Choice of print design for the store's products

[Barbanio]

Context:

Hello! As you know, we are working on a new store for AsyncAPI. We talked to the Linux Foundation to see if they could guide us in choosing a company to work with. They recommended us to Pinnacle Branding. We met with them to see if they could meet the needs of the project. Everything was fine, so we decided to start the process.

A community survey (Survey results .pdf) was conducted to choose the products and their colors. In the survey, the colors chosen for the products were navy blue and gray. Based on this choice we have proposed the colors for some products according to the availability in the production company as well.

What is the next step?

Now, we need to choose the prints for the store's products. You can check more product information in this document: Uploading AsyncAPI Webstore Ideas. pdf and here the brand guidelines.

This is the list of the products with their color:

• Next Level Apparel T-shirt Unisex (Gray and navy)

• District® Re-Fleece™ Full-Zip Hoodie (Navy)

• Econscious Hemp Baseball Cap (Navy)

• Recycled Cotton Convention Tote (Gray)

• Cotton Athletic Crew Sock (Totally customizable)

• Valhalla Copper Vacuum Insulated Mug 14oz (Navy)

• Copper Vacuum Insulated Bottle 17oz (Color option on the right in the image)

• Bambowie Bamboo Pen (Bamboo)

• 5.5" x 8.5" Washable Kraft Stone Bound JournalBook (Natural)

• 4 X 6 Custom sticker sheet (Totally customizable)

• Laptop swivel phone mount (Silver)

• Crumbee desk vacuum (White)

• Premium Temporary Tattoo 2”x2” (Totally customizable)

• Wheat Straw Keychain Set (Blue, green, pink, or natural)

Some ideas:

We should choose the colors of the bottle and the straws.

I think the most complex thing is the design of the T-shirts and socks.

Regarding the hoodies, we could do something simple, a small logo on one side of the chest, for example.

We could go for a simple logo design for the rest of the products. We have to consider that full-color printing is more expensive than single-color printing.

We need a mascot design. It would be great to put it on the stickers.

What do you think? What would you like the products to look like?

cc: @mcturco

[derberg]

We need a mascot design. It would be great to put it on the stickers.

Yes ❤️

What do you think? What would you like the products to look like?

from colour perspective I guess best is if it is closest to the brand as much as possible

[mcturco]

Hey! I can help ideate on how we could implement AsyncAPI logos onto the various swag items for sure. I don't have much time to spend on this topic, but I am available for feedback 😄

We need a mascot design. It would be great to put it on the stickers.

Unfortunately, I do not have enough time to spend on the mascot design anymore. I think we can consider hiring an agency or artist to work on that freelance if possible, which was something that @fmvilas suggested!

[Barbanio]

Great! Thank you both for your feedback. @mcturco, thanks too for your willingness. Your opinion is important here 💜

I came up with this proposal:

Product	Colour	Design	Design location
T-shirt	navy & gray	primary logo dark or light	on the central part of the chest in large, or small on one side of the chest
	navy & gray	mascot and primary logo dark, primary logo light or outline logo	mascot on center chest and logo on sleeve
Hoodie	navy	outline logo white or primary logo light	on one side of the chest
Cap	navy	primary logo white	in the center or to one side at the bottom
Tote bag	gray	mascot or primary logo dark	center
Socks	full-color	to be defined	to be determined
Mug	navy	primary logo light	center
Bottle	navy	primary logo light	center
Pen	bamboo	outline logo dark	center
Notebook	natural	outline logo dark	front cover top center
Stickers	full-color	mascot and all logos	-
Phone mount	silver	outline logo	center
Desk vacuum	white	mascot	center
Tattoo	full-color	mascot	-
Straw keychain	blue	outline logo dark	center

The socks can be custom-designed. Perhaps the agency or artist who is going to work on the mascot could design them.

What do you think?

