j3concepts

As an avid fan of DeviantArt and the endless stream of art it congregates every single day, one of my favorite artists over time has proven to be j3concepts.

He's a Canadian freelance illustrator who has such a way with vectors and colors that you instantly recognize his style, no matter what the motive is. To use a description such as "urban cool" sounds lame even to those who will never hear it, but I can't think of anything more true right now.

In the perspective of digital media, he also represents a great example of how people are using different channels to distribute their material. If you take a look at the bottom of his DeviantArt profile, you see a list of his "Watchers", who are all immediately notified of anything he publishes.

Obviously I'm one of his "Watchers", and it's been fun keeping tabs on what he does in many ways, because in addition to being a great artist, he utilizes a lot of different services on the net in combination with his deviant activity. For instance I bought a couple of t-shirts of him a while back from redbubble.com which I first saw as a Deviation (a DeviantArt submission). He has similiar pages up and running at designgive.com, designbyhumans.com, threadless.com and popdeck.com, all of which are selling products with prints that are also submitted to his DeviantArt profile.

As a watcher you get the great advantage of keeping tabs on a designer you like, but getting your internet grind on like j3, it also enables you as a customer. You get to access a variety of different stores selling different products, through one channel. (And also, just for fun I can add to the fact that the benefits include low-priced, cool and original stuff that everyone else doesn't have, because they don't stock it at your local retailers.)

For the designer this means that he has something that ties his distribution together. It functions as a channel that promotes merchandise he is able to sell, and it doesn't matter where he sells them. And since the watchers are specifically interrested in his designs, it's ultimately a well targeted form of advertizing.

Anyway, enough with the knowitall rambling, we both need your help. J3 has been trying to get some of his shirts on threadless without any luck, and I want this Hot Chip tee so bad, I was ready to spend almost an hour writing this post. Anyway head on over and rate it, I'm sure he will appreciate it even more than I. Thanks