Goals Bingo!

At the start of 2023, one of my art friends posted a goals bingo board and it looked fun so I did one too. Since today is the start of 2024, here’s how I did and what’s to come.

I originally wanted to go for blackout cause I’m crazy, but I ended up doing 20 events this past year and 2023 threw all kinds of punches both to the business and in personal life. But in consideration of all that, seeing I only missed a few squares, I feel it was still quite an accomplishment.

Some of the goals were all about revamping my booth display. After 15 years of business, it really needed some updating so there were squares for that that I got to mark off (finally). Wombat was successful and made. The lions got funded and are currently at the factory. The groundwork for HoneyBun’s Kickstarter was laid out yesterday. I got more Korean culture pins done.

As you can see, the ones that mostly got missed were the ones that involved more detailed art. Which brings me to 2024.

Most of the squares on here are art focused. Lesson learned this year that 20 events while still working a full time job was just too much. I’m cutting back and want to really use the time to focus on my art. I’ve always loved doing fantasy and illustration stuff and just haven’t had time to do it since I started Kimchi. Many of these on here will fall under that and help to expand my illustration brand, Haetae Illustration. I also miss doing traditional media work too.

I know one of the reasons this worked so well for me in 2023 was cause I actually printed out the board and had it on my coffee table. It was a visual, daily reminder of what I wanted to accomplish. There were times when I knew I wanted to create something, but I wasn’t sure what and I’d look at the board to get inspired. And it was also motivating to see the blue check marks stacking up.

So I hope you’ll join me on this year long adventure! I’ll be posting on social every now and then with the Goals Bingo progress and will do a year-end summary like this one. Let’s do this!

What's in a Name?

Kimchi Kawaii turns 15 this August and so I’m going to be doing some blog posts about the adventures and things I’ve learned since starting.

Today, my Facebook memories reminded me about the name change I had to do. I was the first person in my group of friends and family to start a small business and so a lot of the stuff I learned was through trial and error. One year into everything, I faced my first major teaching moment.

My initial logo for my new brand at the time - Soy Happy.

I knew I wanted to do pun-based Japanese kawaii style pieces (kawaii is ‘cute’ in Japanese). And so I came up with the name ‘Soy Happy’ for the new brand. I liked the pun. I liked the use of soy sauce. I figured it was perfect and everything was set. Except that, I didn’t think to search the name online and see if it was already in use.

Fast forward to a year later when I got an email from another company that already had the name Soy Happy and it was registered as a trademark. The email was totally polite, but it did state that I needed to come up with a different name as they already had it registered. I definitely didn’t have the means to do an expensive legal battle - heck, I didn’t even have a lawyer at the time. When I started, I never thought to check the US Patent and Trademark (USPTO) site. Trademarks were for big corporations and stuff like Disney and Target. I was just small potatoes. Surely, I didn’t need a trademark!

At least it all happened only a year in. To be honest, my previous marketing efforts had largely failed. What I thought was super punny was leading to some confusion as to what I offered. See, ‘soy’ is also the Spanish first person conjugation of the word ‘to be’. So some people thought I was doing some Spanish/English mashup saying ‘I’m happy’. Everyone should be happy in any language, but it wasn’t really giving the public an idea of what I was offering. Thus, letting go of the name wasn’t really difficult for me.

I brainstormed a bunch of names through the highly scientific method of spewing random words that related to my art out on scratch paper and then placing them in combos that sounded appealing to me. Then, I ran the phrases through search engines and the USPTO. Some got axed that way when I discovered bigger brands with the name already (spoiler alert, they’d get all the traffic on search, not me) and/or more registered trademarks. But I did have one that passed - Kimchi Kawaii. I revamped my marketing stuff, the site I was selling on at the time and hired a lawyer to get my own shiny trademark. I didn’t want to put in more effort to lose it again!

