Cupcakes & Coasters Store NOW OPEN!
Can't believe I'm actually writing this after literally over a decade of thinking and dreaming about this, but I'm so pleased and proud to announce that my very own coaster enthusiast themed clothing store is NOW OPEN! As of this very evening, you can head to Cupcakes & Coasters on Teespring to check out three lines I've designed to launch my very own coaster clothing store, named Ride or Die, I Heart Creds and Creds or Death.
Bit of a background for you, this is something I've wanted to do pretty much since I started becoming a coaster enthusiast. I adore clothing and fashion, and as such the usual fare offered by theme parks or even other Etsy stores with designs themed around theme parks and rides have never really catered for my specific taste/style. That's not to say those designs are bad at all, far from it, it's more just I am extremely particular with the kinds of things I wear and as such I very rarely stumble across theme park apparel that fits my particular taste. It's only now with the advent of things like Depop where people are selling old school, 'vintage' theme park merch have I really started to own anything theme park or attraction related when it comes to clothes.
I've always been interested in illustration and drawing, and growing up it's something I probably would have pursued as a career had I not gone down the social media/marketing line instead. I've always really enjoyed sketching and creating little doodles and designs, but it's never really grown past that in terms of my personal skill, and a big factor in this taking me so long to get around to is that I never 'digitised' my skills and learned to transfer from paper to screen, and therefore I've never really gotten any of my designs past the pencil and paper stage.
But this year, given the gift of time with the lockdown, I decided to kick my arse into gear and finally get around to doing it. I spent a bit of time in the summer drawing up some designs, which some of you may remember I shared to Twitter, and worked with a graphic designer behind the scenes to create PNGs which I could then use to create the designs you see now on Teespring! I've always been a big fan of the Vans/skate style of clothing using a neo-tradi tattoo style of illustration with a casual/sport application with the pocket prints, long sleeve t-shirts and sweatshirts etc. I knew this was the kind of apparel I wanted to create with my designs and luckily this is something Teespring offer so it was a no-brainer!
I also didn't want the store to be Cupcakes & Coasters themed merch - I wouldn't wear something that had my brand logo on it so I wouldn't expect anybody else to want to either. Instead, I wanted to create fun coaster enthusiast culture inspired designs that made sense to those of us in the know but would also pass as just another designs to your average GP passer by, which I think I've managed to capture here! I've started off with the three designs: Ride or Die, I Heart Creds and Creds or Death. The idea is to update the store every quarter or so with new designs as they come to me, but I also want to be careful not to flood the store with too much stuff either.
Anyway, I hope you all love the designs as much as I do and I'm so excited to finally be able to share the store with you all - it's been an extremely long time in the making and I'm so proud of myself for finally getting it off the ground this year.
Which is your favourite design? Is there anything you'd like to see in the store that I don't currently offer? Let me know in the comments, I'd love to have a chat!
Talk later xoxo,
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