Sketchtoon Coffee Calendar Preview

While riding the train to Chicago with my friend Sean last week, he reminded me of a sketchtoon calendar project that's been on the backburner due to my very busy schedule.

Sean saw the black and white sketches in my Moleskine sketchbook, and heard my idea of selling the calendar online, to people and small coffee houses. He seemed very excited about the coffee calendar idea.

Now I'm reinvigorated to finish the project! :-)

While I'm wrapping up the final art, I've decided to share previews of 4 calendar pages, to gauge interest in a Sketchtoon Coffee Calendar for 2008.

Would a calendar like this interest you? Feel free to leave comments here or on Flickr. I'm very interested in hearing your thoughts.

Comments

[Jim]

Mike, love the artwork man, I've enjoyed all the sketchwork you've done to date but this is my favorite. The color combinations work really well and I'm sure this will be a big hit for you. I'll keep my eyes open for the calendar announcement.

[Reuben Whitehouse]

Awesome! Any details re. the final product - like size, format, etc?

[Mike Rohde]

Jim, thanks for the kind words! I will most certainly mention the final Calendar here, once it's ready to go.

Reuben, great comment � I'll add specs for final piece and post them here soon.

[BadMange]

These are really cool designs, but before you go printing up a bunch, you have the Americano espresso to water ratio wrong! Americanos are usually 1oz espresso to 6-8oz water, not equal ratios. I'm just sayin'...

[Mike Rohde]

BadMange: thanks for the info -- I can tweak that in the final art. :-)

[javajeb]

Great looking pics, Mike. Curious - are you disclosing where you're going after the drinks? Machines, brewers, roasters?

It'd be a great office calendar, or for my shop where I roast my coffee.

javajeb

[Mike Rohde]

javajeb, I haven't sorted out the approach I'm taking yet, but my thought was to go to local coffee shops (either here or worldwide) and I might even consider private labeling the cover.

I'm pretty open, so let me know what you're interested in doing and let's talk. :-)

[vlr]

Great pictures. I'd be interested in a calendar with pictures like this. Maybe you should take out all of the personal information from them, though, like that you had such and such in some country with your cute girlfriend (now wife) or that your friend so and so really loves mochas.

[javajeb]

The only thought I had was that there aren't a clear dozen type of traditional coffee drinks with enough differentiation for calendar pages. Some equipment would be cool, but maybe I'm too much of a coffee gearhead (I have about 7 or 8 different coffee producing devices, of which n-1 are non-same).

You could consider an espresso machine, since the four released images require one. Something big and muscle-car typed, like a Faema-based E-61. Here's an image of a vintage one:http://www.omnipakimport.com/faema_e61_legend.htm

Or a current LaMarzocco:http://www.coffeed.com/gallery/seat0505/IMG_3741

A bit more simple, but no less elegant, are the venerable French Press or Chemex (in the permenent collection of MOMA). Or, the standard espresso maker for Italians, the Moka Pot.

After that, there's always grinders. From the behemoth Dittings and Mazzer, to the old-world styling and simplicity of a hand-operated Zassenhaus.

That's about all I was thinking.

javajeb