Why the name Kimchi Kawaii? I was born in South Korea and adopted as a baby. My parents always wanted to make sure I knew about my heritage and I wanted to reflect that in my brand. I’m a Korean girl (the Kimchi) doing Japanese style cute art (the Kawaii). Plus, I really like alliteration. I felt that this name reflected a lot more of what my brand was all about and it also was general enough for me to grow with as my art and subject matter evolved.

My first logo design for the rebrand showing Roary my tiger with an ongii - traditional ceramic pot that kimchi is made in.

I came up with a new logo that pulled from Korean traditional art - the Korean tiger. Korean tigers, sadly now extinct, were favorite subjects in Korean art. Tigers were believed to be messengers from the mountain gods and also guides to humans. They were frequently portrayed with magpies, believed to be messengers from shrine deities. I originally had a magpie sitting with the tiger, but took it out in the name of a more easy to reproduce logo. The tiger was named Roary from a Facebook poll.

And so that was pretty much it! Kimchi Kawaii has been my brand name for 14 of my 15 years of business. The tiger is still my main logo, but I did update it recently to Roary’s sister, Junghee. I have no idea what the next 5 or even 15 years hold for my brand, but I do know my art style is evolving as I suspected it would when picking this name over 10 years ago. I hope you’ll stay on for the new paths that Kimchi is taking in the years to come!

Celebrating My Asian Culture

May is Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month (AAPI) and so I though this was an appropriate time to write about something that is so important to me - my own Korean heritage and some changes coming to the shop reflecting this.

Now before you panic, I’m not ditching the puns or the cats (so many cats!!). There are plenty of kawaii designs brewing that will keep me busy for the next few years at least!

In February of this year, I did a post talking about the rebranding and reasons behind it. It touched on some of my Korean roots behind the logo. This time I want to talk about some of the designs I’ve got and am working on. During the pandemic shut down, when cons were cancelled, I used the time to work on developing some more designs for the shop. It’s been a bit ironic to me that my brand is named Kimchi Kawaii, but the only thing Korean for years was just me. I’d also walk around anime cons and see a ton of Japanese themed things (obviously) and even some Chinese themed things, but really not much Korean beyond a few kpop things or kdramas. Korea is so much more than the hallyu wave.

I started a series of designs as pins and stickers showing the traditional elements of Korean culture. I bought some books on music, art, clothing, architecture and food and read all of them to get ideas. It was also really interesting to go more in depth on my birth country. My parents wanted me to know about my culture, but let’s face it resources for Korean stuff weren’t that prevalent back then, especially in my town which wasn’t going to win any diversity awards. And as a kid, you don’t want to learn about history, you want to be playing outside! So it was really interesting for me to learn more about Korea. I love learning in general. I’m a big nerd.

My Korean tiger, Junghee performing a traditional sword dance called geomu.

The first set of designs cover mostly the performing arts as they were the most fun to draw. I also included two mythological creatures - the haetae and bonghwang (phoenix). I’ve been drawing them in my Kimchi style, but pulling in elements of Korean art as well. For the performing arts ones, I’ve used Junghee and Roary. The pins have done really well at cons and I’ve had fellow Koreans come up and say they really liked seeing some Korean stuff which is rare.

Cons started back up again as stuff related to the pandemic started to ease and I found my art time cut down. The Korean designs ground to a halt. But I’ve set a goal for 2023 to make at least three more with Roary and Junghee and I want to start a series celebrating Korean food - from traditional to street foods. I’ll probably end up craving tteokbokki and Korean fried chicken. Here are some initial sketches of the new designs.

Sketch of my Korean tigers, Junghee and Roary dressed in Korean hanbok and holding talchum masks - traditional Korean masked drama.

I hope you’ll continue on my journey as I further explore all that Korean culture has to offer. I have so many more things planned, including another plush! Follow me on my social media channels like my Haetae Illustration Instagram and Kimchi Kawaii Facebook to keep up with all the new designs.

