#ffxv merchandise
Apologies for the long delay on this one, I spent the first two weeks of August recuperating from minor surgery and I had a sizable backlog of work I had to get through before I could sit down and work on this. _(-ω-`_)
When I was a kid school always started in September, which is why this month’s design depicts Brotherhood-era Ignis catching up on his Cosmogony studies. As of this writing, I haven’t ordered any of the merch for this design yet, so the date of release is subject to change, but I’m going to go ahead and list September 19th @ 1:00pm PST as a tentative release date/time (so set those alerts on your calendar!).
Despite being rather quiet here and on Twitter, I’ve actually got a lot to talk about in the upcoming days and weeks. For one, Inktober is just a month away, and I’d like to discuss my thoughts on the controversy currently surrounding it and how this blog plans on handling it. It also tangentially ties into November’s Extra Life Game Day, which I’ll mention in a later post whenever I get the ball rolling on that. Until then, stay tuned for future updates either here or on Twitter!
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When I started my monthly merch club, I felt confident in my manufacturer’s ability to product consistently quality month after month. I’ve ordered from them for years and hadn’t had any problems in the past, so I didn’t expect to run into the frustratingly high number of issues that have popped up over the course of this year. Alas, I must disclose that I’ve hit yet another printing issue with August—one that has a slight silver lining to it.
The bad news is that all of the standees I ordered for this month have a normal side and an overexposed side. I had some more January and April standees printed with August’s merch, which highlights this difference in color quality especially:
The good news is that my manufacturer is taking full responsibility for this error and is already having more printed. I’m not sure how long it will take for the new standees to arrive, but I’ll be sure to keep everyone who orders one informed and in the loop.
The other good news is that this doesn’t effect the charms or stickers whatsoever, so if you plan on only ordering those items, your order will go out ASAP and should arrive sometime next week! ٩( ᐛ )و I appreciate everyone’s patience as I continue to navigate these hurdles, and I pray to the Astrals that this will be the last hiccup I run into before the end of the year. If you have any questions, feel free to message me here or on Twitter! And don’t forget to set a reminder for tomorrow at 1:00pm PST if you want to snag some of August’s merch!
Who better to embody the heat of August than the Infernian himself? Good thing thermal suits exist in the FFXV universe, otherwise Ignis would’ve cooked right alongside his marshmallow lol. Technically this iteration of Ifrit is no longer the version of him that you see in the main game, but I felt the OG Pyreburner’s color scheme fit better with this design than the scourge-infected version, so… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
For me, 2020 has felt like a losing game of Tetris—for every one row of tasks I complete, two more rows pop up and threaten to overwhelm me. If you’ve ordered merch from me the last few months, you probably noticed longer and longer wait times between release date and product shipment, and for that I apologize. Some of it is out of my control, like delays with my manufacturer (as of this writing, July’s merch still hasn’t arrived at my house yet (ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻), while some of it is simply a product of burnout. I work a full time day job as an illustrator, so motivating myself to work on merch club or zine art during nights and weekends can be challenging at times.
Which brings me to August’s release. On July 30th, I’m having a minor medical procedure (again) that will involve a few weeks of recuperation time. I’ve been trying so hard to get the Ignis Monthly Merch Club back on a first-of-the-month release schedule, but unfortunately with my upcoming surgery I can’t make that happen for August. Therefore, August’s release date will be scheduled for Saturday, August 15th at 1:00pm PST. The good news is that I will actually have all of the merchandise in hand and ready to ship by that date, so the wait time between ordering and receiving items will be quite a bit shorter than previous months.
