My Face-off submission!

I've finished my submission for Etsy's design face-off! Whew! I am so relieved to have it done. It was an exciting and fun challenge but a challenge indeed. I had to make multiple drafts and redos until I was satisfied.

In my first attempt at the design (see here), I was trying to strategize too much about what the Etsy community would want and I tried to please everyone. I wanted items from all categories and I tried to make my design friendly and something that would appeal to Etsians of all ages. Etsy is often accused of being too hipster-oriented and ignoring other aesthetics so I tried hard to avoid that criticism. All this concern over what I expected everyone else would want led me to a rather safe and pretty boring design that barely showed an inkling of my personality.

My second attempt used many of the ideas from the first but this time I decided that I was going to make my submission a design I could be proud of that showcases my style and not worry so much about being somehow universally appealing. I packed it with bunnies, hearts and a volcanic eruption and felt like myself again.

I'm not sure when voting will commence in the competition but I'll be on the edge of my seat until then.

Thanks to these designers who allowed me to draw their items:

loopy mittens by Seealso
diamond earrings by Sprout
little creature by Fern
Sherlock Holmes teapot by Dragon Cat
apple sweater by Jacqueline Knits
feltidermy by Girl Savage
squid necktie by Aorta

..Just in case anyone was wondering why the design is black and white instead of my usual color-laden stuff; black and white was part of the requirements. I hope that if I win, they will print it in dark brown ink on an antique pink colored tee. Violet ink on a butter yellow shirt would be nice too.