap and easy so there's a lot more 'amateur' merch out there now. I wouldn't say alleys as a whole are getting worse, though. Maybe a little boring with the same styles cropping up again and again, but that's always been a trend.

>>9323985
Yea, taking fan art into dealers room is weird. Its normally people start out with fanart, get good, create their own characters and such, then start selling in the dealers room.

If you are really good, and you don't rely on fan art, then there really is no reason to not start going to the dealers room, unless the dealers room is significantly more expensive than AA or you have low inventory.

>>9323820

I would honestly say quality has jumped up considerably compared to what used to be the standard. You can complain about the ease of getting products made, but the fact is that means way more artists have professional looking products and booths, even if their art itself isn't as professional looking.

That being said, basically every con worth going to has had their apps completely flooded in the last 5 years. I'd say it's actually LESS accessible due to how hard it is to get in now just with the #s involved. I am kicking myself now for not getting grandfathered into cons that I thought would always stay easy to get into.

>>9324504
What cons have a grandfather system?
I've been getting into Katsucon and otakon every year for the past five years and I'm wondering if they really like my work or if I'm just being grandfathered in.

>>9324575
I think AWA does. Yama-con too. Some cons will grandfather you in, others will just take preference over returning artists, and some cons just don't care. Its evenly divided among those 3 in my experience.

>>9324504

I think the time period where AA was truly massively accessible is slowly ending, since so many cons are switching to jury because they're overwhelmed FCFS style. Now there are still a ton of cons out there who do FCFS and maybe those are keeping these mediocre and shitty artists afloat in terms of wanting to keep doing AA.

But I definitely felt like for a while it was just dramatically easier to do AA because there are so many resources and it's very easy to outsource small merch production. At this point you really just need to draw and have capital to do AA, there's not much research involved with sourcing things unless a new merch item gets popular.

>>9323985

So fanart in the dealer's hall is not why Funimation threw a fit. That's a contractual thing with having to enforce their copyrights and trademarks. They've certainly had a heightened legal presence at cons but that's also to attack bootleg in dealer's rooms (which it's disturbing how much bootleg there still is at cons big and small).

I don't know much about AA history and such, but I'd also imagine that the sheer ease for making money off fanart has increased with online sites like Etsy and just how much bigger AAs have gotten. The visibility of fanart as well as profits on it hasn't helped. It's harder for a company to turn a blind eye (and explain that blind eye to their licensors).

>>9324723
>It's harder for a company to turn a blind eye (and explain that blind eye to their licensors).

Yeah, I worked for a while at a US-based licensing company that makes official anime goods that you see at Exhibit Halls and Hot Topic and that's a big issue. A part of my job was to help the boss track down what grey-market goods were doing well so they can make official versions and then report the fanartist to the IP holder. (Which was kind of shitty because in essence they were stealing ideas and reporting fanartists.)

I think in general, they don't mind TOO much about 2D fanart and 3D merch that's just... printed. Like for example tote bags and acrylic keychains that are technically 3D merch but just your 2D art printed on them. But when it gets into shit like manufactured goods like 3D fanart plush (like the ones made from a pattern and not the pillow kind which again, is just printed art) or PVC keychains, they get really bristly. With printed art goods, it's very easy to tell if something is fanart because of the art style so there's still that distinction. With manufactured goods like actual plush and PVC straps, it's harder to distinguish from official goods (esp when people use a simplified dot eye style that's popular in a lot of chibi official goods) so they start considering that competition against their own licensed products. So basically, I wouldn't worry too much about acrylic keychains and printed pillows but if you're considering 3D plush and PVC, I would caution you against it because licensors are much more likely to consider those competing bootleg goods.

Honestly, my boss didn't give a shit about prints and other fanmerch with a clear distinction from official goods but if it was 3D stuff like plush or something that looked very close to the official art style, it would get reported. It kind of does put craft artists at a disadvantage since with acrylic cutting, I know a lot of people create exact replicas of magical girl stuff.

>>9323309
Some interesting stuff on etsy... I think. It's dizzying, and kinda helpful.

>>9324057
Bluh, I feel very fortunate when people pay for the prices I set at - I worry when the prices seem high to others, but I'm thankful that customers (so far) recognize what I do and are still willing to pay for the items I fear about.

I do my best to price them fairly to the time I put into them plus materials/etc; thus, I'm very choosy in what I make depending on time/difficulty.

I have a question about A-kon that has been bothering me since the sign-ups. Is it normal for them to ask for a Texas sales tax ID before you know whether you got in the AA or not?

It really threw me for a loop because I didn't know this was a hard requirement to apply. How do you guys handle this? I e-mailed the Texas revenue department about when I can apply and they said the earliest you can apply for one would be March 8 as the application must be made within a 90 day time frame of the event.

If worst comes to worst, I'll just apply for a tax ID, sit on my hands and wait for next year's A-Kon.

>>9323820
To me, it's more of a AA management decision. They could just all start doing portfolio review for every single one to decrease the amount of shitters.

>>9324806
It's very normal for them, and most other large Texas cons.

>>9324648
AWA has a grandfathering system? How exactly does that work? Do they first accept returning artists mainly?

>>9325020
I have no idea what this anon is talking about. It's a juried system every year and if they do have a list of people that they auto accept every year they don't advertise it.

>>9325020
>>9325031
I've only been one year, thought they said they automatically accept returning artists, guess not. As for Yama-con, they let you buy a table for next year at the convention.

>>9324806
This is both the norm every year and they warned artists for weeks ahead of the application. AFAIK if you did not give a tax ID when you applied your application is now in the trash.

>>9324575
Technically AX started a grandfathering system within the last three or four years, in that you had the ability to buy next year's table without a fight.

Since you guys probably stell online too - I wanted to open up a Storenvy but I'm kind confused about it since I have to upgrade my paypal to a business account.

Do I have to provide some legal business form(im in the USA)? By opening one do I have a 'real' business(since you have to put a 'legal business name'). While I'm upgrading, can I or not access/use my paypal as I would normally while I'm waiting approval?
I don't sell things often nor am I trying to make this my main income but I do rely heavily on paypal.

>>9325643
I'm in Canada so I don't know how useful my experience would be to you but I didn't need to have any sort of form or anything to change my account to a business account. It also happened rather quickly if I recall so even if I couldn't use my paypal during the switch then I didn't even notice.

Sorry for slightly OT question but does anyone have recommendations for good quality plushie commissioners?

I have a custom design that I want to have made for myself and the general shapes aren't too complicated, but the design would use a variety of colors for its clothes. I was thinking the quote would be about $60-80 but I'm not sure if that's too low since I'm not familiar with plush-making prices.

>>9325729
Forgot to mention that I could also provide a pattern template with some requests for slight modification

>>9324806

So I guess you're talking about a temporary one? I applied for one years ago and was not within 90 days of the event and still got my tax ID, but I'm a resident. There wasn't any type of "earliest date" I had to apply by. I guess the type that I did was also registering my business with the state. Since I only use mine for AA most quarters I have "no sales" to report so it's pretty painless in terms of having it year to year.

But like >>9325241 said, any application without a sales tax ID (or with one that ends up not being active and in compliance) automatically are discarded.

I've been using Vograce only for charms but wanted to see what all the other vendors were like, so I recently placed orders for a couple charm types with each of the other big vendors.

A: the quality is 10x better and none of the other vendors made mistakes, whereas Vograce regularly fucks up my orders
B: it made me realize that Vograce's charms are HUGE compared to all the other vendors

As an artist I care about quality so I want to switch away from Vograce, but do customers really care about that, or will they automatically just assume that bigger = better and not really care about the quality otherwise?

>>9325906
From my experience, customers don't really care about print quality. My sandwich-type charms from Vograce do better than the clear printed ones I've gotten from Zap. Because they're bigger, it's easier for customers to spot them on my table - I know a big problem marketing small phone charms is that they're kind of hard to pick out if you have a lot of stuff displayed. Some customers hate big charms because they find it clunky and prefer smaller ones so it's really up to the customer - but from what I've seen, the ones who prefer smaller charms are few compared to the ones who are taken by the large display value of the bigger ones.

>>9325906
I feel like my biggest fear about moving from vograce is seeing my stuff all over aliexpress and junk

>>9324057

That's why with cons you don't bring your complicated, expensive stuff, or if you do you only make/bring a few of those and make a bunch of the easier stuff.

I will say though, if you're quality it really shines through. I was right next to a dirt cheap plush maker once ($8 ~ $12 little minky things), and I still sold out of my $40 plush that cost me maybe three or four dollars in materials?

>>9325912
Isn't that down to just displaying them prominently then and not size? Surely if you highlighted your smaller charms, people would buy those equally as long as they noticed them?

>>9326005
I've talked with other artists about this too, and small charms - even if they're displayed by themselves on corkboards are very easy to miss if you're selling... pretty much anything else like prints. I'm not saying people will NEVER see your small charms but it's just going to be a bit harder for people to notice them. I've had people make a second round and say "oh I didn't even see these before/I didn't know you were selling them" re: small charms.

I actually used to sell small charms only before I moved onto bigger keychains and the sheer difference in sales numbers for me is enough to never consider doing small charms again.

>>9326061
What do you consider small vs big? I have 1.5"-2" charms right now, but I'm wondering if in the future I should upgrade to 2"-2.5" instead.

>>9326089
Anything below 2" is what I'd consider small. Basically the size of most phone charms that come w/ those little lariat attachments. All my keychains are 2.5"-`2.75".

>>9325906
I have very successful 1inch charms.. Since starting to sell 3.5inch vograce charms it hasnt seemed to hurt the sales of my small stuff and honestly probably directs ppls eyes to my smaller stuff

thank you to the people who recommended phone chargers last thread! i meant to reply directly but the old thread is dead

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Regarding charm size, i didnt think about scale when i had first started mine then realized what a difference there is between the smaller ones. im sure more seasoned gulls already have an eye for this but i laid out some to see what they looked like at approximate scale

>>9326251
As someone who collects charms, 1-2.5" seem like good sizes. Once you hit 3" it's just absurdly big, it'd actually put me off to buying it even if the design were really nice. Do they really sell well?

>>9326251
also none of these are my designs just ones i own

>>9326251
are you using a real ruler because i'm pretty sure the monster inc one is 1.5" so everything else would be off too.

