Tenshi Kawashima

I'm still trying to figure out how helpful that post is, Moose (aside from the profile bit, which I wasn't aware of), but it is discouraging, in the "maybe I oughta just give up then" kind of way. Because frankly, sculpt and mesh programs make no sense to me, no matter what I use or how hard I try, and my fashion sense is way too far off from normal SL styles to make a clothing business viable. Really making me reconsider my husband's suggestion of just giving up and quitting the whole SL business thing. Maybe he's got a point. Then again, maybe I'm misreading your post? It's just coming across to me as saying that no matter what I do, my product won't ever sell.

I'm not sure if there's an in-world group that would be helpful for these kinds of things or not. I run a template business in-world, and I'm thinking that I need to rework my ...look, I guess. Sign/vend images...even considering changing my name, but I'm not sure. Thing is, I don't really have anybody I can turn to for advice. None of my friends are in SL, and my husband is BEYOND useless when it comes to anything even remotely artistic. Hence, I'm turning to you guys for some help. This is my newest concept for my store sign - currently the store is called TKBackstage, but I'm considering changing it to just Backstage (I don't want to make TOO big of a change, although I wish I'd picked a more appropriate name when I first created the line). And this is my current (quite horrid), vending image style. Each area (tops/bottoms/kits/etc), has it's own background colour. (It's using the old logo, so that would be changed). I could really use some advice, or even just links to anything that would help me make all this look more professional.

Mylar wrote: The blue to black gradient looks good. And Madeliefste is right about trying several different ideas with the logo. What I suggested was just that; a suggestion. Something to try to see if it works. The glow you have on there is good, it adds a nice accent without overpowering it. But, yeah, keep working with the logo until you find something you like that "pops" (heck, I'm still messing with mine ). Also, if you look at companies like Coke, they have at least three logos that I know of, that they interchange regularly. And the sign is looking good. Thank you for lettings us help you with the make over Haha, I'm glad I'm not the only one who's never happy with her logo. And thanks so much for your help! Definately looking a lot better now!

Madeliefste Oh wrote: can you find a way to visualise what TKBackstage stands for? ^^; The problem is...that was pretty much the over-glowy one for me, I was trying to get the look of...stencilled, I guess? Since this is purely a line made to help designers by providing very basic templates. I suspect this one will grow on me, though - I already liked the font, it was just the removal of the glow that bugged me. I'll just keep fiddling with it. THe name though, I've had for a few years now, so it's sorta past the point where I think I can really make any major changes to it (that, and I actually like that, since it sorta works with my clothing line, TKDesign. )

Redid the logo - I don't like it, but meh, I'll survive.... and all the fonts (except the one in the logo) are all Eras (The CMT part is just a slightly bolder Eras) I had no idea how to adjust the saturation on the background, since that was a white-to-transparent gradient I'd added....so I just scrapped it and made the background all one colour. EDIT - Did some more fiddling, and came up with this: (Yes, I added the glow back in a bit :smileytongue: it kept bugging me that it was too ... blunt...looking without it.

Madeliefste Oh wrote: The idea is good, good choice for the background for these kind of items, showing both the template and a model wearing the blanc template. It gives good information for the customer. But a price on a box... I wouldn't do it. On the marketplace customers see the price already, and inworld they can click the box to see the price. There might be reasons in the future for you to change your price, and then you have to adjust all your textures. And the glow around "TKBackstage" is too heavy to my taste. I've actually made a new logo in the time since I've uploaded that - it's still got a glow, but the font is thicker so it's not as overpowering - The price though....I think that's more of a personal thing for me - I've actually left shops because I couldn't see the price on anything. I doubt I'll change my prices, and if I do...it'll probably be time for rebranding anyways ;P How's this look, with the new logo in it?

Okay, added a watermark, and deepened the blue a little bit. Kept the logo up top - mainly because with the price added in, having it in the bottom box feels really cluttered, but I did remove the extra text.

Hehe, I was just using an old pic I had on the computer 'til I got the layout done - don't know that I can afford super-modern stuff, but I'll definately make sure my skin and hair, etc., are at least high-quality.

How would something like this work? - Not quite sure what colours I'd use for each category (although I know I'm going to do tops blue), but I'm thinking of keeping them all the same basic idea....cool blues, greens and purples. EDIT - Erm...and the final version would have been properly spellchecked to say "download' instead of 'dowload' *facepalm*

I *was* actually thinking of making the background blue with a faint white grid on it (like blueprints)...although after looking at your stuff, I'm thinking maybe I should make the background match the item, like blue for tops, green for fat packs, etc - or would that be too much?

Sorry, wasn't very clear there - I meant resources as in guides. :matte-motes-wink-tongue: My main reason for putting text on top is to prevent people from just copying the texture straight from the image....maybe I should try a transparent watermark instead? (I've been away from SL for a while, so I'm not sure if this is still even an issue in general).

Thanks for the advice - I'll make sure to use different models and poses when I do my new ads!

I've got a lot of items up on the Marketplace, but I don't have a lot of sales. I imagine some of this is because I create clothing textures, so I have a lot of competition, but I'm well aware that a lot of it is likely that I'm not creating effective ads and ad images. Unfortunately, I can't seem to find any good resources to help me come up with effective ads, so I thought I'd post here and see if anybody can give me some advice. Here's one of my items (it's a freebie, but it's done in the same style as the rest of my templates) My Item I generally use the same ad image for both my in-world vendors and my marketplace items. I thought uniformity would be a good thing, so all my ads feature the same model in the same pose - now I'm wondering if that's a bad thing instead? Any advice would be great!