Preview!

Just to give you a taste before I go across the country for the next 4 days. I'm hoping when I get back Tuesday I'll be able to post this new shirt design up for sale ;) Take care, I'll see you soon with a huge photo update hopefully.

Twitter, Thanks, and Tote Bags

So blogger caught on to the whole Twitter thing and their now working on a little gadget to add a 'Following' application. Good idea.

Speaking of which, I just got an email saying someone was following me on Twitter. When I clicked on the link to the destined site I got this window:













It's always cool to see what you do in bold by someone else. Thanks TanMcG for helping to get our name out!

Dora and I are taking the plane Friday morning to Calgary! Extremely tired. Dora has just finished heating all the shirts by hand that are coming with us. Now she's working her way through over 50 tote bags... -_-* I've been working on this month's new design which I'm debating putting up or not before we leave....I may just post a sneak preview of what you can expect to be posted as soon as we come back from Calgary on Tuesday.

Keep your eyes open tomorrow!

The Bands we Sponsor

As I've mentioned before we are sponsoring a band from the Netherlands called Meet the Storm. We've sent them shirts to take for promo pics and to wear during their concerts. Here's some pics of guitarist Joe and lead vocals Matthias. Check out their myspace page.





































And we're going to be sponsoring a new band from Iowa (USA) called With Guns Blazing. They're a Southern Rock/ Hardcore band. I'm a big fan of hardcore and especially when a band is willing to experiment and produce something this unique. Totally worth checking out. Here's the link to their myspace page.

Beloved Viste Adecuadamente

Viste Adecuadamente was nice enough to review us the other day. And look at how blogger Marta looks in our Beloved tshirt! Viste has been really good to us letting their viewers know once a month about our updates. We really appreciate them because they've helped us reach out to our really friendly Spanish buyers.























Tonight I'm hoping to work on redesigning the website a bit. Make it somewhat MORE user friendly. Also I'm hoping to give you a small teaser of next month's designs (they will be up next week). Keep you posted.

Tofurky or not Tofurky

Day one of my vacation. Dora and I had to start it off by waking up at 7:30am to bring Tiny to the groomers to get his last haircut for the summer. He's been panting like crazy, so hopefully this helps. umm...the shirt was Dora's idea.


















While doing groceries today I came across this lovely product. This sounds like the most delicious food product ever invented...to just pronounce the word "Furky" makes me want to vomit.


















This is how I want to spend the rest of the day but you guys have been ordering like crazy these last couple of days! Don't stop! what time is it? 9:30pm? Time to start printing your orders ;) probably until 4am... I hope my ipod's charged... send me more band names, I got 4 gigs left to fill.

vacation

Hooray, I start my vacation in about 5 hours. I'm off for 2 weeks, so hopefully I'll be able to spend more time taking photos and updating the blog. Vacation from my day job does not mean a vacation from you guys ;)

Trying to work out a new design. hopefully you guys will like it....

Found a Place

We found a new place and we're signing the lease this week! But we're not moving in until October 1st...boo... I kinda wish we could get out of where we're at now. The landlord is such a weirdo. Like imagine being 8 and having some creepy 40 year old man at the playground eye you. That's the feeling I get from this guy... Ugh. More to come...!

He's So Proud

So today other than the orders I didn't really print today. Dora and I went for a walk and I took these amazing photos of 'Birds in Flight'.















Amazing huh? I know you're totally impressed. I even tagged these photos like ' amazing bird photos, national geographics best' I hope they end up at the top of the google image search ha...so hideous.
















For lunch we went towards the town had some sushi and ice cream. I saw this graffiti on the side of a building right in the busy part of the street. awesome.

















I'm titling this next one He's So Proud. We were walking Tiny in the park and I saw this kid going around with that rainbow twirl on the front of his bike. He even looked at us like he was better than us. I think he might actually be the devil...and if that is so we need to change the look of our products :P

And the Weekend Starts

No photos to share right now... Dora and I are apartment hunting tonight. I'll try and take some good pics this weekend to share with you. So check back over the weekend.

Oh just wanted to say, when we first launched in January we had 2 other tshirt companies message us. They were just launching at the same time too. Well now today on the HansandFras website a banner was put up saying that they will be going on hiatus. Sorry to hear that guys. When I see this happen it just makes me think that we have to push harder if not at all.