>>9325906
>>9325912
>>9326061
Can I ask a ballpark of how much you guys make off these giant charms at a good con or average con? It's one thing to hear someone say they make way more with giant charms but numbers wise i'm not sure how much more money i could be making off charms and making them bigger will be heavier and more cumbersome.

Sometimes i see people saying they make more money doing the opposite of me but when i see their actual numbers i realize they are still making much less so it's not worth changing my set up so I'm trying to gauge the actual issue here.

>>9326478
won't this mostly depend on your art? I won't buy giant ugly charms

>>9326256
As an itabagger, I don't like buying anything below 2", it's so dinky you can't see it. On the other hand, my room mate who also collects charms vastly prefers 1.5" to any other size. And we're both AA artists, so we argue about this every time the subject comes up.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that individual customer opinions are going to vary widely.

>>9326488
Sort of yes, but if they used to make $500 a con off charms and now they make $2000 just because they changed their size, that's a big different that might translated regardless of their art.

At the same time if they've always sold big charms but only have ever made $500 or whatever off their charms then I don't feel their advice has much merit.

>>9326251
I prefer 0.5"-2" because it's subtle and non-intrusive. Though I'm speaking from the perspective of an artist and a non-impulse buyer so maybe you shouldn't cater towards people like me if you want big profits.

If you display a large image of each charm designs at equal size with the actual charms next to it, it might be easier for customers to see all the designs.

>>9326251
i wish more people would make big ones. i prefer them.

>>9326492
This. As an itabagger, I like charms that are on the bigger size. The practical side of me that actually puts charms on my keys and phone likes smaller ones though. You're going to see a difference in preference, and I think the best way to go is to chose a size that fits the artwork.

>>9326478
>>9326497
I don't have numbers for my charm sales alone but I can say that in terms of overall sales, when I was doing small charms, I made $3k on a good con, $1-2k regularly. Now, I pull in $5-6k regularly. $7-8k at a good con. If I made $1-2k profit at a con I'd probably consider it a "bad" con now.

I know that not all of that has to do with charm sales only because those are my total sales numbers. But those are the only recorded numbers I have to offer you.

>>9326549
i never put charms on my keys or phone because they get fucked up

>>9326560
I don't know what you do with your phone and keys, but mine are fine and it's been a year or two.

Hey, so I know we briefly discussed the repercussions of Trump being elected re: customs and imports into the US. I had a rather large $1.5k worth of merch that was on its way to me and I was notified today that if I want it released to me, I would have to pay an import duty close to $300.

I've never had this happen to me before and I usually make orders of a similar size/value. I've heard this happening a lot to EU anons but afaik haven't heard of happening to US anons. Just thought I'd give you all a heads up. For reference, my carrier was DHL. I had a different package from a different vendor (Vograce) arrive at my doorstep with no extra customs fees yesterday. The Vograce package was also DHL so it was a little surprising to be hit with a $300 fee for my other package.

>>9326560
>>9326565
cheap charms get fucked, expensive ones don't.

>>9326565
I'm a different anon, but bought a vograce charm from a vendor, it hasn't been a month and it's fucked up on my keyring (I have two keys, and I'm pretty gentle with them. I have a non vograce charm on my keyring, it's fine so far tho.). It's not a sandwiched layered charm tho, it's the cheap one thing layer of white clear charm from vograce.

I'm going to start only buying vograce charms from other vendors if it's sandwiched layered or has resin.

>>9326577
I've had non-vograce charms get fucked up when they get banged around with metal keychains and keys.

>>9326579
I always advise that people keep the clear charms with exposed ink on non-
metal stuff like backpacks or phones. I've had mine on my backpack that gets beat up daily and it's still fine. That being said, I'm converting to acorn press because their charms are sturdier and the white layer is thicker.

>>9326566

I heard people having this problem with DHL before though. Way back when my friend moved back, she moved back ~600 USD of stuff and got charged a hefty amount of customs too. This also isn't the first time I've heard here that shipping with DHL will often get you hit with customs fees.

Don't get paranoid yet. Trump hasn't signed anything about anything, so your customs troubles likely are from the individual carrier rather than that orange haired harlequin.

>>9326592
non vograce can still be cheap (zap lol), but i've never had inkit stuff (for example) chip.

>>9326566
there's ALWAYS a random chance something gets held at customers. you just got unlucky this time.

>>9326595
Haha, I just thought it was kind of hilarious that people were worried about Trump fucking shit up for artists manufacturing things through China and this just happened to happen on the same day as his inauguration. I'm also pretty sure it's a coincidence seeing as he is just now taking office.

A-Kon is having a second round of sign ups on February 7th so more people can sign up. Apparently, people were confused about the original sign up dates?

>>9326473
yes mikes 1.5 wide but i dont have any 1 for some reason but hes 1 in tall. the rest are still the same (give or take a couple 16ths). i mean its approximations with the closest charms i have. id appreciate someone making the effort to make a good scale but i just needed an eyeball (heh) reference.

>>9326653

As someone who applied on time, I think this is kind of bullshit. Anyone serious about applying to a con should have it on their radar and be keeping up on signup info and the tax ID requirements that they have. All this means is more competition from people who weren't on the ball and it feels like a punishment to people who were on time.

>>9326713
I agree, however, on the other hand the website said February 7th, and if you don't follow any of the con's social media you essentially got screwed out of your chance. I'm not saying a second round of sign ups is fair, but someone from staff screwed up.

>>9326727

Was it not added to A-Kon's website? If not, that sucks. I can understand some people getting a little confused since they usually do sign ups in February, but I agree with >>9326713 that this is kinda ridic. They gave us nearly all day to sign up on Sunday, they sent out mailing lists, it's not hard to check social media if you don't follow. It makes me wonder how many people freaked out and went to them that they're having to do this.

>>9326653
That's...odd. Are people not on the mailing list? I'm somehow still on it and I haven't been to A-Kon for a few years now (moved to California, not because the money wasn't there). People who applied that first time should be given priority. I hope they at least do that much.

>>9326845
They said that the new applicants will be judged along with the first round, I feel like no priority will be given. They mentioned an expanded AA, too, so I wonder if they somehow just didn't get enough applicants or as many as they wanted.

>>9326845
A-kon said they won't be given priority. Everyone, new and old, is just being lumped together into one giant jury. They even told people who applied the first time that it's ok for them to reapply in the 2nd round with updated portfolios. A-kon is usually good about things, so this level of shittiness is surprising.

>>9326713
Get off your high horse. Some people go to more than just one or two cons a year, and with some cons opening/closing applications anywhere from 3 months before the con to 8 months, it can get very difficult to keep track of it.

>>9326727
if the website said feb 7th, then they sorta have to do it then. Thats the main place people look.

>>9326861
>They even told people who applied the first time that it's ok for them to reapply in the 2nd round with updated portfolios.
Okay, THAT actually does make it better. Now everyone has a second chance.

>>9326880

I mean, that's nice that we can reapply potentially with better stuff but short of finishing like maybe 2 more pieces, my portfolio isn't going to be drastically different. I think that's kind of a bullshit statement they're throwing out there to try and appease the first round people.

I get that the site was wrong, and they need to honor that, but in that case they should really just invalidate the old applications and say "we're redoing the whole thing." I'm kinda surprised they didn't just tell everyone else they were SOL. That's shitty but what I would expect from that con, in all honesty.

>>9325983
Highly doubt vograce would notice or care. Do you have any examples of this happening?

>>9326566
Wait are you implying this is already because of Trump ?

Anyway, your best bet is to steer clear of DHL if you're worried about customs. Everyone just has shitty luck with them.

>>9326870
Get off my high horse because I think people should be responsible for keeping track of things on their own? I go to a lot of cons every year, and I have a detailed spreadsheet I used to keep track of all the info for all the cons to make sure I don't fuck things up or miss out. It's not the con's responsibility to make up for people who can't get their shit together.

>>9326982
>It's not the con's responsibility to make up for people who can't get their shit together.

But it was apparently the convention's fault for putting the wrong date... From what I gather from this thread, its because they had the wrong date, so some people missed it. Its not like what you imply that people were just lazy or just didn't check to see when the AA opened.

>>9326902
There's not really a point in invalidating the old applications because, unless they don't have a Tax ID, they're all going to be judged either way.

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>>9323482
Not from tabling but I get terrible eye strain when I'm trying to work. Especially on crafts or traditional drawings, but digital art is OK for me. I bought myself pic related awhile back and its the freaking bomb. I would 10/10 recommend if you have shitty eyes that try to stop you from getting your work done.
I picked this one up cheap from amazon

>>9325906
Do you have comparison pictures? I really like seeing charm company differences, especially since I'm making some large batch orders next month.

>>9326966
lmao I don't care if Vograce notices? I'd just hate to see my design all over other websites for sale this tends to happen with other acrylic keychain sellers from what I've heard from other artists kind of like the whole washi tape thing from the AANI group order. Vograce has a bigger customer base so it's less likely they'd ruin their reputation by selling their customers designs.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Overwatch-Keychain-21-Styles-OW-Tracer-Acrylic-Key-Rings-as-Gifts-Chaveiro-Car-Key-Chain-Jewelry/32759012968.html

>>9327088
These specific ones are from in game but I know what you mean since I see a lot of things sold around aliexpress and even ebay. Not the anon you replied to but I'm curious as to who specifically has been selling other artists' designs so I know which vendors to avoid. Has anyone mentioned on the AANI facebook about acrylic charms?

>>9327088
This happened to me. I used some Ali merchant and now there are shitty little 99 cent keychains with my design on there. Trump-sama, save me.

>>9327093
>who specifically
All of them, anon. Don't trust any of those chink dealers. They're all just going to fuck you over like they fucked me over. You can't even track them down because they use different accounts for everything. One account gets your designs and another account sells them.

>>9327098
How about you stop using slurs and stop throwing a bitch fit because you couldn't so your research and your shit got stolen. Lol.

You fucked yourself over for not checking merchants.

>>9327125
So you're saying you don't want me to go through my Ali account to find everyone I ordered from and share to prevent the same thing from happening to anyone else? Got it. Hope it happens to you. I didn't research because people in these threads recommended the sellers to me, so I thought they were trustworthy. Obviously I was wrong.

>>9327098
well you sound like an absolute ray of fucking sunshine. thanks for your bullshit advice since you didn't even mention who fucked you over.

>>9325906
I'm honestly confused by people complaining about Vograce's incompetence. I have been working with them for huge orders (lowest amount I ever ordered was 1k pieces) and the only time there was a mistake was when I wasn't paying attention to the outlines my agent sent me. Are most of you daft or...?

