In our search for a new factory, we’ve been making samples. This post will showcase a set of the odd ones out. If you’ve been following this blog for some time now, then you have an idea of what each of these bags should look like. Or check out the regular website, www.tarynzhang.com.

So there is no point in posting the samples that came out well, the ones that look identical to the previous batches of inventory. No. Instead, this is a post about failures.

First up, a pretty big flop:

You have not seen this one before. It was a new design I conceived of in December, an utter failing flop of a design. That’s right. It’s ugly. It is an unequivocal manifestation of my failures as an amateur designer. And I’m posting it on my blog.

Some of the stuff I come up with really work and I love them and people love them and just knowing I am capable of coming up with that kind of stuff makes me feel special. Then some other stuff, a LOT of other stuff I come up with really do NOT work. And in fact are quite hideous. Like the one above.

Last Saturday I heard this fellow Frans Johannson speak at a conference about innovation, technology, and social change, called “The Intersection.”  (It was held at Pixar Studios, by the way, an amazing venue.)

I cannot properly recall what he said or how he said it (which was so stirring and powerful), but essentially, Johansson talked about the many failed paintings of Picasso that no one sees or ever mentions, the many failures of all the great minds and brilliant thinkers, but how it was those failures that helped them stumble upon their genius successes. What distinguishes the successful innovator from the rest of us isn’t her mind; she doesn’t come up with “better” ideas than us– it’s her courage to fail. The successful innovator is the one who isn’t afraid of failure.

That was my long-winded way of saying yeah, I failed miserably with that design, but I am not going to be ashamed of it. Not everything I come up with is good. So what?

Now. Not all failures are mine. Here is an amusing sample of The Executive satchel brief that came back from one of the factories:

The Executive in black on the left (labeled “CORRECT”) is what it’s supposed to look like. That’s an image of a previous sample from a previous batch of inventory. I sent the same exact set of design briefs to this new factory and even sent them photographs of the correct version and still I got what you see on the right (labeled “new factory oopsie”). Um, yikes. How did that happen!?

Not only is the silhouette and lines of the bag all wrong (and wrong hardware as well), but they didn’t even create the pleats for the bag as I had instructed in the briefs. I had given instructions on how to create those pleats. Instead, they simply sewed those lines as seen in the “new factory oopsie” image.

The Peripatetic bag has gone through so many versions. So. Many. The one made by this factory is pretty good. I like it. Except it’s a little… I don’t know, squat or something. The intended silhouette should be slightly more elongated, like the black and white illustration you see above to the left. It doesn’t even need much, just an inch or two on the length and it would be perfect. Well, no. Also the handles are a little thicker than I would like. Just those two points, though.

As I mentioned in the previous post, I’m now designing for another designer. In fact, I’ve just been named his company’s new creative director! Isn’t that fun? And I have dived right into work sketching for his 2012 collections. =) He’s made a name for himself in many countries across Asia, but not yet in North America. He’s a recent transplant to Vancouver, and I’ve been brought on to help him develop his label in the west.

At first I was hesitant to join because all his handbags use genuine leather. Lambskin, calf skin, croc, python, you name it, he’s used it. You know my stance on being cruelty-free. Ultimately, I decided this was too great an opportunity and experience to pass up. I know. I’m a sell-out. =( In any case, I figured as long as Taryn Zhang New York remains committed to vegan leather, I can make peace with myself. =)

I can’t wait to give you all more information, but that is to come soon enough, if all pans out as well as anticipated. In the meantime, I can show you two of his past season handbags, above. I *LOVE* love love these two styles, totally adore them.

My main critique of his past lines overall is that there was no cohesiveness, no concrete point of view. Some of the designs, like the two I pictured above, are simple, elegant, and classic. Others are crazy, with fur, leopard print, and bells and whistles, totally wild stuff, designs that make me go blegh. His rationale is that he’s been more of a trend follower, going for marketability. So he keeps a hawk’s eye on what’s going to be “in” next and inspires his designs off that. That is not my approach at all. Fortunately, he respects that and has given me a lot of leeway as creative director. =) Seriously, I can’t wait to share more.

The day job has been busy, so that has left little time for concentration on this blog. Although I haven’t been blogging, I have certainly been working away at the TZ project. =) In fact, I am now officially “patent pending.”

Yeah, yeah, I know what people in Silicon Valley say about design patents versus utility patents. In most respects, I agree with the silliness of design patents, except when it comes to fashion. It makes sense in this industry.

Granted I have no idea whether I filed the design patent application correctly, but I figured I’d just play it by ear. The above was the first time I ever did technical drawings for a patent app. Total DIY here, ladies and gentlemen. We’ll see what happens. =)

Above is a pic of blogger Joz and me. She’s trying to steal my bag. Anyway.

