Horror Collectors

Over the weekend I got invited to a site called HorrorCollectors.com

The concept is cool, we even posted a couple shirts there so I'd like people to check it out and help it grow. It's like an ebay, wikipedia, myspace, etc. for horror stuff. There isn't much yet, but the potential is totally there. I would say that within a year the site will probably blow up into something big. Good luck to them as we're both starting out companies.

-Joey

Hedgehog Sunday

On Sunday, Joey and I went to meet a friend from my class. After an afternoon of bubble teas and delicious pastries in China Town, we went to her place. I have been wanting to show her hedgehog to Joey since she's brought it to class twice (in her tube sock!)

Her name is Prickles and she sleeps all day, and runs on her wheel all night (as long as no one is watching). The little princess is so grumpy when you try to wake her up. She's pooped and peed on me twice :( Not so fun, especially the little poop actually stinks :x

-Dora

French Webstore online!

Yeah no more blogging about animals!

After many painstaking hours of copying and pasting code over and over again I finally got the French version of the website up and running! We are from Montreal so naturally we felt inclined to make the site bilingual. Don't forget new designs coming really soon!

Wanderlust

Bjork has a new video out and it's weird. I was a big fan of Bjork when she did Vespertine and Medulla, loved those videos too. Loved the collaborations on Medulla, I'm a huge Mike Patton fan also (how unoriginal I know) and when you heard his low bass-like voice on 'Where Is the Line?' that just gives you goosebumps.

So her new video is in 3D, actually not made in 3D (which at first glance I couldn't tell), but you can watch the video with those red and blue glasses which I haven't yet done. Well here's the link if you wanna check it out: New Bjork Video

Wizards and Unicorns

Ok, I'm not into Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter. But the other day I was listening to Coast to Coast AM and the host was talking to a wizard. The wizard's name was Oberon Zell Ravenheart, which is awesome in itself. Anyways, this guy breeds unicorns! He was explaining how unicorns aren't a species but more like how there are sometimes albino animals.

Also he has an online wizard school which I thought was pretty neat. After only 7 semesters (levels) you can be a certified wizard! That sounds awesome.

Summer came finally

It was really hot yesterday. Little Tiny was so hot that he claimed sanctuary under the bed. We're going to get him a haircut this upcoming Saturday. It is well overdue.

Btw - Spitfire's "Cult Fiction" album comes out in about a week! Can't wait!

Sushi Saturday

I love Saturdays. I love not having my cell phone alarm buzz under my pillow to wake me up before the sun is even up. I love Saturdays. It's the only day of the week that I have off but still feel like I need to work so I get alot more stuff done. Today was awesome, alot of you have been buying our shirts this weekend and Dora and I really appreciate that. It's getting me extremely excited about next months designs which I started working on and trust me, they'll be awesome. They'll both be very different from one another but the subject matter will be similar, I'm going along with some sort of violent fighting imagery without any blood splatters this time around.

Dora's making sushi and it smells great. We started watching Carnivale, and I think she's somewhat hooked so we'll try and have a little Carnivale season 1 marathon. Other than that, I worked like a mad man on the website today trying to make it as intuitive as possible. Please if anyone has any ideas as to how I can make buying from our website more simple just comment or email me. Thanks for listening to my rant. Have a nice weekend, and I can't wait for tomorrow night to grab a RedRave and print a bunch of your orders.
-Joey

Wednesday Night

What else is going on these days? Today I worked on some new concepts for children's books which I hope will go through. Dora is studying hard for her exam tomorrow. I think she has 2 more tests to go to finish her semester. I printed a couple shirts tonight while Tiny sat on the balcony and enjoyed the return of the spring.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. I worked on a new shirt design for May. I left my computer to render when I left work tonight so hopefully by tomorrow morning she'll be done and I can start playing around with it. The concept is simple, but striking. I can't wait to see it come to life. Anyways, I'm done eating now gotta get back to work.
Take care.
-Joey

Will I ever?

Will I ever get tired of seeing people talk about us?

I'd like to thank Iloveyourtshirt for featuring us on their blog. They keep posting really quality stuff, so Dora and I really appreciate seeing our stuff get noticed.

Check us out also up on Hide Your Arms.

Steve Aoki and A-Trak concert

Last night was awesome. With school, work, tshirts, and this really harsh winter, Dora and I haven't really had a chance to go out for a while. Less than an hour before going my sister called to see when we were picking her up and then suggested we bring a shirt to give to A-Track. So I right away jumped on my press and screenprinted a new shirt, Dora wrote up a cute message on a tag and we wrapped it with an elastic. When we got to the concert it was still pretty quiet and we were able to get off to the side of the stage and call A-Track over and give him the shirt! Later in the evening Steve Aoki came out on the side of the stage and I took a photo of him with Dora and my sister.

I really recommend attending one of these guys' concerts when they come to your town. It was a really cool vibe and it's crazy to see how many people can really dance.

Good Reviews

I'd like to say thanks to the blogs that featured Akumu Ink this month. Dora and I really appreciate the kind words. We're also really surprised with all the positive reactions we're getting in Spain, so I'd like to thank: Viste Adecuadamente, 1001 Camisetas, Monkeyzen
And also to a really awesome American blog: T-shirts Around the Internet

A Nightmare in Europe

I'd like to thank my close friends Marc and Natalie for sending me pictures of their trip to Europe. They backpacked through Europe for less than a week and took tons of photos with their Akumu Ink shirts on. So let me show my appreciation by posting some pics of their venture. If you want to see more go here.

Black April

So this month is dubbed Black April for our really dark designs this time around. Let me start off by talking about Without You, a grey oversized print of a woman's face crying hearts. We've all experienced the ache of being heartbroken, abandoned and failed . The album I've listened to endlessly through my last breakup was Converge's "Jane Doe" album. The lyrics are pure poetry if you are willing to take the time to look over them, and the songs capture the feeling of pain so well.

Nevermore is an obvious rendition of Edgar Allan Poe's poem "The Raven". The story of a man who's lost his love only to be tormented by a raven that calls out "Nevermore." This image will be printed with glossy black ink, a new colour we haven't yet tried. We hope you like them and continue to encourage us to make more interesting designs for you.

Moving Soon

Seven months ago we were being pressured by our landlord because we had pets. He would give us hell anytime he saw us walking the dog even though he knew Dora had pets when she first moved in. With us being serious about starting Akumu Ink we thought it might be best to look into getting a bigger place so that we could work. As a side note I had never actually moved into the two roomed apartment so there was also all my stuff that had to be considered too.

Well just our luck we found what we thought was a decent apartment which we dubbed the Lion's Gate. Not the best or safest place in the world, every time we mention the cross street to someone they go pale. Anyways, it's an ok place. 5 months into being at the Lion's Gate we see a sign go up on the lawn: For Sale. And of course the people who bought it want our apartment for their parents, so we received six months notice to vacate the place. We'll see what the future has in store for us. But whatever happens we'll still be making shirts.