>>9327127
You're so friendly I'd love to take recommendations from you. You seem like a ray of sunshine.

Wonder if you treat people in AA the same way.

>>9327127
diff anon but jfc so if everyone jumped off a cliff would you do it too? quit crying because you didn't try hard enough to make sure you had trustworthy vendors

So is Vograce a safe company to order from? I haven't heard of people's designs being stolen from Chinese printers other than from the rubber PVC keychains...

>>9327135
I've been ordering with them for a year and a half, anon. I'm pretty happy with them and don't have major complaints. I think a lot of it also depends on the agent you correspond with. I use Coco and she's always saved my ass while I've had friends complain to me about Vicky because it's difficult to explain what they want.

>>9327098
>chink dealers
I swear I've seen you complain in every other AA thread with the same words. Maybe you should just stick to Acorn/InkIt/Zap.

>>9327130
just because it's been all sunshine for you doesn't mean everyone else has had that experience. you assuming that`s the case would make you pretty daft.

>>9327135
The only time any of my friends had any designs stolen was from washi orders.

Aside from that vograce has been nothing but good to us. We've been consistently ordering with them for a year and a half. None of our charms have popped up anywhere else.

Don't let the friendly anon above deter you from trying them out. Seems like they decided to go with a random alibaba vendor instead of directly going through vograce. iirc I don't remember seeing any other Chinese charm listing being posted here aside from vograce. So that's really on them.

>>9327157
That's fine you think that. It's honestly not that hard though to get an order done with the company without any road bumps. These threads have basically been spoon feeding newbies and the like on how to order through them for ages. If people are still having trouble ordering with Vograce then it's hard for me to be sympathetic. Let them go and lessen the queue up for people who don't mind dealing with their "mistakes."

>>9327164
*sorry for double post but thought I should clarify, washi order was through a different vendor.

>>9326974
No, read >>9326604

>>9327098
Look at this whiny baby throw a shitfit because they couldn't be bothered to do the legwork to check if a supplier was legit and resorting to racist names. You sound like a terrible person and honestly kind of deserved what was coming. I hope you don't say this kind of shit around your customers.

If you really wanted to be helpful and warn other people, you would've named and shamed instead of withholding information because people called you out for being racist and stupid.

>>9327135
I've been ordering from them for about two years now. I can second that Coco is a sweetheart and honestly almost never gets anything wrong. Recently, I did have trouble where they accidentally glued pinbacks on my acrylic pins incorrectly, but I brought it up to Coco and she had them all remade and sent with my next order. They're super busy with orders right now because it's before LNY and she asked if it would be alright to split my order in two because of their timeline but she pulled in clutch for me and unexpectedly sent me my entire order even with the time crunch. I've only ever had 2 keychains crack on the way to me from them during shipping. The colors are great, the prices are phenomenal, and they would lose their entire customer base if they started selling artist designs so I wouldn't worry about it.

>>9327167
Honestly, I agree with this. If you need to be spoonfed everything when you could just email Vograce for information and then complain after about it then... that's your fault. Be an adult and learn how to send some inquiry emails. They'll tell you what they need from you re: formatting and how much it'll cost.

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>>9327098
>All of them.
If you're not dealing names I can't attempt to believe you. If you've ordered from them before, then at least give a list.

Anyway, to add to discussion: Are acrylic pins seeing a rise in AA or is it only the enamel pins? I know smaller artists used to make enamel pins for trading with other artists but how are customers reacting to these since they're typically small for $10-$20?

Enamel pins seem more popular, but I guess what I'm asking is if pins are currently noteworthy enough to warrant making and if there's a specific demand for a certain material over the other.

>>9327167
problems my group and I have had:

ordered double sided and some received were singlesided
ordered double sided and received charms with one design duplicated instead of separate designs on front and back
ordered designs with one side to be flipped, received charms that all had wrong side flipped

none of these were our fault and all of these things were fine according to the preview images/communication we had up until charms arrived. you are being a huge douchebag for no reason.

>>9327406
Yeah I've also had part of an order arrive single-sided even though I ordered double-sided. They replaced and shipped them free of charge though.

>>9327098
>I've used this one Ali merchant BUT ALL OF THEM ARE BAD
Name and shame or your claims have no meaning

>>9327406
If you were so dissatisfied with your order experience, why did you order with them again several times after? Like >>9327416 said, Vograce is willing to reimburse the customer for the charms and the shipping if the mistake is on their end. Did you try switching the agent you were corresponding with? You are paying next to nothing when you make charms with them vs. other vendors, yet you still choose to complain instead of just jumping ship and taking your business elsewhere. Call me a douchebag but it doesn't change the fact that you sound kind of whiny and woe is me. Let's move on dude

>>9327403
I like enamel pins but I think most customers are turned off by pricing unless they make art as well. I think acrylic are great price alternatives and just as nice. The enamel pins I've seen are pretty, but I also feel it's easier to make really tacky or ugly pins than acrylic pins. I've never made any myself but I believe the more colors you choose to have in your design, the more expensive it is right? I cringe whenever I see people on AANI drop a huge amount of money on enamel pins that look like garbage...

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>>9327451

>>9327451
I did jump ship and switch to acorn press, but whatever, if you want to make assumptions about people and whine about anyone trying to point out problems ordering from vograce, that's your perogative, and it's not worth my time trying to talk reason into you, so.I guess that's that.

>>9327403
I think the thing about enamel pins is that they're kind of a normie fashion accessory. Whenever I see people make them, they're usually original art, and all have a particular look (if you know what I mean). I would say that you should only try getting into it if you have a large following, or have a unique idea that translates well into the enamel style, because not only are you competing with other more established artists with their pins, but also most retail fashion stores that sell them nowadays.

question for people in the us who use pp for shipping labels! what shipping option do you mark for international orders? I reopened my store for the first time in a while and saw the price for international shipping increased to hell and back!! I don't remember if I've been using the first class international mail or the first class international package option. does it really matter if I send a small package out with the former? I just feel bad charging so much to mail things out of the country but I also don't want to get busted for mail fraud ):

How do you guys price stickers? I've read in the other threads that 2" x 2" sells for around $1 if that's correct? In that case, how much would a sticker sheet sell for?

i currently have the free-but-awful photoshop cs2. is it worth upgrading to the newer $10-a-month version?

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Have been considering making dice bags, but no t sure how well they would do on the AA scene. Insight?

>>9327703
Use first class international package.

>>9327747
If you already table you could try having a few out for sale. If they're medium sized you could market it as a coin/misc. purse too. Honestly if you had nicely embroidered bags like that for a few different fandoms, I'd pick one up at a con even though I'm not into dice/DnD.

>>9327823
I'm not sure what size dice bags are usually, but if you could have them sized so that they could hold other items, maybe a 3ds or something, you could market them as a multipurpose thing.

>>9323482
Anon, try this. Every hour or two, spend a few minutes focusing on a point with two objects overlapping, one closer to you, one at least 10 or twenty feet away. Focus on one, count to ten, then without shifting your gaze, focus on the other.

Repeat whenever you feel your eyes ache. You are stretching your eyes muscles this way, same as any other body part or activity.

>>9324755
>>9325998
Agreed with both of your sentiments regarding not bringing the complicated stuff. With needlefelting, I still haven't found a shortcut even for simple little balls because it looks like shit when you don't take the time to smooth it out properly.

I've been coming to the conclusion that it's not terribly suited for cons unless a majority of the audience is older.

>>9327826
A dice bag is typically the size of a medium peach or between baseball to softball size depending on who makes it. It could also be used as a coin purse like >>9327747 said which is more realistic I think.

>>9327747
I don't have dice for tabletop gaming either BUT I do like small pouches I can put my coins in since I tend to have a lot more change than my normal wallet allows when at cons. I think it could work, especially if they look like your pic. I would definitely give it a try, anon.

>>9327873
Thank you, I'll try this!

>>9326559
can you be my sugar mama

>>9327971
Be your own sugar mama. New year, new you.

How much would you guys charge for handpainted wooden cases? (I'm always terrible at pricing merch). Could be used as a jewelry box or for art supplies. One box is about five inches across, the other is almost ten. I have other wooden pieces but those are small and I'm going to price those accordingly based on these two larger pieces.

What's with everyone having pink as the main theme for their tables? Most cons I was at last year, it was nothing but pink tablecloths and flowers. What've been your favorite table set ups that weren't pink?

>>9328344
im guilty of having pink haha. lots of ppl like pink. its a good color. my roommates have blue and yellow themes though

>>9328344

I've also got a pink display. Pink isn't my favorite color but it's the color of the group I table under. I actually haven't noticed that many pink displays at the cons I table at, or at least, certainly not anyone else with a glaring hot pink glitter display.

>>9328344
My display used to be black and red, but I changed it this year to white and pink. I envied someone's display with a green theme last con I was at, I think pink just happens to be a common color because in a schematic sense it's kind of neutral? Like it's not as bright or reflective as red, blue, green, etc.

>>9328419
yeah I feel like my sales went up after i switched from a darker color lol

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>>9324808
Definitely how I feel about this as well. I don't understand why some big cons especially continue to use a first come first serve system when it's stupid as fuck and clearly a giant headache for both potential artists and organizers. Hell, the Anime Boston AA head can't seem to hide how much the size of interest annoyed her and her team so why not make the extra effort to conduct portfolio reviews? Christ, it's not that hard.

>>9328480
A good jury takes time. Look at how much bitching there is whenever cons release their jury result like fanime/katsucon/whatever the fuck. FCFS with google forms or some other uncrashable system is far easier for staff and personally myself too. It's not my fault if you don't know how to set an alarm.

>>9328568
every time someone says shit like this about fcfs it just screams 'i don't stand up to par with actual artists applying to allies and i know it'

>>9328568
well, I don't even know if it's about setting an alarm for first come first served anymore. For a huge con, everyone clicks in at round 10 sec in. It's more like your internet connection better be god tier so that when you click in, you're the first 100 or whatever.

I don't know for sure though, never had much success with first come first served.

I need some advice. Recently I was targeted by another artist. She did not even approach me and only posted my art on her blog claiming that I was copying her style. I have never heard of her in my life. My style is influenced by many artists but she is not one of them. She has a lot of followers though and they still harass me and the post is still being reblogged by them. I have a con coming up and I am so scared that they will do the same thing to me in person. Is it reasonable to speak to the con about this? How do I prevent the harassment from following me outside of the Internet and how do I stop it from happening online? I did nothing wrong. She just thinks she has an original style only she owns but I know so many artists who draw like this.

