odd guy’s index

As our one year anniversary approaches, let’s take a look at what we’ve accomplished, shall we?
 • Hours spent defining and researching our target audience: 84
• Number of logo fonts considered before deciding on “Hasty Pudding:” 23
• Number of hours logged on Skype: 328
• Miles from Lake Michigan our OGA studio is located: .2
• Hours spent hand-drawing much of website: 42

• T-shirt designs created: 16
• Miles walked/ran for mobile business meetings: 124
• Ranking of “raspberry” among best-selling OGA cap colors: 1
• Hours spent ironing tote bags: 35
• Number of T-shirt-shaped OGA brochure designs created: 2
• OGA YouTube videos launched: 6
• Number of foreign cameo appearances in videos: 1
• Number of cameo appearances by Walmart employees: 1
• Number of small fires accidentally set during filming: 2
• Penalty points assigned for finger quotes during filming: 10
• Hours spent editing footage: 853
• Size of OGA festival canopy: 10′ X 10′
• Ratio of Diet Cokes consumed to ounces of water: 245 to 1
• Miles biked round-trip to printer, per trip: 26
• Ranking of EnMart among most-active OGA Facebook friends: 1
• Number of celebrities named Yoko Ono who follow OGA on Twitter: 1
• Number of national magazines that featured OGA on the cover: 3
• Number of stores in which OGA shirts are currently sold: 3

Thank you for joining us in this, our first year of business. If you have any questions, or if we can help you in any way, just let us know!

Marie and Graham

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middle-age moments

We’re six months into existence and it only now occurred to us to showcase our products on the “odd guy art” Facebook page. D-uh.

What other blatantly obvious opportunities might we have forgotten? Which glaring epiphanies will strike next? We shudder to think…

• Review “supply and demand” model, consider implementing
• Check on that guy who took some of our shirts into the dressing room to try on last week
• Pay government its share of sales tax (minus our share for not utilizing curbside garbage pick-up)
• Replenish XXXL merchandise prior to Mississippi trade show
• Promote holiday sales before the holiday
• Sell merchandise

Who knows what else will occur to us in the coming days? (“Practice fire escape route plan?” “Unplug the iron?” “Back up computer?” [D-oh!]).

As our brains continue to calcify, we look forward to serving you.

Marie

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odd guy art: sexiest man alive

Break out the cheap champagne; odd guy art was just named PEEPLE magazine’s 2010 “Sexiest Man Alive.”

Art, though not technically a “man” (though a sexy abstract representation of one), joined Hollywood’s elite club of irresistible iconoclasts, beating out former winners George Clooney and Hugh Jackman, and trouncing newbie runner-up Justin Bieber.

The following interview appears in the October issue of PEEPLE magazine, available on newsstands now.

Peeple: Typically, you are shown only from the neck up. Why?
Art: For the same reason that Elvis Presley was filmed only from the waist up. Most people cannot survive that level of sexiness. They implode.
Peeple: Has a corporate logo ever reached this echelon of honor?
Art: The Lucky Charms® leprechaun was nominated back in ’87, but was quarantined with a suspicious case of marshmallow rash. Harry Hamlin won that year.
Peeple: The company you represent, “odd guy art:” Do you deem it worthy to use your image?
Art: Absolutely. “Odd guy art” is one of the funkiest and artiest new businesses on the planet. It offers quirky T-shirts, bags, caps, and cards – all featuring the designs of two artists trained in the realm of wit. And the best part? My mug appears on everything (*grin*).
Peeple: Are the endorsement offers pouring in?
Art: I am nothing if not loyal to “odd guy art.” Even though the two-figure annual salary is meager and the “gourmet” meals are pathetically pedestrian (if not inedible), it’s hard to resist being a part of something so cutting edge. So, no, I’ve had no offers.
Peeple: I’m sure the women out there are wondering: Boxers or briefs?
Art: I find that question sexist and demeaning (*wink*).
Peeple: What’s next for the Sexiest Man Alive?
Art: I’d like to advocate for other computer-generated 2-dimensional images. Even though I’m a jaundice-skinned, flounder-eyed cephalic icon stuck on a virtual canvas, I’m as much a man as a Pitt or a Depp. Right, ladies?

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pimp our canopy

Now that we’ve had a couple of great experiences selling our shirts face-to-face, we are excited about this weekend’s double-header: Our local farmer’s market on Saturday and our downtown art center’s “NOMO Expo” on Sunday (“NOMO” stands for “Non-Motorized,” as in walking and biking promotion). When we get to meet you guys in person, we are satisfied right down to our toes.

