These last few weeks have been filled with craziness. As you know we celebrated the Ugmonk’s 2nd Anniversary just a couple weeks ago and we’ve received so much positive feedback as well as a record number of orders. Huge thanks to everyone who helped make this a successful year for Ugmonk.

In addition to the anniversary release, my wife and I just moved back to Pennsylvania from Burlington, VT this past week and have been busy getting settled in to our new place. We spent two great years up in Vermont but decided to move back to PA where we’re both originally from. If you ever have the chance to visit Burlington, I definitely recommend it. Though it’s quite a hike from most other major cities, it’s a cool little town to visit or vacation to and not far from the best snowboarding on the east coast. For us, though, the move back to PA made sense. It put us closer to family and will hopefully give me more opportunities to connect with some of you in person. If you’re ever in the Philadelphia area and want to meetup just shoot me an email.

Now back to unpacking…

This is the custom metal die that was used to brand the wooden boxes for the 2nd Anniversary Collector’s Set. I posted a teaser photo a while back, but I wanted to show a few other shots of the whole thing since it’s just too cool to pass up.

Today marks the 2nd Anniversary of Ugmonk. I can’t believe how quickly these past two years have passed and how much Ugmonk has grown in this short time. I said the same thing last year, but even then, I never expected to have been able to make Ugmonk my full time job. It’s been an amazing ride so far and I’m loving every minute of it.

To celebrate this 2-year mark, I designed a special Limited Edition Collector’s Set which is now available in the Ugmonk Shop. Last year we did a limited run of 100 shirts, so for year two we decided to do 200. Yep, only 200 of these sets have been made, so once they’re sold out, they’re gone for good.

While the shirt could easily stand on it’s own, I wanted to add some premium packaging that was not only special, but could also be reused and repurposed. The result was a wooden box (made of solid pine and birch ply) with a wood-burned anniversary logo on the lid. I hope to see people using these boxes in creative ways (art supplies, photo collections, etc.)

Each set also comes with an Ugmonk laser-engraved wooden coin, each individually numbered. I love the tactile nature of engraved wood and thought is would be a cool way to number each set. Each token is has a slightly different wood grain making them each one of a kind.

Finally, each set includes a signed Ugmonk collector’s card with the 2nd Anniversary design on one side and the 2nd anniversary logo on the other. I’ve personally signed each card as a thank you.

If you haven’t noticed yet, everything about this anniversary release is about the number TWO.  We have a couple more exciting things to further this theme:

1) A 2-day 20% off sale – the biggest discount we’ve ever offered (August 26 and 27) – Use code TWOYEARS at checkout
2) A special bonus “2 are Better than One” shirt will be included in the Anniversary Sets numbered 2, 22, 122, and 200

It’s been awesome to see the last few month’s worth of work all come together. I hope you guys enjoy the result as much as I have!

Go grab your own at the shop while supplies last!

Another little teaser for you. The 2nd Anniversary is less than 4 days away! August 26th 8:00AM EST

Just a little peek at part of the upcoming 2nd Anniversary release…

I’m still working on getting the full Ugmonk lookbook up on the site, but I thought I’d show you a few selects from the photoshoot. I’ve been working with Collin Hughes for all of the lifestyle photography and he’s done an amazing job capturing my vision for the shoot. More photos to come…

I posted these photos a while back but thought I’d repost them for a little inspiration. I had bought this set of old metal type just to experiment with and had some fun photographing different arrangements. There’s something really cool about handling the solid pieces of metal type and looking at the unique wear on each letter from when they were used for printing. I don’t currently have a letterpress machine or any type of printing setup, but who knows maybe they will show up in a new design someday.

…the Ugmonk 2nd Anniversary!

I spent this past weekend in Boston and anytime I’m in a city I’m always fascinated by the variety of typography and signage. Urban areas are a visual overload with every street corner overflowing with advertising, signage, architecture, textures and colors. It’s easy to tune out this visual noise and not think twice about the typeface used on a sign or the positioning of a logo on a storefront. Maybe I’m just a typography geek, but I like to try to absorb these details and pickup on the subtle nuances of how the letters are treated for each application. Looking at a font on-screen is much different than viewing a three-dimensional sign constructed out of physical materials. Next time you’re walking through a city take a minute to stop and look at the typography, it’s amazing how much detail you’ll start to notice.

Believe it or not, I’ve been running Ugmonk from the small loft in my apartment for these past two years. As Ugmonk continues to grow and I add more products to the line, things were getting pretty tight in my space and I had completely maxed out the room to store inventory. While I thought about outsourcing the whole fulfillment process to another company, a better option came up — turn my parents house into the Ugmonk fulfillment center. Since my siblings and I are all out of the house, my parents volunteered the extra space to store all of the inventory and I’m hiring my mom to take care of all of the fulfillment and shipping. This allows us to continue to provide the personal customer service and hands-on quality control of the whole operation and keep Ugmonk a family business.

This past weekend we packed a couple thousand tshirts into our car, drove down to PA, and setup the new shipping center. It was a a busy weekend and shirts were flying everywhere, but everything is now neatly setup and ready to go. I want to especially thank my wife for lending her awesome organizational skills and assisting with all of the setup. Also a big thanks to my parents for allowing the ever-growing Ugmonk inventory to take over their house and keep things running smoothly. Below are a few pics from the new setup.