>>9328344
I'm usually blue/navy with white, thinking about making it a navy, white, gold scheme this year.

>>9328583
I guess ask the con how to handle anyone that harasses you at the con ahead of time. The con won't be able to prevent someone coming up and being an asshole, but once they out themselves they could get kicked out.

>>9328579
i mean you're free to think that but i get into every jury i've applied to except for one con every year lol. And it's through that experience that I know lots of talented artists better than me get rejected in favor of artists worse than me too, so i CAN understand why cons don't want to do it. it's not some unfathomable mystery unless you're just fucking obtuse.

>>9328581
I've never had trouble getting into FCFS when they use an appropriate server so in my experience it's been fine. Cons that refuse to use good servers or refuse to use google forms are another issue.

>>9328581

This. It's just that there are TOO many people applying all at once now so it's not even FCFS. There were years when I applied to A-kon within 3 seconds and never made it in. At least with a full jury it's just based on my art and not clicks.

>>9328480
I'm sorta 50/50. I there should always be, minimum, light jury and categories for fcfs, it should never be only lottery or fcfs. Full jury is nice, but a local con I applied to with 4,500 attended last year said they 170 applicants this year, so I imagine a con with 5 times that attendance could have around 5 times the applicants and... that could take a loong time to go through them all and rank them.

>>9328568

Yeah, OK.

Set an alarm for AX general tables = sell out literally in 1 second, timeliness doesn't matter
Magically set alarm for unannounced AB time = forms crash upon submission after waiting hours for it to go up refreshing constantly and people forced to re-enter all info with 2nd entry being too late to get in.
Set 3-6AM alarm for youmacon = tables sell out instantly, by time form is submitted it's too late

You are REALLY out of touch with reality if you think that people not getting in FCFS is due to laziness or not being on time. The systems usually break or are a clusterfuck or there are so many people who DID set an alarm that being there right on time doesn't help at all.

>>9328694
fcfs is luck which means its the most fair honestly because then there cant be corruption in the jurist process.

youre not the only one who deals with the servers being shit and it selling out immediately. I got into AB while attending another con this year, missed it last year, had the same plan of action, one year I was lucky one year I wasnt.

>>9328694
AB used their own servers which was stupid, never tried youma con other than when i overslept my 6am alarm.

desu i've done AX a couple times, by phone even and still .. didn't have an issue.. so idk. most of my friends do not have issues either, only the ones that forgot sign up happened.

I guess i was too mean in my original post but i was just trying to say that it's stupid to pretend like you don't know WHY cons don't do jury. There are plenty of problems inherent with juries too, how you think it stacks up to fcfs is subjective opinion so don't act like it's obviously superior one way or the other.

>>9328583
If you can bring a friend to sit with you at the table that would be the best thing; that way if someone starts shit you will at least have a witness when you report them for harassment, and it will also intimidate most people from confronting you if you're not alone. As a person who has had their share of online shit, though, I can tell you that for the most part people are not ballsy enough to do it straight to your face. People get banned from cons easily for that and no one wants to pay for a badge just to come in and throw it all away to harass one artist.

I would keep an eye out for people photographing you and your booth, and for people messing around with your stuff, though. If you do experience any harassment it's likely they'll try to be discreet. There's no point in letting the con know in advance except to find out their policies. If someone does bother you, get their badge info and description and take it to the AA head.

>>9328583
Can we see the comparison?

>>9328773
this

>>9328583
A lot of artists on tumblr share styles and I know of a handful that can be this petty. Now I'm curious. Are you willing to namedrop or would that give you away completely? I know you mentioned them targeting you, but I wouldn't doubt if they're doing this to other artists as well whether it was in the past or not.

>>9328802
I am worried that they read this thread. I know a lot of artists do but she has targeted other artists before. Do you think they would be able to figure out who I am?

>>9328773
>>9328780
I really do not want to attract any more negative attention to myself.

>>9328733
I should bring a friend. The con allows me to have a helper.
>As a person who has had their share of online shit, though, I can tell you that for the most part people are not ballsy enough to do it straight to your face.
That makes me so happy. I think I read too many horror stories on /cgl/. I always worry that they will happen to me. I feel silly now for worrying about someone approaching me at my table. Thank you.

>>9328586
Thank you anon. I will look into the con's policies. I don't know why I did not think about that. I think I was running through the worst possible scenarios without thinking about the best solutions.

>>9328806
>Do you think they would be able to figure out who I am?
If you think they're still after you then they might if they do read this board. Just do as the other anons have suggested, it's very seldom/rare that people take offline drama in person and do a face to face confrontation. Have a friend and be attentive, as others have said since if there's anyone that'll try anything, it's going to be something really passive aggressive.

>>9328806
>thinking you're important enough for anyone to track you down and harrass you irl

You're either deluded or you and the other artist escalated things to a point where you look like a jackass worth harrassing

I've been on both sides of this drama and unless the "style stealer" reacts like a fool, the drama tends to fade into obscurity quickly.

>>9328831
I actually have not replied to either the artist or her followers. I have been waiting for the drama to fade. Please understand that I have no idea if people will take it offline or not because nothing like this has ever happened to me before. This crazy artist who thinks she owns such common stylistic elements and her equally crazy fans came out of nowhere online. I honestly did not know if they would do the same offline. Thanks to the replies I now know that I was scaring myself with likely embellished horror stories at least. All I wanted was advice on what to do.

>>9328583
Chances are you and the artist in question drew a lot of inspiration from the same artist(s). If you really had never heard of her before then I would just ignore the flack completely. Your conscious is clean. Eventually, she'll just make herself look like a huge asshole once people realize you've honestly never heard of her. I doubt she'd risk getting kicked out of a convention trying to yell at someone's vending table.

I'm going to assume this is about fever.

>>9328879
just wanted to echo that yea most people who make drama online are chicken shit irl. even artists who have hate threads dedicated to them rarely if ever get hassled at cons specifically.

You are far far more likely to have to deal with a creeper dude trying to hit on you than one of them. you're also more likely to have someone try to find your address or phone number online than someone trying to do anything in real life at a con where they can be caught and punished.

>>9328880
The most I have ever seen of people bringing online "drama" at actual cons is people talking shit at the artist's booth while they're not there. I've never seen confrontation that stemmed from online drama.

Like anon said, you're more likely to have weird creepy customers hitting on you or being really clingy around you than anyone actually trying to fight you. That or asshole staff will try to start shit (depending on the con)

>>9328888
only had issues like this with about 3 people and 2 out of 3 of them contacted me first. third person admitted they were heavily inspired by me when we talked about it.
if this is indeed about me though, I'll be surprised

>>9328888
I was just thinking that! Do they have a history of this? I remember she accused my friend of stealing their art style and our sides were in orbit for a good week and a half. It's still an inside joke in our group too.

>>9328902
Prob not the best place to discuss that then. I brought it up because she also lurks here >>9328900

>>9328902
there's only one person i can recall having issues with because they were selling adoptables they ripped off of me and then denying it
i'm curious if that's your friend or if i blacked out and went on a rampage and don't remember

>>9328915
You have done this to many more artists than the three you mentioned. Don't act so innocent. You attack people for copying your style when they haven't. I don't know about this adoptable business and I really don't care to because adoptable buying customers are too much cancer for me to deal with, but my friend was not that person.

Your style just isn't as unique as you wish it was. You paint like every other East Asian artist featured in Imagine FX. Underneath your pretty colors, your linework just looks like every other artist who focuses on morbidly beautiful elements. Your art is lovely, but it is not unique. You need to stop harassing people over this and you need to stop playing the victim. I'm not saying you blacked out and went on a rampage, but you harass people for this more often than you think or realize.

>>9328583
>>9328879
>Please understand that I have no idea if people will take it offline or not because nothing like this has ever happened to me before.

uhh, what do you think would even happen? Like, someone claimed you stole their artstyle, you think the entire convention is going to go up in blaze and riot against you or something?
Do you have schizophrenia?

I honestly can't even count how many times my art friends have said someone stole their artwork or artstyle, or someone is claiming they stole theirs.

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>>9328915
>>9328924

>>9328925
I do not have schizophrenia. I just thought maybe someone would pour their drink on me or say something mean to my face. I feel so stupid for thinking that would happen now. I already said that much. I was just scared and I worry over nothing.

>>9328888
No. I draw kawaii anime style art. My art is very generic when you tear it down to be honest. That is why I was so shocked.

>>9328924
Idk mang, the only time I've confronted people for style reasons is when I've been sure they're in my extended circles or when I've verified they've been following me for a while or otherwise have been visiting my page regularly. And even then i hold my tongue unless they're also copying my designs or i feel theyre profitting off of something they didn't create. Unless this happened years ago in the deviantart days, in which case i give my sincerest gomens. I was somehow more of a tool back then than i am now.

Random complaint but I'm so sick of seeing artists/small businesses using the word atelier in their name.

Any other popular phrases/words you've seen people use and get sick of seeing ?

>>9328947
Hate seeing the word "Kitsune" and "Kawaii" when what the person makes isn't even kawaii.

>>9328934
don't worry about that anon, i don't know what their problem is. if you've never dealt with this stuff and don't know the magnitude of anything that could happen it's totally understandable that you wanted to be prepared. glad you realize now that it's probably 0% chance! anon is probably just jealous they don't get any attention, not even negative online so they're taking it out on you.

>>9328947
I hate the word Design. Where I live '(artists name) Design' and 'Design by (artists name)' etc are really popular business names. If i find something good I never find it again since I have really poor name memory

>>9328947
____ Studios. like is this a 13yr olds youtube vid

>>9328954
>>9329004
>>9329008
Designs by Kawaii Kitsune Studios

>>9328947
Saw a shop named "KawaiDesuCorporation". Thats a 3 in one.

>>9328954

One thing I get triggered over is when people dont really think about what their name looks like written all in one word like most social media will do.
As a simple example although this one doesnt bother me too much is the website dollskill could also be read doll SKILL.

One of the worst I've seen of this is a instagram I follow called "officialdearestd" which is supposed to be Official Dearest D. But I always see it as official dear STD.

