Zazzle Blog

Allie, from the hilarious Zazzle Store ickybana5, answered some questions about her humor and her time at Zazzle. Check out the interview below and don’t forget to check out her store ickybana5!

Zazzle: Tell us a little bit about yourself.

Allie: My name is Allie and I’m a professional draw-writer.  I have a website called Hyperbole and a Half where I publish stories and comics that I illustrate with the Paint program on my computer.  My favorite animal is the wolf and I’m morbidly terrified of bees.

Zazzle: What’s your inspiration for your designs?

Allie: Almost all of my designs are panels from the comic I make.

Zazzle: A lot of your work seems to be illustrations, when did you start drawing?

Allie: I started drawing very early in my life. I was an incorrigible child and one of the only ways my mom could get me to behave was to give me paper and crayons to play around with.

Zazzle: How would you describe your style?

Allie: I would describe my illustration style as “purposefully crude and misshapen.”  At first glance, my pictures look like they may have been drawn by an epileptic 4-year-old, but I make them like that on purpose.  I think simple, misshapen drawings are funnier.  But the simpleness of my work is deceptive – I sometimes revise a facial expression or gesture ten times before it looks “right” to me.

Zazzle: What’s been your favorite design you’ve created?

Allie: I recently made a series of products featuring a series of drawings from a comic about my dog.  In the drawings, my dog is slowly cocking her head in confusion, and in each panel, her head goes a little more sideways until it’s almost upside-down.  That one is my favorite.

Zazzle: What’s your favorite product to create?

Allie: I haven’t made very many of them, but I actually really like making greeting cards.

Zazzle: What got you interested in selling your art on Zazzle?

Allie: I started getting a lot of emails requesting that I make t-shirts featuring my drawings, so I googled around a little bit and found Zazzle. I’m not the kind of person who could reasonably expect to be successful at the complex organizational process of running my own t-shirt business, so Zazzle works out nicely for me.

Zazzle: What tips can you give someone who is just starting out on Zazzle?

Allie: Find a way to let your customers know about the “customize” button.  It sounds simple, but if people don’t know they can customize your products, they probably won’t look for the customize button.  It just helps give people more options without having to create, say, a shirt, in every conceivable color

Thanks Allie!

This entry was posted on December 2, 2010 at 3:07 pm and is filed under General News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.