It was a Dedicated t-shirt that inspired me to create this product: a black tee with record labels printed all over it, all of which had customised wording on them such as ‘Dedicated brand’, ‘Creative Sustainability’, ‘Clothing Company’, ‘Street Wear’ ‘Since 2000-something’ and so forth.
The whole composition and the colours (bright orangey red, azure blue, charcoal, black, white) had an 80’s vibe to them but the great kind, not the tacky one with the faux leopard fur and the olive green pleather couch.
My first intention was to design vinyl record label wall stickers that one can customise as for wording and colours and then put them on their wall following a certain pattern. Unfortunately a print and cut machine is not something that we can afford as a start-up company so had to find another way to make it happen for the time being.
How about turning this idea into actual personalised vinyl records that come in frames?
I designed 9 different layouts but they all have the same amount of options for customising:
- The name of the person (who will receive the record)
- The title of the person (best son, grown-up woman, puppy whisperer, can be anything, really)
- A date (since 2010, since always, 1989.10.15, of all times, etc.)
- A long message (e.g. Thank you for your hard work, we are very lucky to have you in our team.)
- 6 ‘tracks’ where there can be put things that are typical for the person. A saying that they have, habits, unique abilities, memories, nicknames, funny overstatements and the list goes on. It is really up to the person who places the order what they want to say about the one who receives the present. (e.g. ‘Independence Day was named after her’, ‘Invented meat-free meatballs’, ‘Can survive on coffee and oxygen’, ‘Did you see my keys?’ and so forth.
- The occasion/greeting (Happy 32nd Birthday Josh – Mom and Dad, For our 20th Anniversary, etc.)
I tested this gift idea on my family and friends – they received the prototypes for Christmas. The time that I spent finding the right ‘tracks’ for every person, and then putting the final product together truly made me feel like I’m really giving something from the heart. Their response was incredible and made me believe in this product even more.
art from scratch 