>>9329011
Designs by Atelier Kawaii Kitsune Studios

Has anyone signed up for a convention that uses PDF forms? The con I wanted to sign up for says I need to fill out a PDF form and then send it to the organizers.
Do I just fill it out in Adobe? It also says it requires a signature? (The convention website itself is incredibly unhelpful)

>>9329047
This is probably not the best way to do it and is janky as fuck, but for the ones that require a signature, I just open them in photoshop, fill in the fields using the text tool then sign it with my tablet with the brush tool hahaha. Then I just save and send as a PDF.

Other than that, I think if the con set up their documents right, all you should have to do is open it and fill it out with acrobat or a pdf viewer (like Preview, if you're on a Mac)

>>9329047
Yea, you can just fill it out with text boxes in photoshop or adobe reader. I usually just take a picture of my signature and then copy/paste it into the document (setting the layer to multiply). Save it as a new .pdf without layers. Never had an issue with them accepting it.

>>9329047
>>9329050
>>9329051
Guys, just use Google Docs. If you upload a PDF to Google Docs/Drive it will give you an option to open the PDF file with DocHub. DocHub is basically a PDF editor so it's super easy to fill out PDFs. They'll even send a link to your mobile so you can sign with your finger and DocHub will retain that signature on your Google account so you can use it for any other signing purposes in the future.

>>9329020
>"officialdearestd"
>which is supposed to be Official Dearest D.
>But I always see it as official dear STD.
I'm dying here, I also read it as STD even though it doesn't work with the -e- that comes before.

>>9329050
>>9329051
Yeah I was thinking about doing something similar but I'm on a friend's PC and they don't own PS. My friend's roundabout suggestion was that I just print it, fill it out, and then scan it back in.
>>9329053
Thanks! I'll try that!

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If you saw somebody selling keychains made from printed shrinky dinks would you hit them?

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>>9329047
Adobe reader has an electronic signature function. Electronic signatures are still considered legally binding.

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>>9328934
do you have this kind of style or something anon
aka get that adopt cash money style
not trying to be mean or anything just cause i've seen soooo much drama about different kawaii artists trying to make it out like they 'own' this (or similar) generic chibi styles lol

>>9329092
they used to be reasonably common before acrylics became popular, have you only been to conventions in the past two years or something? younger/broke artists still do them sometimes. It's not like they're dregs of AANI only, unlike perlers

>>9329030
Best name ever, cringes people all over the world

I feel like it's been a while since we've had a spicy AA thread. It's kind of nice.

>>9329030
That's it, that's the one.
Time to for us to make a seagull collective under that name.

>>9328902
mfw they actually rip off other people including their friends and so called extended circle, this is especially hilarious.

>>9329497
Our hottest selling items are felt objects with the :3 face and generically-kawaii chibi prints.

>>9329505
Oh i would love to know more

>>9329528
Don't forget the perler bead shit

>>9329528
>>9329568
and polymer clay charms covered in fingerprints.

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Thinking of making this into a sticker, could I get some critique? I feel like maybe it's too plain or is it just me?

>>9329769
Well, yes, it's plain. To be honest, it looks like every other Mimikyu fanart BUT as someone who also did very plain Mimikyu stickers at the last con I went to...it'll sell out. Put the effort into more detailed prints instead. This is fine as is.

>>9329769
It looks pretty busy to me, with those sparkles everywhere and all. Mimikyu is a pretty simple design to begin with, maybe that's why you feel like it's plain?

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>>9329574
Long live Spiderburger

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>>9329773
Ah, thank you anon

>>9329850
Yeah I think I was just trying too hard to make it more stylized, are the sparkles too much?
its a sticker I plan to give out at a con so I'm hoping its decent enough that people will like it

>>9329897
desu i think its fine and would probably sell nicely if you were to sell them

>>9329897
Depending on the size of the sticker, you should be fine. I was selling stickers at a con and my most popular one was a fairly simplistic styled one. Since it's Pokemon and particularly Mimikyu, it should sell well.

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This is a pretty general question, but hopefully I can still get a gist of things:

In a world of kawaii chibi art, is there any market at AAs for horror pieces?

More 'Legitimately creepy Ito' than 'Kawaii guro'.

>>9329769
I like the sparkles anon. I'd buy that if it were a sticker. It's the cutest mimikyu I've seen.

>>9329951
probably but wouldnt sell as fast as other things

>>9329951
It's like other niche things: it won't sell to most customers, but the ones who do buy it will appreciate it a lot and probably drop more money.

>>9329951
This is definitely something I would be interested in, but I'm part of that niche market. Like others said, most customers probably wouldn't be as interested but the ones that are will love it. Kawaii final girl is something I've always wanted in a print or even just postcard, anon.

>>9330000
>>9329960
>>9329955
Sweet, okay. I already have a minor online following and do okay in sales, I was just wondering whether I should gamble the cost of a table right before I go on holiday for some extra spending money.

Probably not, haha.

Question, has anyone in here made/is planning on making any stuff from the new Netflix Voltron series? The last con I went to had nothing and I really want something other than the toys.

>>9330016
I have a ton of merch, and it has sold very well both online and at cons. The company seems to not be too keen on that though and will make you take it offline, so just be aware of that if you plan to list anything on etsy or storenvy. (or are you just asking for merch links? haha)

>>9330018
I'd take the merch links because I do leatherwork and I'm not sure the whole space aesthetic of voltron works with leather bags and shit.

>>9330027
yeah, leather totally does not work for voltron

>>9329951

Anon, there are actual horror/monster conventions. That's where you need to be going with your creepy art, not anime conventions. Sell to the right audience.

>>9330045
We don't have horror or anime conventions in Australia, though. They're all basically 'pop culture' conventions.

>>9330045
It can sell well if you do horror anime fanart. I'd recommend having mostly the fanart stuff on the big vertical displays (to draw in interested people), but also having some original art available.

>>9329951
I do similar work and I would love if more people did! I'm always on the hunt for horror/surreal pieces

>>9330018
Yeah, I've gotten a message from the creators on Etsy and am thinking about moving all of my Voltron stuff to Tictail. Has anyone gotten takedown notifs on Tictail before?

>>9328934
Christ, wtf is kawaii anime style art. If you mean "kawaii" as in the deviantart style that all rips off of jini-chu in some shape or form, then you have to live with the drama. They're always starting with shit with eachother. Better change up your art if you don't want to deal with those crazy bitches.

Anyone else getting fucked this year from AAs that do registration via lottery? Haven't gotten into a single lottery one for 2017 and it's pretty annoying.

same, my cons are looking bleak this year. have only gotten in to FCFS for 2017 so far.

>go to local cons very first day
>AA is mostly pretty decent
>One table of teenage girls in shoddy cat ears
>Printing out other people's linework and coloring it in
>Trying to sell stolen coloring pages for five bucks
>Reported to con staff by multiple people
>Turns out they didn't even pay for a table, they just walked in and set up their own
>Escorted out and banned
>Keep sneaking in and walking around trying to sell pages
>Police were called
Just remember, you'll never be that bad

>>9330486
I just registered for my first lottery a few days ago, so I won't know until a few days. I go into one con that I didn't get in last year, so its looking good for me so far i guess.

>>9330584
wow, that is bad. Worse I have seen is someone selling food in AA, and it was like 1/3 of their table. Was just grab bags with pocky and other random japanese snacks.

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OK so I dont know if any Vancouverites lurk these threads but why the heck is Anime Revolution so hard to get into. I believe I've applied three years in a row and literally nothing.

I dont know other larger cons do this but you submit your email and if you get in, they contact you. Is the normal thing to do is be a cuck and have a bunch of your friends/family enter in their emails and names too so you have a better chance?

>>9330486
Yeah. I didn't get in to Sakuracon, Otakon, or Fanime (let's be real, that shit is a lottery)

>>9330663
Yo, I don't understand it either. I get it is very expensive and hard to get in, and I submitted an email for some heads-up for registration --- got zip zero, and before I know it, they are already sold out. I think what also happens is that they pre-reg for a table for the following year right after the con is over. Ugh.

I've attended once briefly, and I didn't like how tight their AA layout was. Besides the tables they rent are gross like exposed staples around the table edges, and you would think the tables would be covered nicely for the price you pay.

Honestly, I don't think a lot of artists break bank there... would be nice if more artists reviewed it truthfully, even if there's a space I'd be hesitant to try.

>>9330486
why are more cons doing lottery vs juried? which kind do you guys prefer?

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>>9330584
Damn that's pretty bad. Reminds me of this table I saw at last Sac where they just watercolored some Yuri on Ice screencaps.

Anyone know how long the wait/queue for Vograce is? I haven't order in a while but I havent recieved a reply in a week...

>>9330871
Anon don't forget it's Chinese New Year. Iirc someone said they'd be on vacation till second week of Feb?

>>9330876
Oh shit you're right. Well, about to drop some money on express shipping I guess.

>>9330837
I bet you someone bought those.

>>9330876
They told me they'd be back February 6th.

>>9330835
Probably because so many people are attending. If there are only 100 tables and 800 artist apply, do you really want to be the on to sit and judge every single artist?. Lottery systems are shitty. I'll be the first to admit that, but it's a lot easier to pull 100 artist via lottery, jury them and accept or wait list. It speeds up the process and get's acceptance emails out faster.

I prefer juried for small conventions and lottery for bigger conventions.

>>9330835
I know I'm in the minority but I prefer FCFS actually. At least with FCFS I get some sort of feeling of having control over the outcome? I hate lottery. Juries with clear rules are fine, but I hate vague juries like Fanime. I honestly wish more juries would release the portfolio scores back to the artists for transparency's sake but I understand they may not have the time or resources to do so.

My favorite is a mix of FCFS and jury. That way shitty tracers still get culled out with transparency. With Fanime and some other cons, I worry about jury biases/nepotism.

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>>9329947
>>9329950
>>9329952
thank you anons! I appreciate the feed back and really happy about how they turned out!

>>9331032
That's adorable

>>9331024
FCFS juried is my favorite, too. I would like full juried the best if I trusted it to be a fair judge of quality, but I honestly feel like in most juries, personal bias for style counts more than anything else. And if you don't have a style the jury likes, you're boned.

FCFS juried is nice because it gets a base level of quality that FCFS alone is missing.

>mfw trying to draw chibis and with line-art for the first time
Making merch makes drawing ten more times stressful, ugh.

>>9331032
I love them! I'm glad you kept the sparkles.

