the mehallo blog. beta.

i’m digging all this
I’ve had these merchandise ideas for a few years and just never got around to building them until recently. Production issues always held me up   . . .  so did fulfillment, pricing   . . .  inventory   . . .  

Then Café Press and Zazzle invented themselves. What is known as Printing Upon Demand made it possible to have a product line – without it actually existing.

So I’ve set up stores at Café Press and Zazzle.

The product ideas come from “what would I actually like to own?” and I’m going from there.

at café press
is my Moderno Collection; which I’m going to keep as limited as possible, swapping out designs seasonally. Featured are shirts and buttons highlighting “Moderno” and a few dingbats from my Jeanne Moderno fonts. The style is simple, clean, wearable.

The “Waffffles!” shirt is a favorite, it features the Jeanne Moderno fonts’ “ffffl” ligature, an unusual take on traditional typesetting’s standard “fl” ligature. The color reminds me of the old IHOP days. Which, as a side note, I was happy to see IHOP’s current interiors now harken back to IHOP as comfort food. They were always a Sunday morning treat. Wear your Waffffles! shirt when heading out for a stack.

over at zazzle
I’ve amped it up a little. Because of their large product assortment, I’m only really limited by time.

The Font Me mug – based on vintage printers rules and type gauges – was an idea I had several years ago. All elements came from rare type resources, and I’m glad to finally see it produced.

Zazzle makes it possible to actually do a series of shirts where you can pick your favorite style/color/etc. And then I thought, why not have your favorite letter printed on it? Really BIG.

This is my “Jeanne Moderno Lettres” product line – and I absolutely love that there’s NO WASTE. No extra letter shirts lying around because they didn’t sell. Each one is custom made, you pick your favorite letter and put it on ANY of Zazzle’s shirts   . . . and that’s really cool.

The Theatre, from the 20th Century Obsolete series

I’ve gotten requests over the years, so I’ve also posted prints of some of my work. Some of my pieces are now available up to around 6 feet, if you have the money and wall space.

going green
I also love that it’s sort of green in that each of these products only exist if one orders it. All retail should be like that, no waste. And hopefully, that’s where we’re headed.

pricing
I’m finding these are not entirely cheap – and yes, if I want my own merch, I have to buy my own merch. But I think the trade off is really worth it for what is really as close as one can get to one-of-a-kind items in the retail universe.

We live in an environment of excess, making a purchase on one good mug – or one good shirt – is a great way to think about shopping in today’s world. There’s really no need to own a zillion items, just pick one and make it a good pick (Tim Gunn supports this thinking in his book on personal style; tho I’m paraphrasing).

so
Please click on any of the images above to drop by either shop. There’s also links to the shops in the sidebar at right. Everything has been fun to put together – and as of today, I have both the Font Me and Master of Typography mugs on my desk. Zazzle ships FAST. And I’ll say the 15 oz. is a good size for anything.

Happy shopping and thanks for the support!

o yeah
Most of these designs are based on type and elements from my font collections. And of course, they can be found in their own store at MyFonts.

tags: fashion, fonts, mehallo merchandise, originally posted on my myspace blog, typography // 2 comments  . . .