Wish This Was Me

Whether I'm printing shirts, preparing packages, or in this case opening Christmas presents it's safe to say Tiny will always be there reminding me how much better (simpler) his life is while he lays sprawled out on the floor.

Preview of Things to Come

So 2010 is coming soon and we're ready for it. Starting in January there will be 4 NEW original Akumu Ink designs, as well as 2 NEW collaboration designs. Here's a preview of our new collection that will be launched mid January. Can't wait to let you see it ;)

La Carmina Part 2!

Today we were mentioned for the second time on the lovely Carmina's blog with her wearing our Possessed tshirt. We appreciate so much the support from those who we've designed our clothes for! We've gone into Akumu Ink from the beginning with the intention to make clothes for morbidly fashionable crowd, so we're always happy to see that we are accepted by you. When your creation is sincere I think others notice ;) Thanks everyone, I hope you've either now discovered her very informative blog, or you've found us.

Friday Songs

Here is a good representation of how my mind is split into 2 extremely opposites which makes up for my creativity. Do you know a lot of white boys tortured by the kawaii pop music of the East all the while listening to nothing but the most brutal in Western music. I guess I like to be a part of something that is not popular in my surroundings. To have the pleasure of meeting or talking to someone with similar likes is very rare and always that much more pleasant. Just like Akumu Ink, such a small community. Sure some people buy shirts because they like one design and never return, or never come back to check the blog, or even never remember how to pronounce Akumu properly but that's ok. Because I know, and you who are reading this know that we're in this together and we don't need them ;)

So without putting this off further here are my song choices for today:
1- Bring Me the Horizon's 4th video from the album Suicide Season "The Sadness Will Never End"
2- The beautiful Mandarin pop icon Jolin Tsai...Who's music is better without the video, and for boys is more enjoyable without the music...This song "Butterfly" is from her latest album as well. Enjoy.

La Carmina Post

So what does the author of "Cute Yummy Time" and "Crazy Wacky Theme Restaurants: Tokyo" think about Akumu Ink? Look for yourself here on her latest blog post! La Carmina is a fulltime blogger based on similar themes as our own. Also in her post she reveals a little secret "I’m so excited about Akumu Ink’s designs that we’re doing a fashion collaboration together… stay tuned for news! We may have something to show you as early as January!"

Very exciting stuff coming in 2010. Including in January 4 NEW original Akumu Ink designs, and the NEW La Carmina x Akumu Ink shirts(s)! Stay tuned.

New Alice in Wonderland Trailer!

Oh wow! As much as the teaser made me lose faith in Tim Burton looking at this new trailer has gotten me super excited for this dark children's tail. Loving the feel of the whole thing, can't wait till 2010!

Good Bye...Hello.

I know I'm terribly late and this is barely news as this single was released back in September. But this is the latest single from Japanese band 'High and Mighty Color'. Their sound can only be described by me as: Linkin Park, but not shit. The quality of the musicians performance is ridiculously technical, these guys know what they're doing with their instruments and I applaud them for that.

I've liked this band for over 4 years and have all their albums, the last one 'Rock Pit' being one of their best. On this album there is a new female vocalist. You can hear that her voice is harsher and raspier which sets a darker tone for the rest of this 'Swamp Man' album. Reminds me of a Quebecois female rock singers a bit. The video is fun and the song is as well. I would totally suggest trying this out if you want to get started in the world of Japanese pop rock music or if you want to add to your collection.

Mad Detective

I watched this pretty interesting Chinese movie about a cop who requires help from this insane detective to sol. It's a really good movie and very different from anything I've seen coming out of Hollywood. The trailer really doesn't it do it justice but at least it'll give you an idea of how weird the movie is.

The Sorcerer's Apprentice

Here's a fun movie Disney's putting out. It's got Nick Cage, Monica Bellucci, and a Montreal's own Jay Baruchel (Canada's Shia LaBeouf). Great looking Chinese parade scenes from the clips I saw. Looks like one of those fun movies that won't necessarily be memorable but worth the fee to see it in theaters. I'm assuming it's based loosely off of the Disney cartoon "The Sorcerer's Apprentice". Anyways, loving the dark movie themes even if they come from Disney.

Little Update

This week was insane. My friend who's doing the boxing shirts needed a rush order for a last minute event. I worked on it for two days straight trying to make the deadline which I did (right up to the last second). It was crazy, I was so exhausted come Friday night.

Then yesterday we set up the Christmas tree and I worked on some sketches for an upcoming collaboration project until I fell asleep. Later in the night when I woke up I started working on one of the newer designs we'll be launching for January. Let me just say that I'm extremely excited as our collection is taking on a life of its own. This new line will bring Akumu Ink to the next level of what it was ever capable of before. More time to actually put into designs makes it that much more intricate and have that much more thought put into it. Can't wait to hear your reactions when the new designs are launched.

Today I'm going to focus on getting out the last of your orders out in time for Christmas. Talk to you soon.

Hurry!

If you haven't been following us on Facebook this went up today:







I had this idea of doing a Charlie and The Chocolate Factory contest, but instead of the prize being a to visit the factory it would be a sneak peek at our upcoming designs. We won't be releasing 1 design on our next release, but instead we might be releasing 3-5 at once. So be sure to get your photo up asap on our facebook page, if you don't know how just email it to me and I'll put it up for you, so you can get a sneak peek. And of course comment or give me feedback on those designs while they're in the form of sketches.

Sketch 3

It's a beautiful snowy day. We just sold off some of our original Akumu Ink screen printing gear. We updated our equipment just after the summer to be able to meet the demand, and finally we've had time to put it up for sale. Now that some of it's gone I'm sad I didn't take pictures of them. Oh well, no looking back :P

I spent way too long on this sketch, 35 min...Very bad, especially considering there was a lot of erasing involved. I'm not very impressed with myself on this one, maybe I should sketch more often to see better results. I want to get back to not using an eraser and not going over the same line twice. It's like going to the gym, you don't want to do it, but when you're done you want to keep doing it.

Blog Mentions

Nice mentions from 2 big blogs:

I Am The Trend referred to us in their "27 Hoodies and Sweaters that you wish your grandma would buy you for Christmas!"



and Toys R Evil mentioned our "The Vampire" Paper Toy ;)

Lucky Me

So yesterday I woke up as I do every other day to bring Dora to the train station so she can go to school. But yesterday came with a beautiful surprise (sarcasm)! Someone literally broke into my car and went through my glove compartment looking probably for a GPS or some other device that I don't own. Instead they embarrassed me by leaving out my Incubus CD's sprawled on the seat. As you can see in the photo they got in not by using some cool tool that they used in the movie 'Gone in Sixty Seconds'...they used a rock the size of a football. I'm more freaked out now of the tiny shards of glass that are in the dog cage. I hope Tiny doesn't get any stuck in his paws even after I've thoroughly vacuumed it. Thanks Mr. Robbers -_-*