Justyna Dorsz

Design

Sleeping cats

Did you know that when your t-shirt is selected by Threadless to be added to their catalog, you usually get a $250 coupon code? I use my coupons to buy hoodies and t-shirts for my family and friends.

If you want your design to be added to the catalog, you need to submit it to their main design challenge. Every week they select new designs. If your design doesn’t win, don’t give up. Try again. The more designs you submit, the better the odds of one of your designs being selected.

Here’s one of my recent designs:

It has just been added to the Threadless catalog. This means more people will see it and more people will buy it. And even if they don’t buy it, they might check out my other designs and find something else for themselves.

It look good on triblend blue:

sleep sleep sleep

Act now

My design “Act Now” has just been added to the Threadless catalog.

Act Now

There’s a story behind the design. I was in a grocery store and behind me there were two guys buying beer.

  • Guy 1: So how’s that postwoman of yours?
  • Guy 2: …
  • Guy 1: Have you talked to her?
  • Guy 2: I didn’t dare … I won’t ever dare.

I was thinking about it when drawing the skull. We are all going to die, we have less time than we think. I added the flower — a symbol of romance — to say: if you hesitate, if you don’t act on your feelings, you will die alone.

“Act now” is in the Threadless catalog. Check it out here if you want. Wear it as a reminder to be brave.

Sangie

This is Sangie, and she’s wearing my “Overthinking and also hungry”.

Sangie (Photo from Threadless)

She posted another photo of this shirt on her Instagram and wrote about losing hair. It’s scary how many young people have cancer.

Overthinking and also hungry - by Justyna Dorsz
“Overthinking and also hungry” on Threadless

This design is part of my philosophical cat collection.

As a side note, I’ve never met a stranger wearing any of my designs. I wonder when it will happen.

Black Sands

I turned my recent sketch made with reMarkable into a design.

Here’s the sketch that I made first:

Then I inverted the colors because I like while designs on black t-shirts more than white t-shirts with black designs. I took part of the design and places in on apparel:

Black Sands – Triblend T-Shirt

But I put the whole patterns on home decor items, like: rugs, tapestries, blankets, and some accessories:

Black Sands – Zip Pouch

I titled it “Black Sands” because it was inspired by this photo I took in Iceland:

Black Beach in Iceland - Photo by Justyna Dorsz
Iceland

Dark Woods

When I draw something I never know if people are going to like it. There were designs that I thought were going to be popular and weren’t. And designs that I didn’t think were going to sell well but they surprised me.

Dark Woods

My “Dark Woods” design is sort of in the middle. It’s just reached $400 in total earnings. So maybe it’s not a huge success. But it’s passive income — this design will continue to earn a small amount every month.

I’ve said it before — you never know how your design is going to be received. Don’t second guess yourself, publish all your designs, and let people decide if they like them.

Muzli

Do yourself a favor and install Muzli. It’s a browser plugin that shows design inspirations every time you open a new tab.

Inspirations from Muzli
Example inpsirations from Muzli

That was a mistake

I write a lot about my successful designs. I mentioned my most popular design a few times, and other designs that earned me a lot of money. It might seem that whatever I draw sells well and brings me regular income, but that’s not the case. Far from it. A lot of my designs don’t earn even a few dollars. There are about 30 designs that so far haven’t earned anything.

This is a design that earned me just $10 so far:

That was a mistake

It was supposed to be a cat that did something silly like chased a raccoon or stayed up all night at a party when they had work in the morning.

Yet, apparently, people don’t find it funny or cute, or maybe they just don’t like it. I don’t know. I never know anything. I just keep drawing. And sometimes a design gets popular, and I earn money.