Freshening up the Kimchi

Making kimchi requires putting a bunch of veggies and seasonings in a container to ferment, but even kimchi has a shelf life. 2023 marks 15 years of business for Kimchi Kawaii and it was time to freshen up the kimchi for sure.

So this past weekend, I revamped my theming, logo and colors. I’m still wrapping up stuff and replacing things here and there, but you’ll see the changes on my website, social media and in person displays when I sell at events.

First change was to update my logo/mascot. From the start of Kimchi, Roary the Korean tiger was the image on all my profile pictures and branding. A few years later, I created a sister for him. Originally, her name was Fleur and she was a white tiger with a heart on her forehead who covered my lolita fashion and decoden themed items. As time went on, I phased out Frosted Fleur di Lis and those items. Fleur got revamped as another orange tiger (still has the heart) and her name was changed to Junghee which is actually the name I came with from Korea when I was adopted.

I’ve been working to bring in more of my Korean heritage and since I’m a girl, I felt that Junghee was a better representative for the brand. Roary is still here, he’s just letting his sister shine now.

Here are the logos that I’ve had over the 15 years I’ve been in business.

Evolution of Kimchi Kawaii’s logos.

I’m pulling in some inspiration from traditional Korean art for my branding as well. Below is detail of elements that you’ll start seeing in some of my social media and other display items. This design is inspired by the colorful details you see in traditional Korean architecture. The style is called ‘dancheong’ which translates into ‘red and blue’. I adapted the colors, making them more saturated to fit with the brightly colored designs that make up Kimchi Kawaii.

It was a lot of work to vector and would have been a lot more if it wasn’t for copy/paste and reflect!

Detail of decorative elements that will be in various Kimchi Kawaii branding.

I currently have a new table runner and backdrop for my dealers booths in production. I’m also getting an overhead banner for when I do smaller spaces like artist alley tables. I’m super excited to debut these items this year. The first will be at Anime Boston in April.

Anyway, time to get back to work on more of the rebrand! I hope you enjoyed this brief look at Kimchi’s history, the new look and the story behind it all.

On this Day in Kimchi History

It’s a morning routine for me to wake up in the morning and look through my Facebook Memories. Today’s took me back to the beginnings of Kimchi Kawaii.

Facebook status post from 14 years ago stating, ‘Holly Guenther is contemplating finally making a move to sell art online’.

On this day 14 years ago, I started thinking about selling my art online. My mom had told me about this print on demand site called Cafe Press where I could upload art and sell it on stuff like clothing, drinkware and more. It was really appealing cause it had practically zero overhead which is great when trying to start a business. I researched what I needed to do (like permits and other not so fun things of small business) and got going in August of that year under the name Soy Happy.

Screen shot of a Facebook status post from 13 years ago saying, "Holly Guenther just put up the Soy Happy fan page on Facebook. Anyone want to join?"

And then exactly a year later, I launched the Facebook fan page for the business and was pleading with people to join my tiny little page. I’m honestly not sure who did the two shares cause I know my mom wasn’t on FB at that time, lol. I’m assuming two of my art friends shared.

Over the years, it’s definitely been a roller coaster ride with the proverbial ups and downs of small business ownership. About a year and a half in or so, I had to change the name to my current one as I discovered that someone had the rights to the name Soy Happy. At the time, I didn’t even know about the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) so hadn’t searched their database when picking my original name. It was totally solved on friendly terms and honestly, Kimchi Kawaii fits so much better with what I was doing anyway.

Since my little call out into the void for followers, the page has grown to have a 11k following. I started an Instagram account that currently has over 6.5k. My Twitter was somewhat neglected for a few years, but that’s getting more use now and is just over 1,200. I remember when I was super excited to hit 100 likes on the FB page!

I’ve also launched 17 Kickstarter projects, most of which funded well over the initial goal and allowed me to expand my business in ways I’d never have thought when starting out. I’ve been able to travel around the country selling at anime cons. I’ve met a ton of awesome followers and fellow artists through online groups and in person at the cons.