Other than August’s Merch Club, I have a few other bits of ISEB-related news to share; I finally finished my @lostinwars-zine piece and am able to post a preview of it:
The mods have also kindly granted me permission to write an accompanying story to go with my piece, which will be available in the PDF version of the zine (that is, if my writing muscles haven’t withered too greatly in the last few years >.>). Preorders for the zine are available here: https://lostinwarszine.bigcartel.com
The other bit of news is that I signed up for Extra Life Game Day, a 24-hour gaming event on November 7th to raise money for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals. Since I haven’t played FFXV for more than a few hours this year, I will make up for lost time and attempt to beat the entire game in one sitting over the aforementioned 24-hour period. You can bet I’ll have some donation incentives similar to those that were available during the #AdamvsISEB stream; I’ve also been kicking around the idea of including my 2020 Inktober sketches as rewards. Whatever the case, I’ll be sure to keep everyone updated here as well as on Twitter! ٩(๑❛ᴗ❛๑)۶
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GOOOOOOONDOLAAAAAAA
It feels like June’s merchandise just went up and it’s already time to start advertising for July. ಠ_ಠ (Side note: June’s charms and standees are being packaged and mailed out as we speak, so those who ordered either of those items will have hot wet Ignis in your hands soon enough!)
I associate fireworks with the month of July (Independence Day in America is celebrated on July 4th), so “fireworks” was the theme for this month’s design. As I learned after discussing my concept with a friend, there are actually quite a few FFXV fans who never got the chance to play the Moogle Chocobo Carnival (BRING IT BACK SQUARE YOU COWARDS (ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻), and therefore may not understand the context of this design. The culmination of the carnival shows Noct chilling in a gondola with Carbuncle and watching a fireworks show, so I appropriated that scene for my own Ignis-centric purposes and turned it into the image you see above. (I admittedly had to take some artistic liberty with the gondola’s design, as some of the ornamental elements didn’t translate well onto the small scale of physical merchandise.) It took me ages to decide whether I wanted to include the baseball cap or not; on the one hand, it looked cute and tied the whole outfit together, but on the other hand, it disguised one of Ignis’ most defining features (his cockatiel hair). In the end I compromised and went with a visor, which is suitably appropriate for Ignis as I imagine he’d loathe letting a good bottle of hair gel go to waste.
As of this writing, July’s merch is set to be released on Saturday, July 4th at 1:00pm PST. Like June, there will likely be a short wait between the time merch is released and the time it actually ships, but I’ve already initiated the order for everything so in theory the wait shouldn’t be nearly as long as the last couple of months were. I’ve also upped the quantities of everything a tad, so hopefully everyone will get something they want without having to beat the initial rush. If anything changes I’ll let everyone know, but for now feel free to mark your calendar for July 4th!
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Howdy Tumblr, it’s been a minute. Sorry to keep everyone in the dark regarding June’s charm design, but it seemed like a million other things got in my way during the month of May and I struggled to carve out the time to finish it.
First things first: George Floyd was murdered by police on May 25th. Black lives matter—they matter to me, and they should matter to you too. I can’t speak on the black experience, but I sure as shit can help out where I can. 50% of all my June Etsy sales will be going to two Black-run organizations:Black Visions CollectiveandBlack Trans Advocacy Coalition. BVC is a Minnesota-based advocacy group, while BTAC is dedicated to helping black trans people nationwide get the health care they need, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. A million thanks to my pal @lucianlibrarian for helping me narrow down the list of groups I was looking through, all of which are deserving of support and donations. If you want to help out, here’s a great list of resources to browse at your leisure.
Secondly, I’m going to be doing something a little different with June’s release. In an effort to get back to releasing merch near the first of each month, I’m going to put June’s merch up for ‘preorder’ tomorrow, June 6th at 1:00pm PST. I put preorder in quotes because I’m still going to be ordering my usual quantity, it’ll just be that you’ll buy now and I’ll mail everything out a couple of weeks from now when the merch arrives. I know this is short notice, but don’t worry—if it looks like I’m running low on stock, I’ll make sure there’s enough for everyone to grab something, even if they aren’t able to order right away. I just want to get back into the habit of releasing merch at the beginning of the month rather than the end of it, like what happened with May. (Speaking of May, the new merch has finally arrived and it looks great, so those will be going out in the mail tomorrow. Thanks to everyone who has been waiting an eternity for those, hopefully it’ll be worth it!)
