Nice write up in the Hometown Paper

Big thanks goes to John Liberty for giving us a nice write up in the Kalamazoo Gazette's Ticket.

Click on the image below to read the article.

Play well.
Clovis

They're here!

After months of photoshoots, editing, and planning our 2010 Toi Pin-up calendar is finally available for pre-order!

View it here

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Clovis

October is coming

A few things

• Limited to 150.
• Only available in our online shop
• Drops the end of October - so it will be in the mail and in your eager little hands before the Christmas Holiday.
• That's right what better gift to give than a Toi wallet
• There is no cooler wallet
• That's right I said it - NO COOLER WALLET!

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Clovis

Summer Lovin'

Summer is in full swing here in Michigan, making an already hectic schedule almost unbearable.

So far in the month of June I've already attended three weddings (with three more to go through September), I'm working with no less than five clients on websites and such, and still chipping away on the full time day to day job.

So what does that mean for our beloved little company that could, Toi?

Well if you can't tell by the picture above, we're putting a little surprise together for later this year.

Our programmer just began work on putting the pieces of the fat monster© app. together.

And we're planning a special August surprise for those of you that live in the Kalamazoo area.

I have to give a special "and I thank you" to Matt, for picking up on some of the slack with our design clients, And to Rachel for helping keep yours truly sane.

And as a final gift to our readers, here is one more photo of things to come.



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Clovis

The Magic of Sean Clark

Received this in an e-mail the other day. Sean Clark, Magician, Psychologist and all around good guy has his website up and running.

The really cool thing is if you watch some of his videos you'll see that he is wearing one of our first Toi shirts.

Check his website here

And if you see him on the streets of Austin, show him some love.

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Clovis

The Process: photo edition

A few months ago- Toi did a photo shoot for some assorted things, least being some designs for new shirts.

Anywho, over the course of six hours and over three hundred shots later, we came up with some good photos and some great ideas for some future designs.

Plus it doesn't hurt to have good looking models scantily clad in your studio.

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Clovis

Sunday Morning Cartoons

I was voracious about reading as a child, and I absorbed whatever I could get my grubby little hands on - to the point that I got a turtle in fifth grade and named it Dribble because of Judy Blume.

In sixth grade I picked up my first mythology book, it was a very superficial explanation on Greek Mythology, but from that one book I was hooked. I went through our libraries collection of greek mythology and then tried to read and understand norse, and eventually egyptian. All of them were incredibly important in helping me to form my world view. These were all religions at one time, these were all part of their times collective conscious.

All of this is to say, that when Gargoyles came out, I was amazed at how they mixed medieval lore with Norse mythology and threw in some roman mythology for good measure. It was a wonderful concoction of all these different ideas and beliefs mixed together for yummy goodness.

I was also amazed that Disney took such a chance with this cartoon. I mean think about it, the mouse house is known for making pretty straight forward kiddy fare, and here was such an amazing, deeply serialized, thoughtful cartoon.

If you ever decide to pick the DVD's up get the later seasons - it becomes incredibly interesting after season 2.

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Clovis

Kalamazoo X Conference

I'll be speaking at the Kalamazoo X Conference on branding next month! click on the banner above to visit their site.

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Clovis

Fat Monster is coming!

I am really bad at keeping secrets, especially if it is something that is exciting. and today I am very excited!

I just recieved color artwork for our upcoming apple app, fat monster.

There is still a lot of work that needs to be done, and hell who knows if it will be finished before next year. But, seeing this and the other color pages put together for the first time, I'm starting to get a feel for how the game will look and play, and I can't tell you how proud that makes me of the team working on this project.

It's a good day to be TOI.

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Clovis

$100.00 houses

We have all heard the stories of how Detroit is falling apart. Living and working in Michigan it has always been a Thorn in my side that we do not have a major city, like Chicago or New York to call our own, instead we have a major city with a former very corrupt mayor, and a winless football team.

Well here is a story of a group of people who are taking advantage of the city's fall and are at the beginning stages of rebuilding it into something new and different.

I have to admit this excites me a little, these small steps will hopefully grow into something very big and exciting.

Read the article here

What's new with you?

So what's been going on in the world of TOI?

• New fabric just came in for our limited edition wallets. 150 total, with supremely cool packaging.
• First introductions and meetings on "Fat Monster"
• Finishing up decisions on the line for the rest of the year.
• Welcoming our new PR Person
• Saying goodbye to our intern
• Looking for a new intern

I've been trying to figure out how to share the process of running a small business a little bit better on this blog.

