Behind the Scenes

TeeChu: 2017 in Review

TeeChu: 2017 in Review

It’s been two years since we ventured out on our TeeChu adventure! The wild world of t-shirt creating and print brewing – it’s been amazing having you all along for the journey! 2016 was the first steps toward creating our very first collection; and 2017 was all about taking these out to the wild world! It’s not been without its challenges, but we’ve come away with lessons learnt and plenty of exciting things in store for the year ahead.

Expo and Games Market

The biggest highlight for the year has to be strolling into Comic Con with chunky boxes of stock! Our convention and market debut was a big, big challenge, but massively exciting! Having been to numerous conventions as a games journalist, I never quite imagined being behind the table. It makes you appreciate just how much effort goes into each and every stand. The checklist of must-haves is a sprawling, never-ending quest log: from stock to tablecloths, card readers to makeshift cardboard signs – definitely a lot of lessons learned!

Our first steps into the con world was at the London Gaming Market, a bustling treasure trove of rare gems. Looking for that elusive Dreamcast game you spotted in Electronics Boutique 20 years ago? It’ll be here. From retro consoles to geeky toys, adorable plushies to quirky Japanese edible treats, this is the place to be! Days later, we hit up the beast. The mammoth guardian that is The London Film & Comic Con – a three day festival of gaming, anime, film and all things geeky. Anyone and everyone is welcome; it was great to see such a diverse set of fans – all celebrating the awesome things they love!

We loved every single moment: exhausting, challenging but incredibly fun! We’ll definitely be hitting up more cons this year.

Live Streams

At the beginning of the year, we also started our live stream journey on Twitch and Instagram; with almost-weekly drawing streams! One of the things we looked to do was get you involved in what creations came to life on paper.

All suggestions are popped into ickle Pokéball and picked at random. One week it could be a sketch of everyone’s favourite bumbling plumber, the next it could be an eerie ghost Pokémon. It certainly has been exciting, and very random at that! It keeps the challenge going; and makes each stream worthwhile as you have a say on how it plays out!

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Be sure to tune in (most) Sundays on Twitch – come hang with the TeeChu crew!

We took the annual Inktober challenge throughout October, aiming to pen a randomly picked sketch each day, as well!

Tees – Voted by You

Continuing the community vibes, we love hearing what you think about our designs; and what you’d like to see spawn on a tee! All our shirt designs from 2017 onwards were shared on Instagram – with fans able to vote on their favourites. Having you on-board for our journey is incredible; where you and the community have a big say in how the story unfolds!

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Forest Adventures and Stop Motion Chicken

Inspired by the greats that are Game Grumps and Markiplier, we created a series of short tales of how each tee came to be on YouTube! These were incredibly fun, but tricky, to produce! With the help of a talented bunch, we ended up scavenging for treasure and helping an adorable chick craft a bird house!


Numbered Designs

Back in January we also launched our signed and numbered certificates, which come with each tee and bigger art print! All designs are limited runs, so each come numbered and in a wee red envelope for that extra exclusive touch…

#TeamTeeChu

We’ve loved collaborating with YouTubers, cosplayers and game collectors – with such a great reception towards our prints and designs. A massive thank you to everyone who has represented #TeamTeeChu this year! Check out all our friends and collaborators on the #TeamTeeChu page.

So what’s next?

This year we’re looking to grow TeeChu with fresh new designs, expanding our convention tour and possibly even launch a Kickstarter for certain ranges… It has been an incredibly exciting and humbling experience; something that we just love to do. A big thank you to everyone who has shown interested and bought some of our gear – we can’t wait to leap into 2018!

A big thank you to all our followers, friends and customers for your support in helping us at events, featured videos and promoting our designs! A special shoutout to Suze, Georgie, James, Shane, Peter and Les for their continued support for TeeChu!

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About J

J is TeeChu's founder and resident artist, a big Sonic and Zelda fan. Born and raised on hedgehogs and forest adventures!

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