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.

We just released a new sleek purple version of our Easier Said Than Done tee. They are now available over in the shop.

When designing, it’s very easy to get stuck on a specific direction or style. I often find myself “working” on a project, but end up just going in circles and not making any real progress. In most cases I find that the more I work on a design, the more I tend to overwork and over think it. It’s easy to get wrapped up the fine details without looking at the design as a whole and considering all of the options.

The best advice I ever heard, though it may seem obvious, is to “sleep on it.” It’s amazing what can happen when you step away from the sketchbook and computer and give it a good night’s rest. Unfortunately it doesn’t magically work itself out while you’re gone, but it does allow you to approach the design with a fresh perspective which often triggers new ideas and concepts. So if you’re ever stuck on a design, illustration, or any type of creative project, drop the pencil and mouse, take a break, and sleep on it.

Finally got the official Ugmonk fan page up and running. You can now become a fan on Facebook. Stay tuned for some upcoming tshirt giveaways. The more fans we get, the more shirts we’ll be giving away!

Just got back from a great week at the beach with my family. While most people prefer to just sit around and soak up the sun, I’m usually busy attempting some type of crazy sand sculpture. I’m certainly no sculpting pro, but I always enjoy the challenge.

Being a typography geek, I thought it only fitting to create an “amper-sand” out of actual sand.

Forget sand castles, we decided to create a gigantic foot that ended up being about 12ft long! We got plenty of laughs and strange looks from the people walking by.

There’s something fascinating about the temporary nature of sand sculptures. Though they do take a lot of time and effort to create, it’s also fun to watch the tide come in and wash them away in only a matter of seconds. It takes the pressure off of getting every little detail perfect since the creations only exist for a brief period of time.

Every week I get a bunch of emails from people that are in the process of starting their own brand wanting to know how to market their company and get the “buzz” that will bring them customers. Traditional marketing people will suggest buying banner ads, implementing SEO, and adding affiliate links. While those methods may work for some companies depending on the industry, my advice for small startup brands is to not worry about any of those tactics.

I don’t currently do any paid advertising for Ugmonk. My main focus has always been creating unique, high-quality products. If people like them they will tell their friends and they will tell theirs and the word will continue to spread. My products are my marketing. If there’s nothing special or different about the products themselves, how can I expect people to want to buy them. Every tshirt design I create I put it through this simple test and ask: “Is this something that I personally would pay for and want to wear?” If not, then it’s back to the drawing board. Clothing brands are a dime a dozen these days, many struggling to survive, so more than ever it’s important to focus on creating products that are remarkable and will stand out from the masses.

For more on this topic, I highly recommend watching this great talk by Seth Godin on “Standing Out.”

The two new colors of Seven Days A Week are finally here! Both the green version and the yellow version are available now in the Ugmonk shop.

Seems just like yesterday we were releasing our 1st Anniversary Shirts, but in just under two months we’ll be celebrating Ugmonk’s 2nd Anniversary. Here’s a little teaser of something that I’m working on for this year. It’s gonna be big!

When I was a kid I was really into juggling. I could juggle pins, balls, rings, and whatever else I could get my hands on. Now I’m learning a whole different type of juggling – juggling the many responsibilities of running a business. I knew launching a brand would require a lot of work, but didn’t realize how much time and effort it actually takes to keep everything running smoothly. Designing some tshirts, getting them printed, and selling them online sounds fairly simple, but there is so much more that goes on behind the scenes. Since there’s only so many hours in a day, deciding how to split up my time each day is key. There are some tasks that need to get done immediately, some that need to get done sometime in the future, and some that I want to eventually do but aren’t urgent. So many different areas are constantly competing for my attention: my email inbox, new design ideas, places to contact, people to meet with, blogs to read, and the list goes on and on. The most important thing is learning to prioritize and not let those “want” tasks distract from the “need” tasks. The more time I spending doing Ugmonk, the more I realize that building a brand and running a business is one giant juggling act.

I’m only one week in to doing Ugmonk full-time, but it’s been a fun ride so far. I’m finally able to start chipping away at my ever-growing to-do list. Feels great to be productive!