[mcturco]

I agree, this is a great list! Thank you for putting this together @Barbanio 😄

[WeeProducciones]

Hello!! we really like the idea, we can participate and if no one is against it, we can do it!!😊

[Barbanio]

@WeeProducciones, It's great to have you on board on this! 🎉

[derberg]

yo, one of the ideas around illustrations with a mascot on clothes and stickers that is constantly in my head is something similar to: this image

in the middle we have AsyncAPI mascot, below we write asyncapi, and the planets from the ☝🏼 picture are replaced with logos of protocols supported by AsyncAPI, the ones most knows, for Kafka, WebSocket, MQTT, AMQP and maybe others

just sharing for inspiration 😄 I hope you know what I mean

---

btw, just want to share with you my experience from last week from Open Source Summit about what are the best and most wanted swaggs:

• stickers with super original and not serious design
• t-shirts with ☝🏼
• colorful socks - similar to https://store.postman.com/products/postman-space-socks?_pos=2&_sid=63f9d4351&_ss=r (but the ones that Postman had for give away were orange, and lovely 😄 )

[Barbanio]

in the middle we have AsyncAPI mascot, below we write asyncapi, and the planets from the ☝🏼 picture are replaced with logos of protocols supported by AsyncAPI, the ones most knows, for Kafka, WebSocket, MQTT, AMQP and maybe others

Sounds good!

btw, just want to share with you my experience from last week from Open Source Summit about what are the best and most wanted swaggs:

Thank you for sharing these impressions, they are very valuable. It would be great to have more testimonials like this, so we could know better what people like.

[WeeProducciones]

well, this is our proposite, we design this mascot because we want to respect the first idea and use an alien. We think that is adorable, funny and very easy for put in all the elements of merchandising, but we want your feedback for continue working on this or think on other idea if you don´t like. :)

[mcturco]

Feel free to also post mascot ideas in this issue as well so we can keep the communication on this topic central!
asyncapi/brand#12

[derberg]

Let's try to move forward here, refresh approach.

• we already have selected products
• we got stuck because of mascot requirement

So let us forget about mascot, and:

• just think of custom designs for swags, with no mascot/brand limit
• we have great designs for ambassador program and conference, let's remove limits

SUGGESTED REQUIREMENT
Let's just make sure we have swags that everyone would like to have, with some fun texts or images.

Thoughts?

[derberg]

My proposal for illustrations/texts for swags:

• A meditating person like in 👇🏼 picture, with AsyncAPI logo on t-shirt. Around this person different logos are floating (surrounding) of protocols like Kafka, MQTT, AMQP, WebSocket and maybe one or two others, open source one
  
• hand, but maybe not holding scull but AsyncAPI logo? and there would be a text, TO SUBSCRIBE OR TO PUBLISH. THAT IS THE QUESTION. Inspiration from Shakespeare 👇🏼
  
• looking on suggestions by ChatGPT 👇🏼 I like reference to multi-armed creature and immediately thought about Inspector Gadget
  
  
• I also asked ChatGPT give me a very funny phrase to describe AsyncAPI the answer was 👇🏼 While I do not think the suggestion is funny 😄 I like reference to EDA as Anarchy API cause you have no clue what happens there 😄 pure anarchy on the broker. I think it would be nice on a t-shirt, without fancy illustrations but as a text Event-Driven Architecture. Taming the Anarchy and just AsyncAPI logo on a sleave.

  One possible very funny phrase to describe AsyncAPI is "asynchronous anarchy with aAPI." This plays on the word "async" in AsyncAPI, which means "not happening at the same time," and uses a pun on the word "aAPI" to make it sound like a silly made-up word. The phrase also suggests that AsyncAPI is a tool for creating chaotic and unpredictable event-driven APIs, which can be a hilarious and entertaining way to explain the concept to a humorous audience.
  

• there could also be a picture of "gordian knot" and phrase like"untangle the chaos".

