Other Folks Stuff – Designer, Technologist, Problem Solver

My favorite local bike club, the Cap Tex Cruisers recently partnered with a local beverage company, Pura Coco for some cross-market promotions using social media and in-person ride outs. Pura Coco is a local coconut water manufacturer focusing on sustainability and great taste – available at Thom’s and Central Market in Austin at this time.

Because of my background and interest in cruiser bikes, I get to work on some of the creative for Cap Tex and their promotional endeavors. We recently put together a run of logo Trucker caps for member purchase. Now………there is a BIG difference in making a FREE gimme cap and making a promotional item people will purchase with their own bread $$$. You need to know the market, pick a good item and appropriate quality level – and that’s before anything’s actually been made. After identifying the right cap, we mocked up the colors and went to sew out – this is the interesting part.

Unlike silkscreen, heat transfer, or new direct to press methods, making embroidery look and work on fabric is truly an art form. The ‘digitizer’ is a human who looks at the artwork and subjectively decides how the machine should layout the thread for a nice looking finished product. For Cap Tex, this process took 5 different ‘sew-outs’, which represents a test product and trip back to the digitizer each time until everyone is happy.

I’m really pleased with the look of the puffy bat, which REALLY catches the eye and adds just enough to make the cap truly unique and desirable. This 3D effect is produced by sewing a thin layer of foam under the desired shapes and cannot be used on everything.

The finished apparel presents as a simple, elegant and high-quality piece of apparel that members are proud to wear – Mission Accomplished. They came in just in time for the Ramsey Pre-Roll and some promo shots with the new Sponsor.

If you are jones’n for some CapTex gear, go find them on Facebook and watch for a store launch soon.

If I hadn’t pursued Graphic Design – Architecture and Industrial design were always my other academic passions. What I now realize, for me, is that MAKING THINGS provides reward and satisfaction like few other things in my life.

Tom, the owner of famous Austin Mexican Restaurant, Fonda San Miguel, decided to use the Covid 19 “Quarantine” period to revamp his aging bar space. I was fortunate to provide some labor on the project and see how something like this comes together.

Natco Custom Woodwork, together with a really good lighting designer – LITdESIGN – created an amazing new space for the visual focal point of the dining area. The restaurant REOPENS this Tuesday, June 23 if you want to check it out. It’s truly spectacular and I hope to see more of these projects up close in some capacity.

Stocking the Bar – Fonda San Miguel Mexican Cuisine

Natco has also been unusually busy with really killer office and mud-room built-ins for residential customers. With so many people transitioning to a work-at-home model, it’s a great investment. I might just get myself one. 🙂