I admit that the pandemic was rough on my creativity. At first, I actually surged in doing art as life came to a virtual halt. Since I couldn’t go anywhere and wasn’t hurrying off to cons, I could spend all my weekends working on new designs. But the constant uncertainty and anxiety was a slow build and hit hard this past summer, manifesting in burnout. My art output dropped and my social media posting for the business slowed to a trickle. It was starting to feel like a chore to keep the business running. The fact that my last Kickstarter products got caught in the factory and shipping delays didn’t help as I had no new product to promote. I was honestly starting to wonder if it was just time to move on and close out this chapter in my life.

But these two statuses this morning took me back to the excitement of planning out and starting the journey and I feel a little flame has been rekindled. I’m marking out cons I want to sell at and starting to feel the urge to create again. So the goal for 2022 is to shift out of neutral and start driving forward again with Kimchi and seeing where this road leads. I hope you all stay for the ride!

International Shipping Limits

International Shipping Limits

Due to recent regulations and COVID-related restrictions, international shipping continues to be severely limited and I've taken the following shipping profiles out of my shop.

UK - New VAT regulations for international shippers have made it cost prohibitive to small businesses like me. I am looking into Etsy which is handling the VAT stuff. I'll announce if this works out.

EU - New regulations for toys coming in have made it cost prohibitive as well. Other than the last outstanding Kickstarter plush that still need to ship, I currently can not ship to EU customers. If this changes, I'll update.

Australia/New Zealand - Due to COVID limitations, USPS has suspended first class international service. I could ship via Priority Express or UPS, but it's about $50 for a 1oz package. I've removed these two countries from my shipping list. They say this is temporary and I'll announce when I can again. If you do want something and are willing to pay the shipping, email me and we can complete the transaction via Paypal invoice.

Using the New Kickstarter Add-On Shop

*Note: These instructions are for those who have already pledged and want to add further items to their tier.

Recently, Kickstarter activated a new add-on shop feature. It used to be that creators sort of did a workaround to make their own, but now it’s official and easier to add things with a click of the mouse and no mathematical gymnastics and hoping you added up everything correctly.

The downside? If you’re used to the old way, like I was, it’s a little wonky to figure out how to add additional items after you’ve pledged. Since this can be a common occurrence as new items unlock in a campaign, I’m writing a step by step guide.

1. Log into your account and find the Kickstarter project you want to update your pledge on. At the top there should be 'manage pledge'. Click that and then 'change pledge'.

2. Your original pledge tier will be highlighted.

   • If you want to change your pledge tier either to a higher one or a lower level, this is where you would do it and then click ‘pledge’.

   • If you don't want to change your current tier, just click 'pledge' on the highlighted box to keep your current level.

3. The next screen will be the Add-on Shop.

4. If you have previous add-ons already, they will already be marked off on this screen and you can then add additional items like the more pins.

5. Click 'continue' when done.

6. You will then see a screen that shows your pledge tier and the add-ons. It will also show your new pledge total and the previous pledge amount.

7. If everything is ok, click 'confirm'.

You should be all set then! I hope this helps!

Stop Asian American Pacific Islander Hate Fundraiser

It’s been an emotionally rough 24 hours and my heart goes out to the family members of those who were lost to yet another act of senseless, racially driven violence. I can only imagine the pain they are going through.

I was born in Korea and came to this country as a baby when I was adopted. While my parents made sure to educate me about my heritage, and make it clear that I am completely loved as their daughter, I did have to face the usual slew of derogatory actions in the community when I was growing up. The stretching of eyes up at the edges. Imitations of Chinese language. Being told to ‘go back to where I came from’. All things, many AAPI in this country deal with.

The whole 'model minority' stereotype really works against the Asian community as people think 'Oh, they're successful, they have good paying jobs. Asians don't experience racism' and they assume that we’re all doctors, lawyers and engineers. News flash, a majority of us aren’t crazy rich Asians. It's become more and more evident in this pandemic.