There was a lot I wanted to say about June’s design, but honestly my heart is broken with the state of the world and it doesn’t feel right celebrating the coming of June when so many injustices are happening right now. If you’re feeling as down as I am about everything, hopefully Ignis’ abs will cheer you up a little. ;_;
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It pains me to have to make this post, but Murphy’s Law has apparently been enacted in full force this month and I regret to inform everyone who ordered a May charm or standee from me that there was a significant printing flaw in the merchandise I ordered which will cause some further delays.
The quick rundown is this: Generally I have a given month’s merchandise in hand before I ever release it to the public specifically so I can check for printing flaws and other errors before I sell them. May has been exceptionally challenging for me in terms of workload and I have been behind on seemingly every single one of my projects (including the design for May’s merchandise). Not wanting to push off May’s release any longer, I went ahead and took orders for May’s merch last Friday even though my delivery of charms and standees were not scheduled to arrive until yesterday.
They did indeed arrive on time, but I discovered there was a significant misprint with the white lines above Kenny’s head. This is what they’re supposed to look like:
And this is how they came out:
I take extreme pride in the quality of my products. I customize each month’s swivel clasps, I check and adjust each charm’s jump rings, and I’ve even gone so far as to custom-dye the acrylic gems to achieve the perfect color. For some people, this small misprint might be a nonissue; for me, it is a critical flaw that makes these items unsellable.
I’ve already been in touch with my supplier and have arranged to have the batch reprinted. I also modified the design slightly so that this flaw hopefully won’t happen again with this new batch. I do not know when I will receive this new batch of items, but I’m hoping that it will be before the end of May. All orders have already been processed and parcels already have their shipping labels on them; as soon as I receive the updated items, orders will be sent out immediately.
I am profoundly sorry for the lengthy wait for these charms, and I sincerely appreciate everyone’s patience. I do not take anyone’s support for granted, and I will do my best to make things right as quickly and efficiently as possible. Thanks again for sticking with me, and please don’t hesitate to message me if you have any questions/concerns! ♡♡♡
EDIT: Also, I completely forgot to mention—if you ordered some merch from May and would like a refund, please hit me up on Etsy and I’ll be happy to process that for you!
Today’s the day, everyone! May’s merch release is finally (FINALLY!) being released today (May 16th) at 1:00pm PST over on my Etsy Shop. I really must apologize for the long wait, this month was nothing short of hellish for me and it felt like I hit coronavirus-related supply delays every step of the way. Even now, my charms and standees still have not yet arrived at my house; they are scheduled to be delivered on Monday, however, so any charm/standee order placed before then will promptly be mailed out on Tuesday, May 19th.
In addition to May’s merch, I’ll also have a limited resupply of April’s charms and standees. I think I’ll also go ahead and put the prints I was hoarding for KupoCon up in my shop as well, so if you missed out on a print you had your eye on, there should be plenty more available. And if I can somehow churn a few out in the next couple of hours, I’ll go ahead and do a small restock of my “New Recipe” purple and black tote bags.
I’m hoping to be back in good working order for June’s release, and I want to thank everyone again for sticking by me for five whole months of the Ignis Monthly Merch Club!! Hope to see you all at 1:00pm! ଘ(੭ ᐛ )━☆ﾟ.*･｡ﾟ
Despite it being April 30th and I’m only just now getting around to posting this here on Tumblr, I have not actually forgotten about May’s merch club design! On the contrary, I’d been working on it on-and-off the entire month of April, but things have only gotten more busy for me since March, and sadly all of my side projects have had to take a bit of a backseat. I personally associate the month of May with Memorial Day weekend and all of the outdoor BBQ fun times related to it; alas, it seems we’ll just have to live vicariously through Ignis and Kenny this year. ಥ‿ಥ
Since I was late wrapping up the design, it also means I’ll be late delivering the final products, unfortunately. The order for all the merch has been placed, but I suspect it won’t arrive at my house until the week of May 10th. I don’t generally like to make my products available until I have them in hand to inspect them, but I’m going to take a chance this month and say that orders for May’s merch club will go live on Saturday, May 9th at 1:00pm PST. It’ll likely take a few extra days for everyone’s merch to arrive, but hopefully no one will have to wait too terribly long for their stuff.