The shortage of progress report posts lately is due to the lack of actual progress. Instead, I’ve been dabbling these days. Oh, lots of dabbling. That’s what you do when you don’t know what to do. You dabble.

For one, I’ve been designing for another designer. That has been an amazing experience and loads of fun. His style and brand point of view is distinctly different and divergent from TZ’s, so we’re in no way competitors. You could describe his label as fashion-forward and highly conscious of current trends, lots of bells and whistles. His target buyer couldn’t be a bigger contrast from my target buyer, and that’s been an interesting exercise, to design for someone with tastes really quite different from mine.

(Not a bag I would carry myself.)

(I can show you these images because they are not actually being used.)

Production wise, I’ve also been dabbling. Pretty much everywhere except the PRC now. To China’s credit, the one positive point of manufacturing there (before) was how fast they were (when they wanted to be). We are currently working with several manufacturers, none of them in China, with one in particular very dearly close to home (cross fingers), and while I have enjoyed the service experiences so far, they’re a whole lot slooooower. I’m not complaining, just saying. If you want quality and personal attention, you’re going to have to wait for it. If you want fast turnaround and cheap prices, some things will have to give, and it’s usually quality and personal attention. Good to have learned firsthand this otherwise common-sense-ish lesson. So here is me saying to you, “After personally touching the blazing flame several times, I may now confidently confirm that the fire is indeed hot. Ouch.” And folks, now you know, in case you’re an idiot like me and hadn’t known this before, yes, the metaphorical fire is quite hot.

When I’m not designing (or in pursuit of any of the other dozen of my interests), I’m the managing editor of Kartika Review, a national APIA literary arts journal. We’re currently working on finalizing the 2011 anthology, which will be due out in print later this month.

Flyer design by Lac Su.

By the way if you’re in the San Diego area and interested in APIA literature, be sure to attend our anthology launch party and reading event January 27, Friday, 8:30 p.m. at the Thumbprint Art Gallery in La Jolla, CA. Check out the Facebook page for the event. It’s organized by the lovely Jennifer Derilo, one of Kartika‘s editors, and Lac Su (look him up if you’re not already familiar with his amazing work).

With regard to that other designer, I can’t wait to tell you all more once the details of our collaboration are solidified.

I am pissed as f*** over the purse hook polish wipe things I ordered, although what can I say, maybe it’s my own darn fault.

You can’t tell from any photos I’d take of the wipes, but every wipe has embossed into it “Zheng Cheng Long.” I haven’t a f****** clue what that means nor do I care. It shouldn’t be there.

You would think after my many traumatizing experiences dealing with Chinese factories I would have known better than to order my polish wipe things from China, but I mean these were just polish wipe things, what could possibly go wrong?

I even specifically e-mailed the manufacturer prior to order, inquiring whether the wipes were completely blank, void of any designs, decorations, embossings, logos, etc. I explained who I was and what I needed the wipes for and emphasized how important it was that there were no designs, decorations, embossings, or logos of any kind on the wipes.

I mean, it was a great discounted deal. That should have been the second red flag. You get what you pay for. Still! I wouldn’t have ever expected the seller to outright lie to me!

So I now have a giant stack of purse hook polish wipes that are otherwise of good sound quality, except every one of them has “Zheng Cheng Long” embossed on them. Holy moly @#$%^&*. I don’t know what I’m going to do with these things now. I’m so pissed. So pissed. If this entire transaction had occurred in the States, you better believe I’d be seeking legal recourse. But it’s in China and ultimately, it’s just not worth pursuing. All I can do is wallow in my own fury.

The seller even had the audacity to include a Christmas card (see photo above). Gah!

Well. *breath, breath, exhale* I’ll figure something out.

In other cheerier news, let’s announce our first giveaway winner!

I opted for Excel’s random number generator. Here were the entrants:

Hubby, my finance whiz, showed me how to do this:

And the winner is…

Number 6, Laura, a “geektastic girl attempting creative proctastination” (her words, not mine) of “The Blog of Worldly Delights.”

Laura, my dear, I will be contacting you privately soon. I wanted to package the TZ purse hooks with the polish wipes and the velveteen drawstring bags, but at this point, we’re going to have to discuss further. As you can clearly see in the first part of this post, we’re having problems. Gah~!

Anyway, thanks for playing, everybody!

In other news…

Greetings from Lake Tahoe. I have paws!

Purse Hook Polish Wipes Update: I’ve been trying to negotiate with the seller. The seller not only refuses to acknowledge any fault or misrepresentation, she assures me that the “Zheng Cheng Long” is pretty. Pretty! That’s what she said! The words are pretty and is part of the decoration and design. Some people are incredible! :: sooo pissed ::

I tried again to take photos to show you what I’m talking about with the “Zheng Cheng Long.” (Below to the left is the back view of one of the TZ clutch samples. To the right–the wretched, blasted purse hook polish wipe things.)