The rise in anti-Asian violence has largely been unreported by mainstream media until recently. And even then, I've seen comments that Asians shouldn't be trying to take the spotlight from other groups experiencing racial issues. The 'game' of who has it worse has no winners. Racism affects us all. It doesn't matter your eye shape, skin color, language, or clothing - to a racist, we are ALL others and a threat.

It makes me angry to see authorities and the press making excuses for this man who killed these people. Saying he was having a 'bad day'. And the fact that 8 people had to die before the media even started talking about the rise in violence in general.

What am I going to be doing about it?

I'm not good at making speeches, but I am going to be donating to those who are better at doing the work than I am, similar to the BLM one I ran this past summer.

From now (3/18) through 4/3, 50% of total sales made from my shop here will be donated to the organization Stop AAPI Hate. I will post a screen shot of the donation for transparency to my FB, Instagram and Twitter channels shortly after 4/3.

Thank you for your support and care. Together we can work to dismantle racism.

Prototyping: The Good, the Bad and the Lol-worthy

You’ve been in business for a while and feel it’s time to take the leap and start outsourcing your plush. You’re tired of sewing your fingers off only to turn around and do it all again and again. This will be so easy! Just send off the drawing and the factory will produce it, no problem, right? [Insert record scratch noise here and abrupt cut off of the blissful mental soundtrack]. It’s not uncommon to have to go through multiple edits to get your design right and along the way, you can definitely get some lolz. Here are some of mine.

Sweet Dreams Strawberry

The Sweet Dreams Strawberry is a chocolate covered strawberry in a removable chocolate ‘sleeping bag’. Usually the chocolate follows the shape of the strawberry and comes to a rounded tapered end. Well, the first prototype I got looked more like it was sleeping in a precariously balanced chocolate snow cone. I was actually in the process of still finalizing the prototype on this one when I ran its Kickstarter, something I do not recommend! It’s always better to have the plush looking as close to final as possible when you start a campaign.

Flapjack Octopus

Flapjack Octopus is a design based on an actual octopus species that is super adorable in real life. Of course, I had to go punny with mine with a pancake theme. The first prototype was sort of close, but not fully the shape I wanted. And I wasn’t sure what was going on with the pink butter. At least they drew the face in cute. Unlike this next one…

Bunana Bread

Usually, the factory doesn’t want to spend the time and resources setting up embroidery on a first round prototype which I totally understand. So they will often just draw on the features with a marker. And usually, they are pretty close. Except for poor Bunana Bread’s first look. When I opened the email with this one, I totally lol’d cause it’s face is just…priceless. I’ve outsourced a ton of plush by now, and this one is still my favorite first round.

Chinese Lion Dancer - Sitting

The Chinese Lion - Sitting version, was by far, the most complex plush I had designed at the time. I sent a bunch of detailed sketches showing body shape with and without the long fur, colors and as many different views as I could think of. Little did I know what a ride I was in for. This one ended up taking a year and a half of prototyping and two different designers at two different factories. I think the first one just threw up their hands at one point. I’m sure the second one had a party when I finally approved the design. And then probably swore a lot when I put in for another Lion, this one standing about a year later. At least that one didn’t take as long!

The Mewcarons: or The Factory Will Take You Literally

A few years ago, I wanted to make kitty macarons that I called the Mewcarons. I had already done a Hamburger Bunny plush and I liked a lot of the shape of that one so I referenced it when sending the design for the Mewcarons. Well, the factory took me literally and sent me a Catburger for the first prototype. My middle man and I had a really good laugh about that one. She arranged for the mistake plush to be sent to me and then Catburger ended up going on an incredible 5 year journey that ended with people falling in love with it cause of it’s ordeal and me making an intentional Catburger that funded in 2020 in a Kickstarter.

Steamed Bun

Honorable mention goes to when I outsourced Steamed Bun for a run and they clearly sent him to deal with his anger issues. Steamy has never looked so chill.