I want to thank everyone who has stuck with me through five months of this crazy merch club, and also to apologize for the lack of content both here and on Twitter (where I’m marginally more active). It’s not for lack of motivation, nor is it because my love for FFXV has waned (I am still just as thirsty for Ignis as I was the day I began my FFXV journey); it mainly has to do with a very cool but very time consuming professional project I’ve been working on since last September (and will likely be working on through the end of the year). I do have a piece in the upcoming @lostinwars-zine, so I look forward to working on that and eventually sharing it with you all. Another thing that I’ve been thinking about doing is participating in Extra Life this year, which is an event in November where gamers come together to play video games for 24 hours for charity. If I recall correctly, FFXV takes about 24 hours to play through the main quest… :3
Anywho, that’s about all the ISEB news I have to share for now. Until the next time, I’ll just be over here playing FF7R and FFXIV. Mark your calendars for May 9th if you want to snag some May merchandise! ٩( ᐛ )و
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Today’s the day, everyone! April merch will go live at 1:00pm PDT (California time). In addition to April’s merch, I’ll be restocking my store with a few old favorites (charms, prints, stickers, etc.) so be sure to browse around and double-check that got everything you wanted before you check out! :D
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My 2019 trip to Japan was a life changing experience for me, so I created April’s merch design as an ode to that trip. Not only did I travel there during the peak of cherry blossom season, I also got to enjoy the experience of hanami while dressed in kimono, so this charm is very much in honor of that.
I was a little late on delivering this design due to a couple of factors; the above photos actually depict the second iteration of this design, the first having been reworked to depict seasonal kimono more accurately after conferring with a Japanese friend of mine. The coronavirus has also had an impact on my productivity, which is why I haven’t pinned down a concrete release date for April yet (although I’ll be sure to post here when I do). I hope everyone looks forward to April’s merch regardless of when it becomes available!
In semi-related news, KupoCon Montréal was postponed the day after I made my announcement that I would be in attendance. It has since been rescheduled for July 18th; whether I make it to the new event remains to be seen, since I’m not 100% confident the coronavirus situation will be resolved by then, but I sincerely hope to make it if it is. I have so much merch I’m sitting on for it ;_;
And while I have your attention, I have two more bits of ISEB-related news to share:
- I was tapped to create some merch for the Promnis zine, Found Beneath The Stars.FBTS is welcoming to all facets of Prompto and Ignis’ relationship, both romantic and platonic, so please look forward to a piece of merch from me depicting their unique (and sometimes hilarious) friendship!
- Contributors for the Lost In War Zine have been announced, which includes yours truly! It’ll be my first big FFXV piece since last year, and I’m hoping to make it something truly special for everyone. And if everything goes to plan, it’ll also mark my return to the realm of fanfiction! More details will be forthcoming in the next few weeks and months, but rest assured you can count on me to feature everyone’s favorite strategist in everything I do.