If I do crazy funky things with the image in Photoshop, you get the following contrast, which makes the “Zheng Cheng Long” a little more visible:

Un-effing-believable! And then to add a farcical Merry Christmas card like you have no foresight that I, the buyer, will be royally pissed off… and then after I do get royally pissed off, to tell me “Zheng Cheng Long” is part of the decoration and design and it’s pretty?!

Some people (or sellers in China) are born with no shame at all. Bah humbug. Christmas indeed.

I know I’ve been inactive on this blog for the past few months, and I feel bad about that. So to segue me back into activity here on this design diary, I’m holding a bloggers’ giveaway, just a small one. I’m giving away two Taryn Zhang purse hooks. (Click on that link for more info on these nifty little doodads.)

Why two? Well, dear, because it is the giving season now. One is for you, and one is for you to give away. =)

Whatcha gotta do? Here’s a summary:

Checklist:

[  ] You’re a blogger.

[  ] Leave a comment to this post.

[  ] Share link to this blog on FB or Twitter.

[  ] Follow this blog in your blog reader.

If you win and I’ve sent you the purse hooks:

[  ] Blog about this blog on your blog.

The winner will be selected at random about two weeks from now, on December 19.

That is basically all you need to know/do to enter. If you still have questions, though, more deets after the jump.

Now here are the guidelines in long form:

TO ENTER:

1. Bona Fide Blogger. You must be authoring a blog that to date has at least 5 entries. Hence the title “bloggers’ giveaway.” [And I reserve the right to refuse awarding you if, you know, your 5-entry-blog looks fake. This is for legit bloggers, my friends.] No, your blog does not need to be about handbags or fashion. Any kind of blog will do, so long as it’s a bona fide blog.
2. One Entry Per Blogger. Sorry, no, you cannot enter a gajillion times. Only once. One entry per blogger. If you author fifty blogs and enter fifty times, that’s cheating and while I’ll probably never find out, it’s gonna be on you. Let’s play fair. One blogger, one entry. If you host multiple blogs, you get to choose which one blog to enter under.
3. Comment. Leave a comment to this post so I know you’ve entered. I’ll be selecting the winner at random from the comments section. So if you don’t leave a comment, you can’t possibly win. Does that make sense? =P Also, be sure you leave in your comment an easy way for me to privately message you in the event you win.
4. Share Via Twitter or Facebook. Share through either your Twitter or Facebook account a link to TZ. You can link this blog directly, blog.tarynzhang.com, or the TZ website, tarynzhang.com.
5. Subscribe to this Blog. Subscribe to this blog with either Bloglovin’ or your blog reader of choice. For quick links, see the right hand side bar.

Alas, there are more guidelines… keep reading… I know. I’m horrible.

ACTIONS REQUIRED, POST-GIVEAWAY:

Once I’ve selected at random a winner for this giveaway, the winner agrees to do the following after he or she has received the purse hook:

1. Post a blog entry with some reference to Taryn Zhang. Whatever you want. I trust you. The focal point of the post does not have to be about TZ, by the way. I’m self-centered, but not that self-centered. After you receive the purse hook, post something on your blog about Taryn Zhang New York. You can do a whole post featuring TZ, any one aspect of TZ, the purse hook you just got, whatevs. Go nuts. Or you can simply reference it sweetly somewhere in the post and make it seem like TZ relates to whatever was the focal point of said post. Hey, I’ll take that too. Be sure to link me to your post once it’s up. =)
2. Give away that second purse hook. Give it to your mom, your best friend since preschool, your roommate, another fellow blogger, host a giveaway on your own blog, anyone at all who you care about. That’s the only condition: someone you care about. No, sorry. Make it two conditions: (1) someone you care about, and (2) someone who will actually put a purse hook to good use. Yeah. That second condition makes sense, right? Be sure to let me know who you gave away that second purse hook to and, to satiate my curiosity, also let me know why you chose that person.
3. Complete post-giveaway actions soon. I’m not going to stamp on here a set time frame or deadline. But get it done within reason. I would say a month is within reason. If you suddenly get slammed with work in your life, within a couple months is okay, too. You get it, right?

True, the post-giveaway part that is to happen after I’ve selected the winner and sent out the purse hooks is a leap of faith on my part, but one I’ll gladly take. I’ve had an amazing, positive experience via this design diary, so I’m in!

Okay. That’s all of it. Bloggers’ giveaway to close on December 19. Love you!

Was greeted with that note on my Facebook Wall this morning. Both redacted names are high school buddies. How insane — insane in, oh, such a very, very good way!

Also, in the last few weeks I’ve received an overwhelming amount of warmth, encouragement, and support. (And Christmas order requests. Again, so sorry, but we have no inventory to sell right now. See previous few posts on this blog for why.)

Thank you, all. =)