Thursday, November 29, 2007

Bountee Site Improvements: The Lull before the Storm!

Today we are proud to unveil the latest version of Bountee. And when we say proud we mind-beamingly, toothy-grinningly proud!

We've been beavering away like... Well, like a beaver... And sincerely hope that you'll be happy with the improvements that we've made.




So what's new then?


Well let's take a bit of time with each new feature:

1) One design in many colours. AND many styles (finally).
This is the change that we're most proud of - now you can upload one shirt
design and make it available in any or all of the colours or styles that you would like!

I know it sounds like a no-brainer but we've wrestled with this conceptually for a while now. When we started this we genuinely believed that a t-shirt design should take into account the blank colour onto which it is printed - and that the context of that colour was very important. Maybe we were too snooty? :)

Because looking at some of the great designs you lot have out on the site, and seeing just how many versions in colour and style you've created we are happy to admit that we were dead wrong. And so today we rectify it...

Just go to your CREATE page and try uploading a new design.

A couple of hints:

- The first colour and style you choose to add to your right-hand bar will be your MAIN shirt. This is the one that people see first; and the one displayed in the search/listing results.

- Choose as many - or as few - style/colour combinations as you like, but remember the context of your design - and it's contents (there's no point doing a black cat design on a black shirt - unless you just want us to get a bunch of returns from angry people asking why the design didn't show up!)

2) Better search options
Our search has - admittedly - been pretty lousy for a while. Now it's better. You can search for a particular tag/keyword/phrase etc amongst the Most Wanted shirts if you like. Or if you prefer you can check out your latest whimsical desire in every design, ever created by the Bountee community. Simple, but pretty cool I think you'd agree.


3) Better basket functionality - now you can add more than one of the same shirt!
Exactly what it says on the tin! You wanted to be able to buy the same shirt in 3 different sizes, so now you can! And you can even have the same design in different colours and styles too.


4) We've tidied up stuff
Just general improvements really - but some are pretty useful. Check out your sales and purchases pages. If you click on the thumbnail on there you'll be taken straight to the page with your shirt on it.

So now there's no excuse not to claim your 10% right? :)

And there's even more to come over the coming weeks and months.


Serious bit ahead:
We at Bountee are completely overwhelmed by the reception we've got from you guys, and I personally cannot speak loudly and highly enough about how blimmin' great you all are. To think that we have over 3000 designs on our site in such a small time since launch is incredible. You can rest assured that we'll do the best for you (and this little home of ours) that we can.


Happy designing,

Bountee crew

p.s. Don't forget our new competition to win $500 and some kick-ass software!

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Leopard - whimper...

Evening All,

Are people having issues uploading files at the moment? If so, and you're on the wonderfully snazzy, new OS from Apple it turns out that there is a little bug with the Adobe Flash uploader.

So in order to get it to work:

1 - Uninstall your Flash using Adobe's official uninstaller

2 - Install their new update :)

3 - Make wonderful shirts!

Hope this helps. Anyone else having problems?

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Cool News

Just a couple of things really for today.

1) For those who didn't see it Bountee got a nice little write-up over at Cool Hunting the other week (we were lazy and forgot to post about it). Thanks guys!

With less than a year's uptime, the company's fast becoming a top contender in the online t-shirt industry. Offering pre-designed prints in their gallery which are uploaded and voted on by the online community, as well as the option to create and sell your own designs, this two pronged approach seems to solve all the traditional problems associated with silkscreen methods.

With no set up charges, a user-friendly interface and the option for single units and short-runs it seems they've mastered the art of on-demand printing.

Bountee: Direct to Garment Printing for the People

2) Ssshh! Don't tell anyone - it's a secret :)

Thursday, November 8, 2007

Easy Vectors Anyone?

Squirrellypoo has just sent us a link to this wonderful site over at Stanford University. I have to confess that we haven't played with it here at Bountee HQ yet - but this is what she has to say about it...

I just stumbled across this Stanford site that turns regular old images into vectors (including SVG) and holy god, it does it SO well. Much better than even Adobe's stuff, and I thought you might want to have a look and list it as another alternative in your FAQ since I think going to a site is a bit easier than installing new software for a lot of people.

http://vectormagic.stanford.edu/

Is she right? Post your sample shirts in the comments if you fancy sharing...

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Bountee + Drawn + BlueflipArt: WINNERS!

Wow! And indeed wow!
What an awesome response to such a quickly thought-out competition :)

I think it is fair to say that all of us here at Bountee; and our friends at BlueFlip and Drawn are completely blown away by the number - and shear quality - of the entries that we received.

So thank you to everyone who took part by entering a design or by simply voting for your favourite.

But with that said - let's get on to the winners!

The GRAND PRIZE WINNER - the person with the most votes, and highest rated design by the Bountee community is: Can't you see I'm busy? Creating by marsdencartoons.

Congratulations - you've won yourself 31 Bountee shirts and $75 worth of vouchers to spend at BlueFlip!








IN RUNNER-UP: And winning themselves 5 shirts and $25 worth of BlueFlip art is Robo Moby Dick by steamcrow.

Another great design and worthy winner.

BUT that's not all...

Because we felt that such an awesome response deserved something a little more, so the three of us have decided to go ahead and choose our 'personal favourites' from the competition and reward each of these with THREE shirts each.

It's our little way of saying cheers! to everyone for taking part.









SO... THE BOUNTEE AWARD GOES TO...

Face Off - by Puzon.

A stunning piece of work using faces and people as his spark of inspiration. And a great advert for the fact that Bountee isn't limited by number of colours or process.




THE DRAWN! SPECIAL MENTION IS FOR...
Monkey is So Sophomoric - by Atomica.

It was a tough bag to choose from, but John Martz finally pulled this out as his 'best of the rest'.


And finally...




THE BLUE FLIP ART HONOURS ARE AWARDED TO...
Scary Bear - by JadaFitch.

A just reward for one of our most prolific and earliest supporters I think you'll agree.






So thankyou again everyone. And a special congratulations to all of our winners. We'll be in touch very soon with details of how to claim your prize(s) :)

And before I go, just a quick note asking you to keep your eyes peeled for the latest Bountee Newsletter. We have some great news and a great competition coming your way!

Previously on the Bountee Blog...

November 2007  |   December 2007  |   January 2008  |   February 2008  |   March 2008  |  

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