Ok, enough of brain dropping. I can pick few ideas or all. Some on shirts, some on stickers, and some on other items. So you basically have to buy all we have in shop to get the whole collection. Thought? Ideas?

[Barbanio]

Great proposal to get out of the standby. It's a more creative line, and original things can be done 🎨

You are full of ideas! If I had to choose, my favorites are the first two and the T-shirt with the phrase Event-Driven Architecture. Taming the Anarchy (this is the one I like the most).

Inspired by the previous idea, it occurs to me that perhaps we could use the concept of anarchitecture and use some image of Gordon Matta Clark's work, like this one, through a filter or something like that ⬇️

As you say, we can use different designs for different products. Even several for the same product, maybe we could have two different designs for the t-shirts. It's not too much or too little, considering we have to place a minimum order for each design.

Let's see if I can come up with more ideas 🤔

[Barbanio]

Hello everyone!

After searching designers and budgets, we found illustrator Tiago Galo and thought his style could fit well with the image of the Initiative.

We proposed to him to do the design of the first idea that Lukasz suggested. And this is the wonderful result:

Here are some mockups that Tiago has presented to us:

*The hair color has changed slightly in the final version so that it has more contrast with the dark clothing.

It would be great to know your opinion before the end of the week to close the design so we can take the next steps to develop the online store!

Thank you in advance! 🙂

[Savio629]

This looks great ✨

[derberg]

keep in mind folks this is not an official mascot illustration or anything like that. It is an illustration for swags, nothing more. We will definitely check with Tiago if there is a way to make logo more visible, but just keep in mind that again, it is just an illustration and the swags that will have it will anyway have AsyncAPI logo, like t-shirts on a sleeve.

Regarding different versions of logo, with different gender representations for example. Just please keep in mind we are open source, not VC-backed so we do not have the luxury to have several different illustrations. We get what we can afford. I totally support @Barbanio view on gender representation. If we can have only one, a female is the best option.

Anyway, we will have to remove logos and replace with flow of envelopes, representing messages. Unfortunately, Apache Foundation did not agree to use Kafka and Pulsar logos in the illustration 😞

[smoya]

Unfortunately, Apache Foundation did not agree to use Kafka and Pulsar logos in the illustration 😞

I'm more than sure it will look awesome anyway! Even better, with more generic logos. I think It will make more sense because why Kafka and not Stomp (for example).

[derberg]

Selection of logos was based on popularity and maintainance level of related bindings. Anyway, I do agree that I'm pretty sure "envelope" version will rock.

I'm more disappointed at the state of openess and collaboration between foundations 😔 if some open source project, owned by foundation would like to use AsyncAPI logo for swags to improve their sustainability I would not object.

[Barbanio]

Hello!

After talking to Tiago, the illustrator, and telling him about the problem with the logos, Lukasz sent him a great draft that resulted in this fantastic new version, which would be the final one. What do you think?

[Barbanio]

Hello! Following the TSC's approval to create the new webstore we need to work on the last details. Like the designs of the swag boxes for the mentees and ambassadors and the cards that will contain these boxes. To save costs, there will be only one card design. Regarding the boxes, as they are of two different sizes because they will have different products, we can make two designs.

I have created some examples. These are just ideas. I would like to have your feedback, and if anyone is willing to work on this, go ahead 🙂

• The boxes appear with a watermark from the program with which I made the mockup. This would not appear on the printing.

[Barbanio]

@fmvilas, thank you for your comments 🙂 They look this way with your suggestions:

[quetzalliwrites]

So pretty!!!!! ♥️♥️♥️♥️

[quetzalliwrites]

I really like the community gardener with the carrot ... I'm wondering if we will be following through on that design idea

🥕 🥕🥕🥕🥕👩🏻‍🌾

[Barbanio]

@alequetzalli, yes, I love this design too 🥕🥰 This is the design that we will use in the hoodies and stickers for ambassadors and mentors 🙂

[fmvilas]

Carrot as mascot for the win 😄