So in an attempt to catch your eye, we’re pimping our canopy.

We’ve applied some vinyl lettering to the overhang, spelling out our wares. We thought this might help you recognize us from a distance.

Graham burnishes our vinyl lettering onto our canopy. Will it stay on?

And as I write, Graham is building a frame out of PVC pipe so that I can sew an “odd guy art” banner this evening (featuring our logo) and mount it on the frame. We purchased some yellow canvas yesterday, which I already know takes opaque iron-on transfers very well, so after the sewing part is done, I’ll print out our logo and iron that baby on.

After that, I’ll try to show some restraint and let our products speak for themselves (“Less is more” and all that). We have a hanging rack to display some of our shirts; the rest we lay on tables, folded and packaged. Our bags are hung around the canopy, while caps and cards are displayed on tables.

The only thing left is YOU:). Hope to see you this weekend!

Marie

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our first gig

It’s Thursday and we’re busy preparing for our first local show: a display table at a local coffee shop.

Marie at work. Groovy shirt!

This particular coffee shop is rather cutting-edge for our little town. They hire some great independent musicians as they travel between bigger gigs in Milwaukee and Madison, so we get to hear some wonderful talent without having to travel. (Not that we don’t like to travel. “Road trip” is our middle name).

Anyway, tomorrow this coffee shop is hosting a “Bike-In Movie,” with food, live music, and… “odd guy art!” We’re excited.

Since we’ll be indoors, we won’t need to purchase a canopy, but we did buy a display rack for our T-shirts. We’ve got a nicely-covered table for our cards and a cool stone pedestal for our hats. We’re working on signs today. Since our business focus is “art,” we’ve continued the theme with a price list that reads like an art gallery price sheet. The magic is in the details.

Our goals are these: To make some connections and to sell some merchandise. We’ve only been in business five weeks, but we’re eager to make this happen and frankly it can’t happen soon enough. It’s exciting to finally get out there and introduce the masses to our designs. Fingers crossed.

That’s it for now. Back to the drawing board.

-Marie

shirt designs

Good morning:)

For starters, we’ve developed six T-shirt designs for you. Those six designs are divided into two categories: “Simply Art,” which is based on our fine art drawings and paintings, and “Unlikely Events,” which includes our line of mock historical events.

“SIMPLY ART:”

         Bird Mechanics                       Last Supper                           Latte Art

“UNLIKELY EVENTS:”

            Bi-Cycle Ride                  Run For Rickets            London Triumvirate
             For Cholera

Our shirts also include a cool little “odd guy art” logo just below the back collar. And incidentally, the face on our logo changes color with each shirt, because the shirt color shows through, like this:

Our six designs also appear on our recycled canvas bags and our packs of over-sized postcards. You can, of course, see more views of our products on our website.

Join us next time for some insight into how we develop our designs – from conceptual hand drawings to computerized images.

Cheers!

Marie

All content and images;
Copyright © 2010 by Hetzel and McAllister. All rights reserved.

caps…!

Sneak peek time. Today we picked up the first of our “odd guy art” caps from the embroiderers. I could not wait to get one on my head! As mentioned last time, Marie laid claim to the raspberry cap, but I am very happy to try out this khaki version. Initially we will have the caps available in khaki, denim, and raspberry. All three have the “odd guy art” logo embroidered in yellow, black, and white, with “oddguyart.com” in black on the side.

All content and images;
Copyright © 2010 by Hetzel and McAllister. All rights reserved.

moving forward

Woot!

As I write, Graham is placing our first odd guy art merchandise order: ball caps. After deciding to go with “Anvil” pigment-dyed caps, we chose three colors on which to have our logo embroidered. We’ve spent a lot of time researching blank hats and shirts and decided that the pigment-dyed garments are best suited for our demographic. They look slightly faded and worn, but are of excellent quality and softness (just like us!).

We’re trying to do this in a a sensible order. We can’t, for instance, design the website without first photographing the merchandise, but we can’t photograph the merchandise without first having it printed. And of course we can’t print the merchandise until it’s designed, but we can’t design the merchandise without first understanding our demographic. (And we can’t understand our demographic without first drinking a lot of coffee).

So we’ve spent the past several months doing research. Some of this simply included observing people while they hung out in coffee shops or wandered through art exhibits. But we’ve also been pouring through current marketing books and online forums and garment catalogs. We’ve surveyed our friends and harassed our families. And now, today, all of those months of pondering and studying have evolved into something tangible – and hopefully into something that YOU will find fun to wear!

Excitedly,

Marie