>>9331024
I've definitely heard from multiple sources that fanime jury lets their friends in first, and Otakon's been doing it for years. Nothing I can prove at the moment though

>>9329092
I actually like these because they're cute and homely but not as cheaap as the laminated paper charms everyone used to do.

>>9330684

Right? I have friends who have tabled their before. It seems one of my friends makes really good money there, so she likes it. I wish I could get in at least one year to try it out.

And yeah they do pre-reg right after the con for the artists who attended. Apparently they made you pay in cash right after for a "chance" you'll get in next year. They're supposed to refund if you dont get in but still shady as hell.

>>9328934
You really shouldn't feel stupid about it, and that other anon saying you're crazy is being a cunt, don't listen to them. AA and cons in general are a weird experience because for a lot of people it's the only point where your internet life touches your real life, and it's completely reasonable for someone who hasn't been through all the facets of that experience to not really be sure how that intersection works. It's not stupid to ask questions about a situation you haven't been through yet.

I agree with the other anons that it's not really anything to worry about, but I also think it's not a bad thing to at least keep an eye open. Most normal people don't harass people in person, but we could tell you to relax, and then one of the people harassing you online could turn out to be some John Hinckley motherfucker who thinks that other artist is his Jodie Foster and unloads a gun into your AA to impress her. Then we're the stupid ones for not letting you be at least a little wary of potential dangers.

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Is this ATS-knockoff being serious? Apparently, if you put an anime word on a hat, you're stealing from her! I can't believe she went to all the lengths to post a real vs fake guide.

>>9331370
Lol. She's something else. Saw her trying to kiss ass at Sac and literally went to every AA table to tell artists they'd get a discount at her table.

>>9331123
I agree with this, I have friends on the aa staff for otakon and I've been getting in every year since 2011, while every year Ive tried for fanime for the past 3 years I've gotten rejected.
I hear fanime is amazing for sales and my only other California convention is ax so I wish I could get in at least once but I'm apparently so far down the waitlist there's no chance according to the email.

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>>9331370
But...she stole the idea from the person who originally made that style of hat. I don't know who started the acrylic letters on snapbacks things, but stuff like pic related. She has no right to be telling people what they can and can't do when she isn't even using an original idea herself.

>>9331634
From what I've seen those have been popular in Asia for a long time before ATS or AxC started selling them. So neither is original, they just tend to put things like 'senpai' on them instead of 'swag'.

>>9331456
She did this at other cons too. I remember she tried to suck up to all the famous artists at a small local con. People were talking about how uncomfortable she made them after the show because none of them wanted her shitty hats.

>>9331639
Fair point. But ATS was the first US-based convention artist to start doing them and AxC's first line entirely ripped off ATS's line of hats though. ATS wasn't exactly original but it's hilarious that this girl copied ATS's business model and is now policing all acrylic letter hats ever because people are "stealing" from her if they make hats. I remember when PokeGo first came out, a bunch of people made team acrylic hats and she accused all of them of stealing the idea from her. Girl, you don't own the words Valor/Mystic/Instinct and the colors red, blue, and yellow.

>>9331513
I was literally about to say the same thing jfc... on one hand I guess she's trying to just promote her business but I could overhear her say the same spiel about being a vendor in the dealer's area and offering special discounts to AA tables.... just stop... please...

>>9331370
I honestly cringe at her trying to make it seem like the whole lettering on snapback thing is hers and her idea alone. like everyone has been saying, this trend has been prevalent waaaaaay before ATS started even making their hats and AxC merchandise is just so sloppily made... this person really thinks highly of her own stuff I guess

>>9329092
Shrinky dinks can be cute and well done if you know how to work with the material, seal them in a more sturdy way (not using clear top coat nail polish jfc) and are selling them at an appropriate price. I've seen some people do some really nice shrinky dinks before that have lasted nicely. I know some people use the printer paper ones or whatever they're called so the art is consistent.

>>9330018
>The company seems to not be too keen on that though and will make you take it offline
Weird considering I've seen the official artists posting pictures of fanmerch they've received or bought on twitter.

>>9332102
Official artists =/= copyright holder, anon. The message I received on Etsy was from World Events Productions/WEP which is the production company for Voltron.

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If I want to start selling clothes, such as shirts and skirts. Where are the best places to start/ get stuff printed for the best price/quality equilibrium? Thank you

I'd appreciate input on personal experience as well!

>>9332200
I sell shirts and my best advice is not to start.
The market is over saturated as it is and the margins suck. I'm currently phasing out my shirt designs in favor of charms and prints becouse you make more money that way.

>>9332244
I actually do great with my shirts.
Maybe its your art?

>>9331349
Ahh thank you for that bit of insight.

It's been so long since I've done the multi-day AA. Vancouver gets congested around summer but it's rather dangerous since I do craft stuff, and to remake enough stock can be hell. I survive on single-day events, but it would be nice to try the 3-day ones and make a bit more money... maybe.

>>9332244
>>9332248
could i get more details from both of you please?

what style of art do you do? fandom? original? cutesy?

do you only sell at conventions or online? what website do you use and where do you print them?

do you use screen printing or get it made somewhere?

do you attend large events in cali or other countries/states/smaller events?

I really would like to start so i appreciate any and all input, thank you!

>>9332248
It's not the art it's the profit margin.
I can't charge more than double the cost of manufacturing for shirts becouse people are reluctant to spend more than say $25 on a shirt when they can get official liscensed shirts in the dealers room for $20 or less.
On prints that cost $.30 to make and that I sell for $15 the profit margins make a lot more sense especially becouse I've noticed that when I don't offer the print as a shirt the print still does really well, it's only when I introduce it on a shirt that sales of the print drop significantly.
Overall I make the same amount of money (give or take a couple hundred bucks) while investing so much less that it really doesn't make sense to offer shirts anymore.
>>9332396
I do cutesy fandom stuff, mix of screen printing and sublimation and I attend ax and other big cons around the U.S. (I try to do a minimum of 20 shows a year).

>>9331694
>>9331700
>>9331639
What does ATS stand for?

>>9332432
ah thank you for all of the info. I feel like to get a profit you really do have to sell shirts for 40-50 dollars and people can be pretty cheap so i see where youre coming from

>>9332439
Anime Trash Swag

>>9331370
I heard she tried to buy a jacket from ATS so she could copy that also. They refused to sell it to her.

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>>9332448
Thanks for the spoonfeeding! I was really confused when you guys were comparing the two.
I gotta says the hats look very different, if I were to buy one the ATS hats generally seem to be more creative than the AxC ones.

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>>9332462
Yeah, it seems like ATS puts more work into their design - especially with varying fonts and adding details. (I think the CCS and Kirby embroidered hats they have are really well done.) I'm not even a fan of this "weebcore" aesthetic but ATS executes it better.

It's a little bit easier to see the extent of the rip off when you compare ATS's simpler/older hats to AxC's debuting line. It was literally the same hat base, with the same words, with a shittier font. I think iirc someone in a previous AA thread mentioned that they lied about being given "permission" from ATS to start their own business on Kickstarter? It seems like the person who runs AxC is pretty shady and from what I've heard, they're not on very good standing with a lot of the CA artists.

>>9332484
I'm the anon that mentioned that. I have a lot of info on AxC but I'm a bit nervous about talking about it even anonymously.

>>9332491
I have quite a bit of dirt on AxC as well but I feel the same way. I don't want to give out any details that could be used to identify me or be accused of starting to start a vendetta... but they're bad news for sure.

>>9332484
I distinctly remember calling them out on this on AANI when they had their kickstarter. They gave a pretty bullshit answer about how it was an unfortunate coincidence and how there are slight variances in design

Checking AANi again, looks like they deleted the exchange we had. Not surprising, but oh well, nothing to be done now.

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>>9332484

they're both pretty cheap and trashy t b h

>>9332200
I looked into this briefly and it seems getting them locally screen printed if possibly is the best way to go in terms of quality and price. Importing them from China doesnt seem that much cheaper and its also really hard to find clothing manufacturers who will do small MOQ (besides artsmoo but their quality is iffy and they are grossly overpriced)

I've never personally made shirts myself yet but as I customer I much much MUCH prefer screen printed shirts to the digital printing. If you sell online please list what method you use because I find it irritating when they dont include that info in the listing.

I've also heard of some using websites like redbubble, etc to privately order their designs and resell. To me this is also kind of expensive but if you do like this idea, I'd suggest checking out the reviews on teefetch.com . They do a ton of comparisons of websites and in conclusion neatoshop seems like the winner for overall quality. I can also personally vouch since I own some of their shirts and they are indeed, very nice.

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>>9332484
Love the kirb hat but jesus christ I'm not dropping $35 USD on this dumb hat. Especially when the base they use for it is something you can find all over ali/taobao

>>9328583
>I was copying her style.

Well that is just petty any style of illustration is going to be similar, but what I do find offensive is if another artist who possibly saw your work and reinterprets your DESIGN with the same character with the same props in the same pose BUT done in their style is just annnnnnnnnnnoying.

>>9328806
>Do you think they would be able to figure out who I am?
Hey, shots been fired and they are the ones making noise, have to fight back if you feel you are being wronged.

>>9328806
>I really do not want to attract any more negative attention to myself.
I'd give props to an artist that stands up with evidence to prove how petty they are and merely trying to bully or are just ignorant of the fact perhaps it is just that - similar by coincidence if you've never crossed each others paths.

I've heard of fellow artist being talked down because it was somewhat obvious the victim artist tended to be passive in those situations and used "others" to get the message around is just BS and pisses me off.

NDK AA stuff just got posted;
is the ban on pokemon charms new? Is that common? Can totes understand why its a thing but kinda salty it knocks out one of my products should I get a table.

So I was thinking do a free give away at one of the con. My plan was to get a table for a day and print about 15-20 each of the drawing I drew. Just given away prints til they ran out. Of course if they want to donated, I'll take the money and save to print more for the next con. What are the chances do you think that most artist or people will get mad at this?

>>9333654
sounds like a waste of money

So umm, this year will be my first year doing this so, any tips or "lookout" things for a beginner? I work in retail so that helps but maybe there are things I don't know about because Artist Alleys seem to come with their own brand of issues.

Also, does anyone know where I can purchase a decently sized plastic display case. I'm looking for something that's kind of like what you see at jewelry stores where they can pull out the product. I am terribly afraid of having my work snatched right off the table. The little ones I can make more of, it's the big ones that are one of a kind that I am afraid of being stolen.

