Hold the Presses

Ok this couldn't just be said in a Twitter or Facebook update. I know I wrote earlier today that the new design would go up today or tomorrow. But being as this is the first shirt we are designing as a self-employed company we've decided we're going to do something new and get our screens outsourced to get the highest quality of detail for the print itself. I'm really proud of this design considering I had time to work on it and not rush it. We really want to step up our game now and offer you the best we can. So as we look into getting someone locally who can make our screen for us here's a quick closeup cut-out of the design to see the detail in the shading.

15 Tote Bags Left!

If you have NOT bought an Akumu Ink tote bag this could be your last chance to own one. We only have 15 bags left! Just go to the above link and select the design you want. They will be gone within the next 2 weeks or at least the stock and choices will have dropped dramatically. So hurry up cuz it's your last chance to get your favourite prints on our black canvas tote bags! (All our items are printed after you purchase them, so that means we have 15 blank bags in total, you can pick which design you'd like)

Talking About Whatever

I'm glad I left my dayjob when I did. I didn't know Akumu would come to take up more of my life than it had when I was working. Now I'm printing most of the day to prepare for conventions. Trying to get our name out there. Obviously with a brand like ours we don't care to be a household name like Ed Hardy or Affliction, but we are trying to live off it. So we're doing our best to let those who would care know we exist.

We worked on a new sticker to replace the Of Horror stickers we had been giving out with our purchases. This new sticker looks really good and since it's been months since I've even worked on a new Akumu design, it's given me the confidence to work out the style on this new idea I had.

Please let me know if you would like me to fix anything on the akumuink.com website. I'd like to add some forms and things to certain places and make the whole site have a lot more functionality than it does right now. If you have ideas or things you'd like to see to make your experience on our website more pleasurable please let me know so we can address it ;)

Thanks for everything everyone, can't wai tto launch the new design (I'm going to say, 3 weeks tops, but you know it might be sooner)

Death to the Raspberry

Just want to let you know that there is approximately less than 25 raspberry tshirts of each size. Once these numbers run out we will not be any replenishing of the raspberry stock. It ends here for the raspberry coloured tshirts. Take advantage before they're all gone.































Also for men who like the raspberry shirt colour, we do have about 25 raspberry colour shirts for men in the XL size. Look at the below image to see how to purchase one of these raspberry XL tshirts for men for all our designs:

Waiting

While waiting for Dora's flight to come in...Delayed in NY by an hour due to sever thunderstorms here...Glad it's only by an hour and not the whole night. I came across these 2 awesome videos of this crazily talented 11-year old Korean girl playing this insane organ that includes bass pedals at her feet as well as a drum pedal just above the bass pedals. This inspires me to pick up my guitar again and learn the songs she's playing:



Also I found this awesome video of 2 Japanese women singing "My Favourite Things." The melody is a bit different due to the language but I think that's what gives its charm.

Dora's Back Tonight!!!

I'm very excited to say that Dora is coming back after having been gone to indonesia for a month. Looking forward to having her back and taking care of you guys as you all deserve. Finally we can work together on some new stuff and she can take over her job again (which I had been spending entire days trying to do both our jobs running around like a chicken with it's head cut off) So now things can go back to normal, and then some ;) Yay!

Otakuthon 2009

So here are some pictures of Montreal's Otakuthon Anime Convention 2009. We seemed to have been very well liked by the Anime crowd which was great. I forgot to bring the camera until the last day, and I quickly tried to get shots of the event between attending to customers just to have something to show you guys. Unfortunately most of the pics I took were out of focus because I'm not used to this lense, or the clear ones are of people's backs... disappointing I know. Anyways, it was fun. We had a lot of laughs and enjoyed every moment of the convention. For all those who came to check us out there for your first time we'll see you for sure next year ;)

Alice In Wonderland

Ok just cuz I'm posting about this doesn't mean that I'm looking forward to it. I love Alice In Wonderland as you may have noticed some of my designs are based on it. It's like one big messed up trip, and the thought that Tim Burton would be putting his creative genius into it sounded like a great idea. But personally looking at the trailer is giving me serious doubts. It looks a lot like his Big Fish movie, and as though he got the same people doing his effects as he did for Willy Wonka... I don't know, we all know how the story goes so you'd think it was Tim Burton's responsibility to make the style and effects impeccable. But looking at the Queen and her Imac-camera-like effect is nothing special. I will of course see this in theaters and hope it's better than it has lead on to be so far.

Vacation Pics

So I'm back from my 2 week adventure with Dora to her home country of Indonesia. It was great, at the time I thought it was hot like hell but it seems I brought the weather back with me here cuz I'm melting. Not seeing much difference, although apparently it remains that hot over there all year round. Here's a quick recap of our vacation:





















This was the door of a Buddhist Temple.






















We also went to this awesome petting zoo where we could hold a bat, turtles, a snake, as well as other animals.





















We went to this walkthrough jungle that held approx 500 monkies. You would be on the path and the monkeys would actually come right up to you. It was great and I got this nice photo of a baby.

I Am The Trend

If you have not seen this check it out around 3:10 we were featured as Tshirt company of the week on the I Am The Trend website they did a little interview with us as well. Check it out here. Love what they had to say about us, and even though the dudes didn't seem sure if they were right about the things they were saying about us they actually got everything right. Even the spelling of Akumu Ink, so we appreciate it!



Also to let you know, I (Joey) am back. Dora will be coming back in 2 weeks, but everything (site and our emails) will go back to normal, I'll be printing and shipping out orders until Dora comes back and we'll take it from there. I'm going to post some pics soon of our vacation we had a great time and got alot of inspiration for new items and designs so get ready for the next phase of Akumu. Also I'm done with my dayjob and now all my time will be spent here with you guys so feel free to let me know how we're doing and what you'd like to see if we're not doing it already and we'll keep giving you what you want. I'll update soon.

Last Day.

So this is it! Today is my last day illustrating children's books. In approx 7.5 hours I will be my own boss from here on out. It's kinda weird how tomorrow we're leaving for Asia like right away so I don't even get to enjoy my new found employment until I get back, but I feel like it's a great way to kick start our new life. I'm hoping to come back rested and refreshed with a new mindset to get all my ideas out into Akumu. Awesome. It's going to be awesome.

Pictures of Things

Here are some pics from the last few weeks that I've been meaning to post. Starting off with photos of Tiny at my dayjob:





















This next image is from a restaurant in Montreal that makes awesome hamburgers called Mr. Steer's.
















Next set of images are from my Going-Away/Pizza Party with a bunch of my coworkers. I laughed so much at the end when the staff came out singing happy birthday with a delicious cake. Thanks so much to all those that came, I'm going to miss all of you. You really made Phidal like a home to me for the last 4 years :)