Social Media Campaign for DBH 10k: Mecha Labaw

Social Media Campaign for DBH 10K: Mecha Labaw is a guest post written by Blake from You Design It where they offer custom t-shirt printing. He’s a t-shirt fanatic that wants to rid the world of suits, one tee at a time.

With in the recent announcement of the Design By Humans top 10 finalists in the 10K contest, I thought it would be interesting to share with you one of the finalists’ social media campaigns to win. Talk about hustle, this artist has earned a spot in the top 10 for both his high quality artwork and strategic use of the Internet’s resources to gain votes.

I am speaking about Christian San Jose and his design named Mecha Labaw. Here is a look at it in case you haven’t seen it yet:

When I was first introduced to this design, ironically it was not at Design By Humans. It was actually in my Google Feed Reader via a user generated blog named Design You Trust. Christian had uploaded his design to Design You Trust and used their platform to broadcast to the design community. This instantly put his design in front of thousands of like-minded designers that could potentially go to DBH to vote on his design.

Of course, he included the link to his design page on DBH, but he also went one huge step further. He actually created a website for his design under the same name – Mecha Labaw. That is definitely going above and beyond. He then incentivized votes by giving the chance to win five DBH shirts if you post the provided HTML snippet to include his design on one of your own webpages/blog/profile.

This kind of campaign is very innovative and could potentially create a whole new trend. The competition has just been stepped up a notch thanks to Christian San Jose. Let’s see just how far this goes in the upcoming weeks as the winner is selected.

Blake is a guest author from You Design It, where you can design t-shirts for custom printing.

You Design It TV

If you’ve got qustions about T-Shirt printing or design then you must make You Design It TV a regular stop! Our buddy Blake from YouDesignIt.com is now posting videos on the new You Design It TV site. The site specializes in bringing you the best videos related to the T-Shirt industry, including videos on screen printing and embroidery. A quick glance at the front page showed videos on color separation, a how to on snake drawing for tee designs, a how to on creating T-Shirt mockups, and the Karma Loop story. Such an eclectic collection of videos on the first page alone!

And guess what – Co-Tee TV is a regular on You Design It TV! That’s right, you can find all of the latest episodes of Co-Tee TV there as well as here and on the Co-Tee TV Facebook Fan Page.

Be sure to check out You Design It TV, it’s definitely worth a look!

One Brand’s Trash, Another Brand’s Treasure

One Brand’s Trash, Another Brand’s Treasure is a guest post written by Blake from You Design It where they offer custom t-shirt printing. He’s a t-shirt fanatic that wants to rid the world of suits, one tee at a time.

How many of you out there have a pulse on your brand?. You know what I’m talking about, you eat, sleep and breathe your brand. If you’re talking, chances are…you’re talking about your apparel line. You know as good as anybody that you have to hustle hard day and night to succeed. T-shirt lines are a dime a dozen and only the cream rises to the top.

In the early stages of your t-shirt line, there is going to be a lot of noise you’ll have to filter through. You’ll have your lovers and haters, your friends and enemies, and plenty of know-it-alls along the way. You’ll be inspired by other brands and repulsed by others. These are all very normal situations and just a standard part of the process.

The next best thing to learning from your OWN mistakes when trying to mature as a brand, is to learn from OTHER’S mistakes before you. With the transparency that the internet now provides, you can follow the successes and failures of the brands you’re trying to emulate. But beware, because it’s a very fine line you’ll have to walk.

Let’s take this full circle and go back to the beginning. Remember the pulse question? This was where we established that you and only you know your brand the best. What works for one brand may not work for another and vice versa. Let me give you an example.

It’s safe to say that both The Hundreds and Johnny Cupcakes have seen enormous success for being different than the norm. They have both danced by the beat of their own drum by maintaining styles that are unlike any other in the retail markets. And although they are extremely different, I stumbled across an instance where they were very much alike.

There was a recent post on The Hundreds blog showing some of the samples that they tried but never put into production. The one that stood out to me the most was the Cobra Kai spoof called “Cool Guys”.

It immediately reminded me of a recent release by Johnny Cupcakes with their own reference to Karate Kid’s Cobra Kai. In the post by The Hundreds, they made it clear that the samples would never go into production. Yet Johnny Cupcakes, no doubt, is reaping big sales with their version of the artwork.

The take-home moral of the story is that one brand’s trash may be another brand’s treasure. The Hundreds knew it wasn’t for them, and Johnny Cupcakes felt it fit like a glove (or maybe I should say oven mitt).

You just have to cut through the noise and go with your gut. At the end of the day, your brand is an extension of you.