>>9333654
i'd be mad wtf lol

>>9333654
I personally wouldn't really care.

>>9333654
>>9333680
I agree that it just sounds like a waste of money. I wouldn't care if I saw someone doing this because they're not making any profit and I doubt they're even getting ~exposure~. I was at a con once and I saw a girl trying to give away prints to everyone that walked by and it came across as really desperate.

Just do a freebie when people buy something. That makes more sense.

>>9333654
Why, though

>>9333654
I wouldn't care, but I'd advise you to set yourself up so it's clear your stuff is completely separate from your neighbors'. I can see them being pissed off if their shit gets mistaken as freebies because of you.

>>9333837
Create a checklist of all the things you think you'll need for the convention, including change, sales permit, method of tracking/recording sales, food, table setup needs, tape, scissors, square reader, markers, post-its, signs, paper, etc. Follow that checklist right before you go to save yourself extra stress of trying to remember everything.

Displays (not sure what type suits):
http://www.acmedisplay.com/shop/category.aspx?cat=1&id=296
http://cleardisplays.com/clear-acrylic/
https://www.storesupply.com/c-496-countertop-display-cases.aspx

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Since the Taobao/Alibaba services spreadsheet is broken, what are the best stores for lapel pins? Or which ones have you used?

>>9333654
You won't make any money and unless you're really good (which i doubt if this is your strategy) you won't be remotely a threat to me either. In fact fans will just save their money to buy from everyone else, so have fun if you thought you could do either lol

>>9333654
I don't think anyone will get mad. Like if I was the person next to you, my main thought would be "Sweet, now they have more money to spend on my stuff." What exactly is the purpose of this, though? If you just want to hand prints out for free, you don't even need a table. You can just hand shit out for free.

>>9334019
I don't know why but the pin community is kind of garbage.they're really obsessed with keeping their manufacturers secret. I personally don't mind because everyone has a different art style, I feel it's more on the talent of the creator whether they will do well or not.

When I get on my computer I'll share some info + maybe some drama that happened in the community

Plush makers, do you add tush tags to the plush you sell? If so, how do you get them printed? I'm determining whether I should start incorporating them into my plush.

>>9334179
Not a plush maker but customer. Its an extra little detail I like to see in plushes, its really cute I think.

I believe they get custom printed ribbon and then apply it to the plush

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OK so this is the dumb drama that ensued in the group. This happened months ago and I originally screen capped to show and bitch to a friend outside the group. I'm sorry about missing some of the "read more...". I cant go back and fix this now because the thread was deleted.

I'm a literal retard also because 70% of the way done I realized I should have color coded peoples censors and then decided I would do it later if I have time. I meant to hit save as but accidentally hit save so it rewrote my original file killme.rip

>>9334019
>>9334167

And now some info about manufacturers for all you lovely AA peeps.

Centuries Gifts was a popular one as you can see if you read the thread I posted, but they got a bit overwhelmed as they became so popular. I used them personally and didnt have a problem with the pins themselves, but emailing back and forth with them was a hassle. They kept making dumb mistakes in the proof. They are one of the cheapest options so even if they fuck up some of your pins it can be worth it. Speaking of fuck ups though, do expect a certain percentage of your pins not to be perfect. This is why a lot of people do seconds sales. Personally I would be comfortable with a company that had a 10% defect rate, and maybe even up to 20% depending on the price. You can always order more to compensate, say order 120 instead of 100.

I hear Zap Creatives does enamel pins now too, which could be a good beginners choice since communication should be easier with them. I'm unsure if they actually make them though or if they are just a middle man.

I hear anti-art gifts is also good quality but when I emailed them they gave me a ridiculous quote. I think part of that though is I asked for "gold" (gold coloring obv), and they sent back a quote for 14k gold or some shit lmao. Not that I would ever trust china to give me real gold.

You can always try out various places if you're feeling brave, I would just consider the quotes and go with what you think is reasonable. I'd say $150 - $250 is a reasonable amount for 100 pins. This includes the mold fee which will vary in price, and you will not have to pay this fee again if you reorder the same pin with the same company.

Hope this helps ! Any more questions and I'd be happy to help

Ah I was also looking for this guy and finally found him. He's a middle man but seems reasonable to work with

http://www.pingamestrong.com/

Anyone at ala? How is everyone doing?

>>9334198
>people crying about a company's lead time doubling after it becomes popular
>more crying about how pin saturation is going to "slow down" their business
If these people had any confidence in their designs and the forethought to order with more than enough time before their events/deadlines, they wouldn't have an issue with their supplier getting popular.

Thanks for the supplier information also! I had heard about pingamestrong as a middleman before because of AANI, but it's nice to see more recommendations.

>>9334253
tons of people are complimenting me on having obscure series and unique products and great designs and cute art etc but nobody’s buying. this is definitely the worst start in sales I have had at a con in a while and also the most praise I have gotten in a while. which is confusing and shitty. other people with more conventional choices are probably doing much better than me.

>>9334540
Please don't give up on your obscure choices anon maybe just do more of a mix next time? It's very satisfying when people buy the obscure stuff. And I've had some of my more random/obscure designs be my top sellers
The weird ones for me that do well are bomberman and bub from bubble bobble pins, and a Harvest moon print.
Not obscure but 3 of my cat pins do excellent because people love cat everything. Make cats always .

>>9333837
>does anyone know where I can purchase a decently sized plastic display case

Those things are expensive/overpriced. Since it is your first time many regulars stick to having it on some form of display stand board.

Most thefts are opportunistic so leaving loose items laying near the edge is just asking for it, typically youngsters whose head just barely at table height I've seen have been the 5-finger bandits.

>>9333654
I can only imagine that you be doing this simply because it's not for the money and mainly just to hang out there for fun since well you probably have a regular job - I thought of doing that once before.

>>9334540
Yeah sux the reality is what the mob wants - popular stuff (gotta make the con table rent back somehow). But I'm still ocd for obscure stuff anyhow so I stick a few around the display and keep the rest in a portfolio if you find that oddball that finally asks "oh you do other series too?"

>>9334179
I don't but I debated about it, some designs I could see adding a little tag on, others not so much (ie. pokeballs).

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Just a heads up, MOO is having a 25% off sale on all printed products until Jan 31st.

>business card moo, not artsmoo

>>9334540
is your art really that cute or are they being nice

>>9333654
I can't remember which, but I have seen cons that offer these types of tables for free. It was probably a furry or small con.

>>9334210
Zaps manufacturer is taking a break for cny so I have a feeling they are either a middleman for Ali or have a direct factory manufacturer overseas.
Also it takes 4weeks after approval for the manufacturing process according to them, i think part of that time is shipping and communication with the supplier.

>>9334253
I'm doing pretty well! I'm already 3/4 of the way to last year's total revenue just on day 1 sales alone. To be fair, my table is near the front so that might explain why I'm doing so well.

>>9334814
it is very cute.

>>9334583
yeah, past few cons I tabled at I heard tons of people complaining about how it was all the same popular stuff and nothing but prints, so I thought I would try branching out in both aspects, but I have learned my lesson and will go back to popular series only for prints.

Anyone else not selling well at ALA??

>>9334955
What are you selling? If it isn't Tumblr styled art I'll buy something

>>9334540
What series do you have? I'll keep an eye out for it later today

>>9334955
Yes me.

>>9334955
I sold there last year and did below average. Everyone i spoke to said not to expect big spenders and to expect to sell a lot of $1 stickers and buttons vs prints and more expensive items.
I guess it's because it's more of a party con?

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Where can I find graphic design artists to hire to do a logo? I do illustrations but I think I suck at graphic design as well as working with vector programs.

Also is there anything I need to know going into the deal. Do I need a contract that allows me to use the design for commercial purposes or things like that? I've never hired someone to do this sort of thing so any help is appreciated

>>9334966
The lowest price item I have is $12 and the highest price point item I have is $50. I do mostly prints and keychains with bodypillows thrown in and I've been doing really well. I think a lot of people are tired of prints/paper goods and are actively looking for non-print goods even if it means spending more money.

>>9334977
Anon not doing well here. I'm not doing prints and everything in my table is $20 and under. My table is right next to a very famous artist so I think I'm being overlooked.

>>9334992
What table is it

>>9334968
One: always have a contract. It's good for both you and the designer to know the scope of the project and what's expected. I'd ask around and see if anyone has a designer they'd recommend or do some research on local designers and see if any of their work catches your eye.

>>9334992
Yeah that sucks. I always feel my stuff is not good enough to compete

>>9334968

Yes, have a contract but expect the designer to have one, too. I do freelance work every now and again and usually my side of the contract is dealing with payment and who holds rights to the logo. You'll want to make sure you buy the copyright essentially, which most artists include in their prices. Sometimes I'll do really cheap logos but not sell the exclusive rights, it just depends on what kind of money you want to spend and what you negotiate.

Personally, I would refrain from putting something on AANI. There are a few pro designers there but by and large it's people who "know Illustrator" (if that) who lack real talent. Not every AA logo has to look like it came out of an agency, but by and large what I see coming out of that group in terms of "portfolios" is so mediocre they wouldn't pass a basic design course.

So for what it's worth, my day job is graphic design and my freelance calendar is free. I feel like my rates are reasonable for the quality you'll get, so if you're interested, let me know and I'll get you my contact info anon.

>>9334992
Do you have an overhead display of some sort to catch people's eyes? People who don't do prints are at a disadvantage unless they build up to compensate. Also, if you have no prints are you selling plushies, or?

>>9335024
Thank you , Ive been looking around at local free lancers.

>>9335041
Ive gotten the same impression from AANI, which is why I never posted there hah. If I'm spending money I want to get something I'm happy with. Do you have a throw away I can contact you at? It might not be an immediate job since I need to look at my finances, but it will be something in the near future.

>>9335041
Are you surprised that from 10k people the majority are mediocre ?

>>9334977
>I think a lot of people are tired of prints/paper goods
that might be true for the ALA crowd, but at other socal cons my prints bring in a majority of my profits

>>9335119
As someone who used to depend on mostly prints for most of their profit, I'm not discounting prints entirely. But from what I've discussed with other artists and heard from customers at cons, more and more congoers will say things like "Oh, I love that print but I don't have room on my walls." or "Do you have this on a tote/shirt?" I started introducing more non-print items into my stock last year and my profit margin more than doubled. I'm not saying get rid of prints entirely, but non print goods are a good way to grab the customers who might pass your table by otherwise.

