Sketchbook Saturday: Hmmm… How do Stamp Sets get designed?

So… I’ve been illustrating images for stamps (rubber stamps and clear photopolymer) since 2008. It’s been a wild ride and I’ve learned so much about product development, preparation and manufacturing processes along the way.

But, before a stamp set can come to life and get manufactured…

There are ideas… LOTS. LOAD. LOTS of ideas… some fantastically brilliant. Some… turn out to be not so brilliant! Some… I scratch my head and go WHA?

Each final 4×6 stamp set may range from 9-14 stamps including sentiments. For each set, I may draw 18-20 themed images and noodle them around a bit to see which illustrations might work best together. For Avocado Arts stamps, I work VERY closely with company owner Michelle Ogdahl to develop themes months in advance. It’s amazingsauce to be able to collaborate on product development. The added big belly laughs during the design process make it fun too! She’s a blast to work with. As the sole artist for Avocado Arts, I am responsible for creating images that work well with each other, month over month.  So, something that was released in May can work with a stamp set in October and so on. Big bang for stamp crafting dollar.

I thought it would be fun to share what my sketchbooks look like. Click on the pics for a slideshow and description.

After I thumbnail enough to feel comfortable. I take my ideas to the computer. Using a Wacom tablet, I draw directly into Illustrator and begin to negotiate each line. In Illustrator, I open a big page and I draw all of my similarly themed images in proportion to each other, so I can see the theme come alive. So, for every 20 images/sentiments I may draw in there, only 9-12 get used.

Some thumbnails ideas work right out the gate. Some… just become epic fails. HA!

I take each Illustrator image and proportion them into a 4×6 format in Photoshop, once approved, the stamp set gets prepared for manufacturing… which is a whole other process. Each stamp set can take anywhere from 6-12 hours to create. Some faster than others.

It’s rare that an artist hascontrol over the end result of a product they illustrate.

So, for me… because I create it from beginning to end… it’s a pretty stinkin’ cool gig. Thanks Michelle 🙂 She is the bomb to work with.

The absolute best part of the whole process… seeing what you all create with the stamps I illustrate. It’s humbling and so stinkin’ exciting to see crafters CREATE with the images I draw.

Can’t wait to see what you create! If you haven’t checked out the Avocado Arts line. Go HERE. Yep, that’s my work 🙂

Happy Saturday!