That’s all for now! I’ll be sure to update everyone with a release date for April’s merch as soon as I know more. ٩( ᐛ )و
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Now that the Adam vs. ISEB charity stream is in the books, I’m slowly getting back into my old routine and picking up things that I had left on the back burner the entire month of February. The big news that I erroneously failed to mention here on Tumblr is that the March design for my Ignis Monthly Merch Club was released on March 7th (postponed a week on account of the stream), and is available on my Etsy store along with February’s charm restock. The good news is that I ordered plenty of inventory this time around, so if you didn’t grab anything last week there’s still lots of everything to be had. ଘ(੭ ᐛ )━☆ﾟ.*･｡ﾟ
The other bit of new that I addressed in a recent Ask is that, as of right now, I am scheduled to attend KupoCon Le Pom in Montréal on April 4th. Obviously the situation with the coronavirus is constantly changing so there’s a chance that it will get cancelled altogether, but in the event that it is not cancelled, I will be there in attendance at a table in Artist Alley. I’ll have my complete catalogue of merchandise with me, including just about every acrylic charm I’ve ever had made, plus the usual prints, buttons, stickers, etc. Right now, it’s looking more and more like I’ll only be able to accept cashandPayPal (since my Square reader apparently doesn’t work internationally ;_;), but I’ve been doing some research and hopefully I’ll be able to find a solution to the problem of taking credit cards across the border.
That’s about all for now! This weekend I hope to finish April’s merch design to share with you all, and there just might be a zine announcement in the near future… Stay tuned! :3
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I’m not sure if it’s seasonal depression or burnout from working every single weekend since the beginning of September, but whatever the case I sincerely apologize for only just now making a post revealing my very last Ignis Monthly Merch Club design to my Tumblr followers! The good news is that there is plenty of December inventory still available, and the physical merch is scheduled to arrive at my house next week sometime, so if you order now the wait shouldn’t be too long!
I would have liked to have celebrated the culmination of this project with a bang, but the holidays and year-end IRL work ate up a lot of my time these last eight weeks, so it is what is. The hard work isn’t quite yet over, either—I’ve got a whole slew of international orders I’ve been holding onto all year long, so if you’re one of the people who have been waiting, I’ll definitely be in touch with you in the coming weeks. Likewise, if you missed out on any months that you wanted, I’ll be doing a brief restock of everything in the new year (details forthcoming).
Despite 2020 being a general dumpster fire, I am really proud of all the FFXV work I accomplished this year—#AdamvsISEB, Ignis Monthly Merch Club, Extra Life Game Day, three FFXV zine contributions—and I fully intend to keep the FFXV torch alive in 2021! I’m always looking to improve my skillset, and next year I hope to take my Ignis art to the next level.
In the spirit of this partially onerous year, I thought I’d stream myself playing the most agonizing FFXV side quest I can think of: Pitioss Ruins. If you’d like to join me in my misery, you can catch the stream at 12:00 pm (Pacific Time) on December 31st on my Twitch page here: twitch.tv/i_s_e_b
Here’s to a better new year! ଘ(੭ ᐛ )━☆ﾟ.*･｡ﾟ
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I’m quite late in letting my Tumblr followers know, but the November edition of my Ignis Monthly Merch Club will be going on sale on my Etsy store at 1:00pm PT today (Saturday, November 21st)! I don’t expect to sell out so if you’re coming across this post a few hours after the fact, there’s a good chance there’ll still be plenty of inventory available. Hope to see you there! ଘ(੭ ᐛ )━☆ﾟ.*･｡ﾟisebstore.etsy.com
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It’s been 84 years but I finally finished October’s charm design! (So sorry for the delay, this month has been… yeah T_T) This design actually started off quite differently; I originally had a Dr. Frankenstein & The Monster concept in mind, where Ignis was Dr. Frankenstein and Titan was his monster. But I’ve been playing a lot of Animal Crossing lately and my avatar has been sporting ghostly skin and red eyes since the Halloween update dropped, so I couldn’t help but think the look would be cute on Ignis as well. At the very least, Titan’s Frankenstein cap is a carryover from that original idea.
The Vampire Ignis design proved to be quite popular over on Twitter, so much so that I went ahead and placed a small order for solo Vamp!Iggy charms. They won’t have any of the fancy clasps or gemstones of the regular merch club swag, but they’ll be a little bit cheaper and might be a good option for anyone who hasn’t kept up with the Ignis Monthly Merch Club this year. All of these items will be available to order on October 17th @ 1:00pm (PST), so mark those calendars! ٩( ᐛ )و
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