It all starts with a sketch. Doesn’t have to look pretty, but it’s the best ways to get the ideas flowing. The 3rd Anniversary is less than one month away!

As you know, I like to share some of my design process to show you what goes into creating Ugmonk products. Rather than go into a lot of detail about my workflow (read more on that here) I thought I’d post a bunch of my original sketches for the new Do What You Love shirt.

This design was an interesting process. I actually did more sketches for this one that any other shirt so far, but ended up coming back to one of the simplest layouts. Funny how that works. The many hours that I spent sketching were definitely not a waste as it allowed me to explore lots of different styles until I found a solution that I was happy with. Some of the elements from these sketches may even show up in future designs.

For the final version I chose to keep it simple and echo the style of old letterpress wood type, tying it back to the origins of the craft. I spent some time researching old type and incorporated some of the characteristics and imperfections into the letter forms that I used. To add to the vintage feel, I added a subtle texture to the artwork and chose a heather shirt fabric to tie the whole vibe together. Click here to see the finished shirt.

Do what you love. Love what you do. This little proverb is both an inspiring instruction and a simple statement of fact. Seek to do what you love, because when you’re doing that, life is exciting and you’ll enjoy every day. It was just about one year ago that I decided to take Ugmonk full-time so that I could do what I love. The fact that I enjoy developing the Ugmonk brand explains the passion with which I approach everything I do at Ugmonk, even the mundane tasks.

The message of the design originated in a blog post that I wrote a while back, (read the full post) and I hope it inspires many of you to follow your passions.

The style was inspired by old letterpress wood type, referencing back to the craft of the manual printing press. The subtle textured print sits beautifully on the super soft poly-cotton blend tee. Grab yours in the shop.

Our second new shirt is Crazy Eights. The design is printed with a halftone technique (similar to the It’s About Time tee) to create the subtle depth and shading. These eights are crazy about each other!

We’re releasing two new shirts in a couple days. These are some my new personal favorites. Here’s a couple teasers to whet your appetite.

As you know, we released the Premium Leather Journals back in April and they’ve been a big hit. I wanted to elaborate a little more the aging process of the natural raw leather, and show you an actual example of what it looks like.

The vegetable tanned leather has been treated with natural tannins and starts out as a light creme color as seen in the product shots. The more the leather is exposed to direct sunlight the darker it gets, similar to human skin. It will also absorb the oils from your hands and slowly darken with use. So essentially the more journal is used and handled, the better it will look. This relationship between the materials and the owner is what makes the aging process of the raw leather so unique. It’s neat to see how the journal evolves and conforms to the user.

Additionally, the leather can be treated with other natural oils like mink oil, which will soften it and speed up the darkening process.

The photos below show a comparison of a new unused journal and the journal I’ve been using for the past couple months which has been set out in the sun for a while. You can see how the leather on my journal has already evolved to a rich honey brown color and will continue to darken the more I use it. If you already have an Ugmonk journal, feel free to send us photos of how your journal is aging and how you’re using it.

My journal after months of use and sunlight (left) / New unused journal (right)

Today we are introducing the new Minimal Series: 3 designs focused on shape, form and simplicity. We’ll keep the words to a minimum and let the designs do all the talking.

Mountains

Cubed

Percent

Spring Sale

Spring has finally arrived here in PA. The sun is shining, the grass is growing, and it’s perfect tshirt weather. We thought we’d make it a little easier to get enjoy the warmer weather in style.

Now’s the time to grab those items you’ve been holding out on. Everything in the shop is 20% off. Enter code SPRING20 at checkout to apply the discount. Act quick, the Spring Sale ends on Sunday, May 15th.

I always enjoy seeing how things are crafted and manufactured. I could watch shows like How It’s Made for hours on end. There’s just something so interesting about see the process of the raw materials being transformed into finished products. It allows us as consumers to better connect with the items we buy and use, and also appreciate the labor that goes into making something.

As you know, I like to show you how Ugmonk products and designs are made and give you a look at what happens behind the scenes. Below are a few photos of the premium leather journals at different stages of production. (sidenote: I’m not making these myself, I leave that up to the pros)

When designing the new Premium Line, I wanted to create a symbol that could be used throughout the line on the various items and materials. While there are tons of beautiful ampersands from existing typefaces, I wanted to design a character that would be unique to Ugmonk so I broke out my pencil and sketchbook and came up with several original concepts. I thought it would be neat to give you guys a small peek into my process and show a timelapse of the ampersand from sketch to finished leather journal.

Here is my general workflow:

1. Sketch ideas
2. Scan sketch and open in Illustrator
3. Draw paths in Illustrator with pen tool
4. Refine overall shape and smooth out curves
5. More fine tweaking and adjustments
6. Offset path to create stroked shape 
7. Send to manufacturer to create leather stamp

(Having trouble viewing the animation? Click here)

We’re very excited to announce the new Ugmonk Premium Line. The Premium Line applies the Ugmonk mindset to some new products that celebrate quality craftsmanship and materials. Today we are releasing the first two items of the Premium Line: two styles of handmade leather journals – natural veg tan leather and green antique finish.

Each journal is handcrafted in the USA from premium raw vegetable-tanned leather cut directly from the hide. The more you use your journal, the better it looks and the more unique it becomes. The buttery-soft leather softens even more and darkens in tone as it is exposed to the oils from your skin and the rays of the sun. The 192 blank white pages afford a canvas to capture your sketches, thoughts, ideas, and dreams. While it’s great to have sketchbooks and notebooks that are replaceable, these journals are the type of item you’ll want to hold onto and keep in your archives.

To complete the package, each journal comes in a handy muslin pouch. I designed the custom ampersand symbol which is featured on the bag and journal. As we expand the Premium Line, you’ll see this symbol carried throughout. I’ll be posting more on my process of how I created this ampersand as well as the actual making of the journals themselves soon.

In the meantime take a closer look below and grab your own in the shop.

One last teaser before the new products drop tomorrow. Can’t wait to reveal them!