*Ad Paid. All opinions are my own.
I am not saying I am a big enough blogger to have my own merchandise but it never stops you looking does it?! Of course, I have my own business cards and someone even sent me a stack of Mummy in a Tutu stickers which was pretty awesome. However, if you are a business be it blogger or otherwise that would benefit from having your own merchandise, then you definitely want it all to look professional. One of the go to items to personalise and make your own would definitely have to be mugs. The number of options and design possibilities are endless but as I said, if you want your mug collection to look professional when designing them, there are certain steps you can take to ensure they’ll be a best seller.
When designing anything you want to make a plan or for want of a better word, mock-ups and that is no different when designing something like a mug. So a mock-up is a digital preview of what an idea looks like – it is a way to test out a design idea you have before committing to printing or making 500 of something THEN realising it simply doesn’t work or won’t appeal to a large audience.
You can of course create mock-ups for everything from t-shirts to mugs to bumper stickers. What is even better, is that if you are not creatively minded, you can get templates that have already been designed to use for your mock-ups and then simply personalise with your changes e.g. personalised text or changing of colours or feature images.
For me, if I were going to do a mug mockups , I’d try out my logo with different backgrounds other than just white and I’d like the idea of getting a silhouette or other “dancing” image or something on there. With the use of mock-ups and design templates it doesn’t matter how many ideas you have because you can try them all before committing.
Mock ups have long been seen as the domain of graphic designers. But with software and tools becoming much more accessible and user friendly, anyone who has learnt the basics on Photoshop or played around with the different design tools online, could and should be making use of mock-ups.
To get the best outcome, ensure you buy a high quality template to start with. You also don’t have to buy just one template as if you have lots of different ideas, it can be really beneficial to buy a design bundle so that you can try out lots of different ideas and keep costs to a minimum.
You should take your time in finding the right image to suit your product and branding needs as much as possible. Don’t just plump for the cheapest or the first one you find once you’ve clicked search. Once you have purchased your template or bundle, you can download them and use them in Photoshop and play around. There are free trials of Photoshop available to see if you can get to grips but there are also a lot of online websites you can use to practice your mock-ups as well.
If you want to showcase your ideas and avoid the expense of developing a new product only for customers not to purchase it. Using mock ups is a great way to get potential sales. Offer the mock-ups you like as a pre-order system. Get your orders in and then only manufacture the number you need, with maybe a couple of extras in case of damages etc.
Don’t forget, these ideas aren’t just limited to mugs, you can use mock-ups to design all sorts. So get out there, get creative and get making!