Have a nice weekend.

Sybilla Oritur

The other day Dora and I met one of the two guys that started American Apparel. He was really cool and his jokes were so random that it made meeting him a little less stressful. He owns a company that distributes clothing labels like Ed Hardy, Crooks n’ Castles, Rocksmith, Artful Dodger and Blac Label internationally. He looked at our clothes and said that we have potential. That's a pretty big compliment considering we can only afford to print one color designs, and that we've been doing this for only 6 months. The greatest part is that we are invited to put some sample shirts in their showroom! Now that's awesome.

So I'd like to thank Heather who got us in there. She's an old high school friend that I completely lost touch with until we went to the Toronto Tattoo convention and she emailed me about getting a shirt. She loves her shirt and so did the people working in her company. Weird how things happen like that.

Here is a link to Heather's blog: Sybilla Oritur Please check it out.

Sin City Tattoo Shop

So as I've mentioned we currently have our stuff at Sin City Mtl Tatouage & Percage (Tattoo & Piercing) here in Montreal (Ile Perrot). It's surreal walking into that place seeing all the shirts I slave over hanging so nicely like they've never been touched by human hands. Our stuff has been there for the last 2 weeks and has been selling fairly well considering that our brand is still underground. I know one of the talented tattoo artists there from college. It's weird, cuz every time I go there I become entranced with watching her tattoo her client. I think it's from watching LA Ink, I feel like I should expect to hear why the person is getting the tattoo they chose and just sit and watch the montage from sketch to when they go to the mirror to look at their finalized tattoo. But that's not real life, which sucks because it's fun to watch talented artists work in front of you. Anyways check out the photos.

The Toolbox

I like this picture. On Sunday I had to work... at my day job for a couple of hours... It was gorgeous when I got there. And at 4pm when I left my workplace the sky was black. I had planned to go to visit my parents' place. While digging around in their garage I noticed something on my dad's toolbox. I wasn't expecting it. I thank everyone who supports us.

They Walked in the Rain

We were walking Tiny (our dog) for 20min, and of course, as is our luck it rained halfway through. Dora and I managed to get some photos shot. I even managed to get a photo of me in there, excuse my bathing suit shorts...I've had them for 5 years now, I wear them all the time outside of being at the office. And I'm wearing an Every Time I die hat which I bought at my first hardcore concert when they came to Montreal. Back when they opened for Terror, and Throwdown for like 10 or 15$ a ticket to a crowd of less than 100 people. That was awesome. Have a nice weekend.

And Then They Reviewed Akumu

So, I'd like to start off by saying, thank you to the latest blogs to write about us.

First off is Shirt Spotting, the German tshirt blog. Markus reviewed our Nevermore shirt with great satisfaction. After going into great detail as to how he liked the print, and design, etc etc. He finished it off with this (please understand the following is a direct translation using free software, this does not reflect how the writer at Shirt Spotting actually writes):
"Result: The shirt is excellent. However, the accessories have prepared for me almost even more joy. The pure dispatch traders distinguish this small extra in my opinion from the affairs of the heart. Dora and Joey who look this small label alone put so much love and devotion in her project that one forgets the horror air about it over and over again, so charmingly they look after everything." (-Translated using http://translation2.paralink.com/)



















(highlight the picture to see the black on black print ;)

Very sweet, thank you! we do put alot of effort into this and are constantly trying to come up with things to make horror fun kinda like how when Nightmare Before Christmas came out for the first time. It's an experience and I'm glad we can all share it together ;)











Next is Buy-Tees. Wow, Paul (the blogger) also had alot to say about us. Not only did he say alot, but everything he said was completely relevant. It was nice to read someone dissecting my illustrations and catching every little intention that was put into it. Good job, the blog itself was very inspiring and gave me ideas for possible future shirts. Paul totally sounds like someone I'd like to hang out with and pick his brains about the things he knows...If you're on facebook please add me.





















Also in other news...nothing is sure yet but I'm going to note this for myself for future reference when looking back at this blog. We may have a meeting with an important someone soon. that's all I will say until there's more concreteness about that. I just want to remember the date.

Forgetting the Anti Mother

Finally last night Dora and I were able to clean up the apartment. Only partially but still...it was to the point where my arms and legs felt like giving out and collapsing onto the piles of papers and boxes, and just random junk left around. After cleaning it felt like someone turned on a light in what was once a dark cave in which you were trying to find your way.














