Evangeline Than

Product review
The RedBubble calendar

by Evangeline Than
November 25, 2007

I’m going to confess three things: I like buffets, I prefer to give useful gifts, and I’m shallow enough to be influenced by first impressions – if there is no ‘wow’ factor I’m going to make my excuses and sidle away stealthily so I can go back to stuffing myself with crab puffs.

I received my RedBubble calendar in the mail yesterday, less than 24 hours after James Pierce (one of RedBubble’s founders) said he would send me one to review. Wow #1.

Now, I’m not saying all RedBubble deliveries get sent by Express Roadrunner, but this confirms my belief that when the Bubble folks say they’re going to do something, it gets done.

I was pleasantly surprised when I removed my calendar from its packaging. It was not rolled up, but thoughtfully packed in a padded bag and kept flat in between two sheets of cardboard. Let’s give the packaging Wow #2.

The calendar’s lovely sheen, silky feel and elegant simplicity (all of which arrived in pristine condition, thanks to the solid packaging) made Wow #3 a no-brainer.

RedBubble have put a lot of thought into this calendar, and it shows. Most impressively, they’ve managed to keep the base price affordable (I can hear all the artists celebrating) while providing a quality product with a sophisticated finish.

Some things you may notice when you start flipping through the calendar (apart from how nice it feels under your fingertips):

• A metal hanger means displaying the calendar is a breeze. It also protects the paper, unlike conventional calendars which have a punched hole at the top of the page.
• The A3 size makes this calendar perfect for doors, offices, hallways, kitchens – it will blend in, but it is certainly not a wallflower.
• Matt-coated 175 gsm (grams per square metre) paper provides a satin finish that shows pictures off to their best advantage.
• RedBubble’s signature font quietly but unmistakeably broadcasts the calendar’s origins.
• The days of the month are softly delineated in dove grey squares – a nice touch – and provide an adequate amount of space for writing down things like birthday reminders.
• The bottom right-hand corner of the page tells you where to go for more image goodness – a great move that acknowledges the artist and subtly markets more RedBubble products at the same time.

Now, before I head for the mini spring rolls, I will make one last confession – I loved this calendar at first sight, and I would be proud to give it to someone special.

Bonus: RedBubble is providing free shipping for the month of November. Just enter “Novembershipping” in the checkout code area when you enter your mailing address.

Some great RedBubble calendars for you to check out:

• Beautiful landscapes by James Pierce
• Life in Motion and Black and White by Paul Louis Villani
• Daydreams by Ljubica Rapaic
• Wilde Women by Lee Wilde

Return to the Writing Folio page.

Disclaimer: All information is true to the best of the writer’s knowledge at the time of writing.

Another happy customer! Click here to see Camouflage in the Buyer’s Booth section of RedBubble.

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Hi all,

Please bear with me as I try and make this a cleaner, simpler website.

Wordpress is proving fantastic for this job. I’ve known about Wordpress as a blog platform for a long time, but I’ve only just found out what an excellent content management tool it is.

In my implementation, all the written content like posts, text for web pages and so forth, is stored in a mySQL database (provided with most hosting packages nowadays), while Wordpress manages the fancy stuff in front. And it’s free, under the GNU General Public License (GPL).

There are also a lot of plugins available for Wordpress, which are basically Wordpress-compatible programs that add extra functionality to your site. Some plugins are simple bug fixes, overriding things that won’t be fixed until the next Wordpress release (or later), while others are fully-fledged applications that help you with tasks like setting up a photoblog or hosting a podcast. Plugins are usually free, but this will depend on the user that created them.

When I started this site a few months ago, I used HTML, some CSS, and a simple WYSIWYG site builder, because I needed to get the job done quickly, using what I knew. Now I wish I’d taken the extra few minutes to familiarise myself with Wordpress instead. Still, I’ve made up for that with a vengeance!

The main reason I procrastinated was because I couldn’t find a theme that I liked. I’ve now compromised by finding a theme that’s “close enough” and teaching myself more CSS to modify it.

Thortz’s Skimmed Milk theme is gloriously minimal, and what I like most is that the code is well-documented and elegantly written so that it’s easy to make your own changes.

Well, that’s enough geek-evangelising for now.

Planned improvements to evangelinethan.com include:

• an easy-to-navigate gallery to showcase my art,
• the possible inclusion of a “News” section to do a little trumpet-blowing about any writing or illustration achievements (hey, if you don’t market yourself, who else is going to do it for you?),
• images on every page to spruce things up a bit.

I hope you’ll like what I’ve done.

Thank you for your patience,

Angie