1. Name, background info and what we sell:
My name is Garrick Bernstein. I live on the outskirts of the Big Apple (New York, USA for those not familiar). I am a self-proclaimed mad designtist with a background in finance and a penchant for anything fun. Likes include sports, food, cars, and time with the family. Dislikes include bratwurst. I am a co-founder of www.senioritis.net and the main designer of our work. In our shop you will find colorful inspiration as we remember Famous Seniors of all ages.
I started senioritis with my two sisters, Beth and Jillian, in 2006. We couldn’t really find what we were looking for in vintage stores and felt that our pain was being shared by others so we put our heads together and came up with senioritis. Initially our apparel targeted high school and college seniors, with designs based on a graduating class. We eventually moved on to our own designs including apparel with our company mascot Jack and our green with lazy design. Most recently, we expanded our senioritisness (yes I made that word up) to really include seniors of all ages. We have momentarily stepped away from apparel to focus on prints but plan to have some Famous Seniors inspired apparel in 2010.
Our creative process starts with research. Research, research, research; the most time consuming part of our Famous Seniors series designs is doing research (my sisters help a lot with this part). I guess we design somewhat backwards. Typically a design will begin with “Oh, that person was really cool/inspirational/motivational/famous; let’s make a design of him/her.” After that the search begins for a quality quote as well as a meaningful contribution that the person made to society. I think the quotes are what make our designs unique. Without a good quote the nicest design still seems to lack something. After finding a quote to our liking I usually block out a design to get a general layout. After that it just seems to flow. Since the majority of our work process is done on the computer with programs like Photoshop and Illustrator we just concentrate on keeping our work well layered so it is easy to edit and make changes (which is inevitable). We prefer to print on a non-glossy cardstock as we feel this weight of paper has some substance and we don’t really like a shiny finish.
We just openend our Etsy shop this past November so we are definitely new to the Etsy community. We have been selling our designs through our website,www.senioritis.net, since 2006.
If there was only one shop design we could call our favorite it would have to be our Aristotle design. In fact, this design is the basis for our new business cards. The design features a nice shade of yellow and the concrete background gives a rough feel. Aristotle's words are a constant reminder that genius and a touch of madness often travel together.
Our biggest goal with Etsy is to gain increased exposure of our work while also showing others that you can always put a unique spin on a common idea. The idea of famous quotes is nothing new but we feel that we bring a unique approach to this concept; as Rodin said, "I invent nothing, I rediscover." We would also like to give back to the Etsy community by helping others when we can.
7: Where else can we be found:
www.senioritis.net
twitter: http://twitter.com/itmakesyoulazy
facebook: www.bit.ly/senioritis