In the last few months I've kind of focused a lot more on our pet projects, movies, girlfriends and cartoons. and less on what goes on behind the scenes of the day to day growth of our little empire that could.

As we move forward there will be continual tweaking in what I think the blog should be, and as that happens I hope to make it more of what I personally envision it to be.

With that said below are two of our shirts coming out towards the end of next month. Hope you likes.



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Clovis

Can't stop the hustle.

Tonight Kenyatta(Theologic) and I had a fairly in-depth conversation about marketing and how to promote oneself. It was great to catch up with him and to hear about all of the interesting things he's planning to release on the masses in the coming months.

It's good to see Detroit still producing creative individuals, and I can't wait to here the whole album.

Make sure you grab a copy of his album March 21st.

check his myspace hear.

Sunday Morning Cartoons

In my pursuit to keep childhood memories alive, and to showcase kickass cartoons, I bring you one of the great overlooked 80's imports. The Bionic Six

From the Bionic Six Wikipedia:

The main character, 'Bionic-1', was a machine-enhanced human being using bionic technology, much like The Six Million Dollar Man. On a vacation in the Himalayas, Bionic-1 and his family were testing out some new ski equipment. They were attacked by aliens and during the battle, in which Jack revealed his abilities to his children for the first time, there was an avalanche and the Bennetts were all buried alive under radioactive snow. All, but Jack (whose bionics made him immune to the radioactivity), were thrown into paralytic comas. Unsure how to save them, Bionic-1 brings the family to Professor Sharp's lab. Sharp deduces that giving everyone the bionic treatment would cure them of the radioactivity too. Each family member was given a specific bionic power, and they formed a team named Bionic Six.

... I just remember thinking how cool it would be to be a family of crime fighters.

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Clovis

Sunday Morning Cartoons

SPOOON!!!

The process 1/29/09

Here is a mockup of something coming down the pipeline - the new Toi Wallet will be a limited run, each one hand crafted, to give it just a little more goodness. These are going to be amazing and I can't wait to talk more about it and show some more in depth designs.

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Clovis

Sunday Morning Cartoons

I love this cartoon.




Here's part 2

Tips of the trade

Owning a business that primarily operates online has many plusses and a few negatives. One of those major negatives is the conversation with others that you are an amateur, playing at your respective field and are only dabbling in it, not really getting your feet wet.

Ryan Sohmer of "Least I Could Do" fame offers some advice on what it takes to sometimes sit at the adult’s table. Here is an excerpt.

"Rather than spend 4 hours of your day ranting on online forums about why another is so wrong, and you're so very right, ignore it. Every time a flame war breaks out, it accomplishes nothing but make all parties look like children. Keep your head down, focus on your work, let that and your success be what speaks for you.

Don't let your readers dictate what your work will be. Trust yourself, your direction. You may end up with a few less than stellar arcs or strips, but you need to follow through on your vision.

Accept your limitations. If you're not a business person, don't try to be one. There are many business-minded individuals who love to partner with a creative force such as yourself, you just need to find him/her. -

- Forget everything else, forget the drama, the arguments, it's the work that matters."

Now I know that this applies to creating webcomics, but the basic truths apply to anyone trying to create a strong business on this thing called the interwebs. And I can wholeheartedly admit to falling into some of the pitfalls mentioned.

You can read the whole thing at his website Least I could Do give it a good read.

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Clovis

November 24th

Just a reminder, we'll be having our Holiday sale this year, all shirts $15.00 and free shipping on any orders over $30.00. So now would be the perfect time to find your favorite TOI shirt or find a pretty in-expensive christmas gift.

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Clovis

Wow

I have fought back every urge to write something political on this blog.
But last night, well let me just say that last night was one of the most awe inspiring, most important, most confident endings to a presidential election that I have had the pleasure to be witness to.

I can't really put into words how much this election meant to me, I don't think I really realized it myself until after the results came in, and I watched everyone on every channel tear up a little.

And today has brought with it renewed hope, with friends and family calling to tell me how excited they are about this new president.

So really this post is just to say that I am proud to be an American.

coming down the pipeline

For the release of next year's shirts we're looking at having more of an illustrative feel to them. Drawing a lot of inspiration from old children's packaging, movie posters and some french prints thrown in for good flavor. It becomes very interesting to see what you can mix and match to come up with ideas.

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Clovis