Roary: When They Get It Right At the Start

I hope you’ve had some lolz seeing how some of my plush have started out. But I also want to say that it’s not always a scary plush when you get the first one. Sometimes, they get it almost spot on with the first try. An example of this is Roary. Other than some coloring issues, his body was pretty spot on and adorable from the start.

Plush outsourcing, as you can see, can definitely be an adventure. However, I really do like how it frees up time for me to come up with more art and designs! This is time I wouldn’t have if I was stuck on the sewing machine all the time. So I just plan out my projects schedules accordingly, knowing that most likely there will be some edits needed. And sometimes, there will be lolz along the way.

2020, What A Decade

I know it was just 365 days, but it sure felt like there were a few years that were snuck in somehow. I have a tradition of spending my New Year’s Eve by myself writing out goals for the business, doing art and playing my current favorite music. NYE 2019 was no different. I had my tea freshly brewed and my new 2020 planner out. I wrote down a full page of goals related to where I wanted my art to go in the upcoming year.

Goals were everything from posting regularly to this blog, getting more consistent at social media, and actually taking some time off. There were also a bunch of art goals in there as well. One of the things I wanted to do was increase my traditional media work.

Goals written out for 2020 in my planner.

I started out as a traditional media artist, mostly with colored pencil work, but with the start of the business 12 years ago, that had fallen by the wayside. Even though I enjoyed doing the business, it bothered me that my other art skills were pushed to the side and I worried that I would lose them from disuse. So I wanted to make an effort in the new year. The two goals that related to this were the following:

• Finish one illustration per quarter (digital or traditional)

• At least two Dandyland characters done

Time is tight for me as I still work a full time job, so I knew both of these goals were going to be tough to complete. But I was going to give it a shot.

And then COVID hit.

This year has been beyond stressful for everyone. 2020 is definitely a year where we all get free pass on not fulfilling any of those resolutions. I know I had periods riddled with anxiety, anger and tears. I (semi) joked that the 2020 planner was just a big waste of $30. Seriously, everything is crossed out and cancelled. It’s kind of depressing! However, since art is my stress relief, the traditional art related goals - the ones I thought I had the least chance of completing - were the only ones that I met and actually exceeded.

When I got overwhelmed with the news or fears of getting COVID myself (I have asthma so it could be very bad for me), I found myself turning to art as escape. Focusing my attention on drawing pretty boys themed around candy and working out what colors to use was much more fun for me than playing the worst game of 2020 I called ‘Is it [X] or is it COVID?’

Candy Cane

Gumdrop

Licorice

Dandyland was a series I came up with about two years ago. I finally decided to give it a go and also get back into my work with Copic markers. I found myself looking forward to when I could close the work laptop and get back to work on the latest character. I ended up sketching and or completing 23 of them this year. This is by far, the most traditional art I’ve done in years!

I also started doing more fantasy and non-kawaii style things on the iPad with Procreate. An artist I follow on Twitter was doing art challenges for a while which helped get me inspired on the days when that blank screen was scaring me into inertia. Plague doctors which had been trending for a while prior to all this also become a hot subject this year. So I did one in the ‘bishounen’ style (basically, just another excuse for me to draw another pretty guy, lol).

Galaxysona from a Twitter art challenge.

Bishounen plague doctor.

So what am I going to do with this art? Well, I started Haetae Illustration to post this style under to keep the main account solely dedicated to Kimchi. I’ve started to turn the Dandys into merch, the first set of 4 is off getting turned into a small run of standees. I’m also aiming to turn the art in Haetae into prints to sell whenever cons come back when I have the space to show my sub brand.

I definitely want to keep up with it this next year, even as I hope life returns to whatever is normal now after all this. I’ve missed working with traditional media so much, the scrape of the pen on paper, seeing the colors blend when I color. I want to keep going with it and growing this side of my art skillset.