We even bought some sushi to celebrate and watched Forgetting Sarah Marshall...Which was awesome.





















Oh, and got a hold of the new Norma Jean album... I don't know yet... I'm trying to get past the whining which is Cory Brandan's screaming voice at times. And the lame Deftones influence I'm hearing alot of the times for guitar riffs. There are 2 notable moments that I'm intrigued by... 'Surrender your Sons' has a really nice clear voice in it...is that Cory's? Sounds like he actually has a singing ability which is cool. Then the song 'Opposite of Left and Wrong' has some weird screaming layered on top of the vocalist's which is pretty cool too. Original. Am I a fan of those cheerleader's at one point on the album...maybe had Faith No More done it, then had it ripped off by Marilyn Manson it might have been ok.

Big Spender Part.2

Thanks to all of you who posted yesterday letting me know that you read this blog. It's pretty surreal knowing that, but I'll do my best to keep on updating regularly about how we're growing.

Ok so if you read my original post Big Spender this is part 2: I bought Jim Mahfood's Mix Tape book. It's really nice. Jim was really nice and quick to reply too, I emailed him through the site. He even drew a beautiful full page image which makes the book that much more awesome. It's nice when the person you're buying from puts in that extra effort.


















On the flip side, I have not yet recieved my Wrong Wroks book yet. It's been about a month now considering we live in the same country. I did receive someone else's order though, an 80$ hoodie. I know our stuff is not that expensive but I don't get how they can get away with charging that much, there is no quality behind this product. The swarovski crystals are placed without much real care. Knowing this now I will never purchase another item from them again. Also their customer service is terrible. Dora and I try to answer within 1 to 12 hours of the customers email. This took 3 days for them to answer me about my order being wrong. And I never even received an apology or even a 'hi' or a 'thank you for being patient', or even a 'thank you for forwarding the package'. Like I said earlier, it's been about a month and I still haven't received my book or an apology. For what it's worth I would have expected alot more. Anyways, know with Akumu Ink we care about you and we'll literally hold your hand through whatever you need. Dora and I are here to help and make this a pleasant buying experience. Our themes may be dark and morbid but we protect and help our own. Thanks for choosing us ;)

Reviews

Hide Your Arms wrote another sweet review about us this month. Andy, know that if you ever come to Montreal we'll be more than happy to meet up with you and buy you a drink.

We also got talked about on The Fashion Bomb blog. I'm glad our stuff is fashionable to be there. I guess we can thank companies like Affliction for making that possible.

Also I'd like to say thanks to those who comment on this blog. The fact that anyone even reads this is pretty awesome. I'd continue writing even if no one was reading this, but just to satisfy my curiosity if you are reading this could you just post a comment on this story like 'hi' with a fake name if you wish just so I can know how many people really are reading this blog?

Thanks everyone, we won't disappoint you.

Btw, if anyone knows of any sites, or forums what would be interested in our shirts please let me know. I would so love to be able to do tshirts fulltime therefore coming up with better designs for you. Please help Akumu Ink grow just enough so I can get to that point. Thanks again.

August Stuff

Ok so this month has been so crazy preparing for 2 tattoo conventions, getting our stuff in Sin City Tattoo Shop, filling out orders, as well as working with 3 bands on a sponsorship deal. I haven't found a second to be creative enough to come up with a new shirt design. So this month We're relaunching some old stuff but repackaged. For example The Black Rose and Death's Embrace can be found as black ink design on a black tshirt.





















We are now printing Cut, Cut in hot pink as well as When a Cat Smiles in silver. Depending on the amount of sales we'll continue or discontinue these 2 products. So as it stands these are limited edition designs.




















Lastly we've decided to release the best images we thought that could be offered as tote bag designs. Coming in at a cost of 11$ each tote bag. But we have a reduced shipping cost for bags: $2.95 to Canada and the USA, and $4.45 Internationally per item!

ugh

ugh...I stayed up until 4am yesterday modifying 60 of 80 pages that have to be modified for the website for it to run smoothly...I gotta find a better way of doing this. It's so annoying. Sorry for the delay, but the new stuff should be up this weekend.

Right now it's 10am, Dora and I gotta drop off some stuff at the tattoo shop. Be back soon.