>>9335060

Here's my throwaway. If you send me an email there I'll get you my main info so you can contact me when ready and I won't miss it or anything.

>>9335082

I guess I'm always more surprised at the lack of real designers who pitch their services. Bad designers are bad, but people who pretend to be designers are worse. I guess AANI and I have different views on what a logo is.

>>9334955
No one comes to my table. Not even to browse. They just walk by.

>>9335203
What are you selling anon, just prints?

>>9335129
True, but are we talkin net or gross profit? Cause no 3 dimensional item has quite as massive of a profit margin as a 10 cent print selling for 20 bucks

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>ALA artist alley
>see something I like and would buy
>see vendor on their phone
>instantly walk away

>>9335236
>10 cent print
how many prints do you order to get it at that rate?

>>9335327
I don't see anything wrong with this, actually. When you're selling stuff, you're working. Sure, you're your own boss, but you're still essentially doing a customer service job. Would you want to give a nice little sales commission to an employee who looks bored and is on their phone? Probably not. I'd rather wait until a more interested and helpful employee came around. Look alive. Look approachable. Pay attention to the con and your customers instead of your phone.

>>9335332

This got me thinking of another question I'm curious to ask you guys, it came up by my thought process of "oh well to me it depends on the length of the con" I've tabled somewhere where the AA was open for 12 hours RIP. I also dont give myself proper breaks like a normal job would.
>I rarely go on my phone to be honest, and if I do I'm always looking up every 2 seconds just in case someone comes by

Which is what I wanted to ask, do you guys give yourself break times? Personally I'm really paranoid and want to be at my table always, so if I do have to leave I do my best to hurry back. Does anyone allocate themselves 30 minutes to chill outside of their booth...?

>>9335420
take a break - a 5-10 min walk will do ur brain n eyes wonders

>>9335420
I table alone, so this is my experience:

I leave my booth for washroom breaks, and a quick browse around AA since I like to shop too, but I only do the above when I can have a staff member help watch the table while I'm away. When it comes to eating lunch, I have it at my table but I take quick bites when it's steady enough. People are rather patience and understanding when they see that I'm by myself and I try to finish my bite very quickly before I can help them properly.

>>9335327
Why are murricans like this? Stop acting like a child. You will be noticed if you speak up.

>>9335327
>>see vendor on their phone
>>instantly walk away
...millennials

>>9335420
Most cons will give you one or two free extra passes with your table. They're for your helpers. You need helpers, even if you don't think you do. You know what you look like after spending 8-12 hours at your table with no food and no break? A hungry zombie. You know what you look like when you're eating at your table? A hungry zombie who finally got food and probably shouldn't be interrupted by customers or else they will become a hungry, angry zombie.

Be smart with your table helper choices. You want someone who will enjoy the con but not TOO much. The last thing you want is not to be able to take a lunch break because your helper ran off to join a flash mob (I speak from experience). If you're struggling to find a good, reliable table helper, just look towards your fans. No one is going to dedicate themselves to making sure everything goes right for the hour you leave your table like one of your fans will. After the previously mentioned flash mob incident, I ditched my previous helper and approached one of my very first customers since she had previously mentioned that she'd love to help me out sometime. She gives me a list of the panels she'll be at before the con starts, so I can plan my breaks around those. She's also not a cosplayer or a lolita, and while I'm not saying you shouldn't even bother with cosplayers and lolitas, do keep in mind that they might have three hour long events to be at (like tea parties and cosplay contests). Best part: my helper works for the budget friendly price of a pass, a ride to the con, and sharing a hotel room with me.

tl;dr- Get a helper.

>>9335327
>>9335457
Do you guys fuck?

>>9334955
this is my worst selling con ever. I am mostly a print artist and people are only buying my stickers/buttons and complaining about 10$ for big doublesided charms, even though anywhere else that is standard. And remark that they want a large print but 15$ is too much, even though everybody prices that way. Tons of people stopped at my table to browse but didn't buy. I saw some artists with sold out signs on some of their prints, though, so now I feel extra shitty.

>>9335459
A-anon, that's not just lewd! It's a conflict of interests!

was at ALA today as a regular attendee and the AA was oversaturated with prism prints, overwatch, eeveelutions/starters, and YOI (90% only victor and yuuri). Wish I saw more variety. I get that you all want to invest in items that are highly likely to sell well but it doesn't give people a lot of options if everyone else is selling the same thing

>>9335463
for all you know, the artists with sold out prints could have only brought a couple of copies as leftovers from another con. But fuck those guys who complain about your prices, those prices are absolutely fine.

>>9335327
I guess I'm an assertive person but I have no problem interrupting an artist to buy from them. I'm polite about it though. I've tabled at artist alleys enough to know not to miss out on a sale for a dumb reason like that

>>9335463
>>9335480
Anyone who complains about prices must be new to AA the way I look at it..once I was told that, by the next day he stop by to take it back which was nice ..lol

>>9335129

I've heard this, too. I have a lot of friends who buy in AA though and they either rotate their prints or keep a portfolio album of art so that they're still buying prints, but if they can't display them they at least live somewhere. Personally I don't see an issue with rotating because if everyone is buying fandom of the month, I'd imagine you'd run out of space and change your tastes quite a bit. I like buying postcard prints personally, but I've learned my lesson as a seller to not double up on tabloid and postcards. Postcard exclusive designs are what I'm going to shift towards to try to not lose so much profit in those areas.

I also used to buy stuff in AA knowing I could hang it up at work but I've recently run out of space and ended up redecorating my cube with YOI stuff anyway.

>>9335502
The ALA AA is full of small single sided $6 charms & at least couple people selling those dirt cheap laminated homemade keychains, so customers are expecting all the charms to be that cheap. It sucks.

>>9335452
here in america service people are seen as servants who must be at your beck and call on any whim. if you don't look desperate to please, some people get turned off like that anon who can't exert the effort of saying excuse me. god forbid an artist have to check their business email or respond to family/friends for a minute or two, how dare they have lives outside of preforming for your money lol

>>9335572
Hey bby, stay off your phone next time and maybe I'll drop you a $20 for your copy paste tumblr style print

>>9335572
>>9335452
>mfw moving back to the US and realizing cashiers aren't allowed to sit
I lived in a country where service workers were barely a step above indentured servants (even had them imported in and all), but every damn cashier had a chair.

>>9335327
>>9335332
Do you guys also see people drawing while waiting for customers to also be unprofessional? I've not tabled before, but I'm very fidgety and don't see myself lasting 8+ hours without occupying myself with something (not trying to judge your opinion--I'm just curious).

>>9335592
trust me, no one looking at their phone needs your money lol. thanks for proving my point though.

>>9335596
So easy, baby. Mm thank you.

>>9335608
Artists do not work for you. If you want something from us ask. Otherwise, bye.

>>9335595
>Do you guys also see people drawing while waiting for customers to also be unprofessional?
In what world is that unprofessional? If anything, it attracts people to your table. You get to see the artist IN ACTION, FOR FREE. It starts up conversations, gets people to ask if they can watch you. They'll probably buy a couple of things for taking up your time, and even if they don't buy anything, they'll attract people to your table just because they're wondering why people are crowding around your table. That's how it's been in my experience.

>>9335457
Original question anon. I always bring a helper with me, but I still find myself reluctant to leave my table. Firstly I find customers more enthused to buy something when the artist is there.
And most of the time my helper is my husband who is a large shy man (my table is very feminine and I mostly have female customers), and I'm paranoid that he isnt as good as making a sale as myself.

I sometimes have my friend for a helper and shes fantastic, but shes out of town so we only do 1 con a year together.

... writing this out really makes me question whether I should find someone other than my husband haha... But he's free, reliable, and drives me there so I cant complain too much

>>9335595
>Do you guys also see people drawing while waiting for customers to also be unprofessional?
That's an alternative than the thousand mile stare I see lone artists do - I'm somewhat 50/50 about the cellphone if I'm browsing I don't mind - but if I've been there for 5min and feel like I don't exist yeah ppl tend to walk like I do it too - but try to give them a second and third chance since AA is just nascaring around.

Sometimes I help my friend watch her table, and while she draws I have to kick her in the foot for her to acknowledge those that appear standing awhile in front of her. I've come to expect 90% of people not to speak up.

>>9335827
>I've come to expect 90% of people not to speak up.
to add to that..by the end of con while we all go out to eat, the discussion often turns to - so how many did you think were actually browsing/interested in your work versus how many you think were just there to gawk and hit on you.

I mention this since once a guy friend tabled with her to sell and I just sat behind to relax, and end of the con I told them both - you know I noticed - the obvious - it'd be a group or predominantly females by themselves that approached the guy, while my friend got the cluster of guys/neckbeards majority and the few that showed interests in the genre of her work.

>>9335833
AA dude here, I can confirm that pretty much all my customers are women and guys don't want to buy from me. that could be my art style at work too, though.

>>9335892
Wish I was hot enough to pull in thirsty fujoshi girls.

>>9335911
me too, but at least since I am hideously ugly I know they just like my art, which is nice.

>>9335595
>Do you see drawing as unprofessional?
No, as long as you still smile and greet people who come up. It's all about looking approachable, so don't hunch over and ignore people. I helped a friend table who did quick little chibi/doodle commissions while she was at the table and there were even people interested in watching, and then buying their own.

>>9335457
>Get a helper
Thanks for the great tip, ill just go to the helper store and buy one. How much do they go for?

>>9336047
Pay a homeless person to table with you

>>9336047
Do you not have friends or followers? Start there, retard.

>>9336095
None locally or near any cons. All attempts at talking to other people at cons have ended in being ignored or, under 18, or live far away.

>>9336114
ur last choice is just having ur mom there. was very common at ax when I went.

>asian grils learning the hardships of running business 101, it can be long, boring and everyone needs bathroom breaks.

So now that ALA is over how did everyone do?

>>9336490
poorly, I wasn't prepared for this con's style. I am used to cons where laminated badges are laughed at as being cheap, homemade and kind of tacky and everybody goes for the biggest and most decked out acrylic charms, and here I saw tons of congoers with those laminated things not wanting to buy higher priced acrylic charms. This seemed to be congoers mindset for pretty much all merch. I regret not bringing more small cheap shit since that's all I sold, RIP my prints I actually put effort into.

nice/friendly crowd though.

>>9336535
was this the same laminated badge person with over 500 designs of the same same faced chibi??