I am a Cafe' nut!
There....I said it
For whatever reason, I'd rather spend time in a coffee shop than anywhere else. It could be because it has my favorite things, coffee, tea, sweats and seating, or because it has the best people to talk to, I don't know. I just know they hold a place in my heart.
So out of boredom, every time I got a drink at my nearest coffee shop, Common Ground, I'd create the drink I just or currently had on hand. This started out with Hot Cocoa, but it moved on from Lattes to various Teas. It was the Teas that got the illustrations to look like liquid bonques. Teas not only had multiple ingredients but ingredients with difference colors and forms. All natural items along with their names, gave me material to create endlessly. Broadening my taste, consumption and artistic wise, I showed the head buristia my designs.
K, the head buristia, was delighted with the work I did. So much so that she inquired about printing them. I hadn't thought of printing, much less on selling them, but the arrangement sunk into brain. She wanted six of my designs to hang up in the cafe, done originally 5 inches by 7 inches but settled on 8 inches by 11 inches.
Design Orders
Because the original size for these was postcard on Illustrator, hence why they look longer on here, I had to blow them up for the desired size. Which is easy since they're all vector shapes. Out of all of them I suppose the hardest one to size up was the African Sunset, because of all the pieces it has in it. We'd agree on a boarder (1/4") and preceded to go over final drafts. Once the size and designs were to her liking, I sent them off to the printer.
On Delivery Day
Customer Satisfaction at the Cafe
I'm glad I shared my love for Coffee shops this way and am so glad I could have the opportunity to produce my work for them. I am still creating these cups, happily trying new brews. : )
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So flash forward a couple days before new years eve.
I found a printing service that could print 7"x 5" of the designs. I wanted to see if she still wanted the pieces in that size, so on my next visit I asked K. She did desire a couple of the designs in the originally agreed upon size. After talking over a passion tea, four of the six designs were sent over to the printers for downsizing.
The African Sunset
The Hot Coco
The Passion Tea
The Zen Tea
While making adjustments to fit the new size, I noticed part of the design would be cut off if I resize the image to fit the 7"x 5" permamtitures. This prompted another discussion with K about what she wants for these next pieces. She said she would be fine if parts of the original design was cut out. Thus resulted in the following.
Still satisfied with the results (I did offer to redo them), the adjusted prints were sent off.
When redoing these, I found an even better way to print them out. Originally, I thought of sizing them down and just having the trouble of cutting out large borders from the pieces. But I a found a better way, printing them into photographs instead of paper. It allowed the size without result in poor or pixelated results, and it didn't mute the colors in any area of the designs.
After a couple days they were ready. They turned out great.
I found in redoing these prints that I should be prepared to resize the design. The reason these weren't resizable in the first place was because I hadn't planned on printing or selling them in the first place. I believed that the time of making them that they would stay pixels, never to be laid on paper.
