Post #780588 by stevekh on Sat, Oct 14, 2017 5:17 PM

so, this is my first foray into mug design - i had a great idea for a mug for my local tiki room, so texted the owner a rough sketch, and he loved it - the next part was tough, as i'm a sign guy, not a sculptor - i found a factory in china that does tiki mugs and production should be done in the next month - here are pics of my full size sketch and couple renderings of the rough sculpt and final sculpt.

this is a labor of love for me, as Tulsa has a cool tiki history - i wanted to do something reminiscent of the frankoma stuff, so i played the local flavor with some tiki thrown in - the mug is a tribute to the Golden Driller statue in Tulsa with some added maori inspired tattooing - i redrew the TULSA typeface from the drillers belt buckle and added it to the base of the mug, and drew what i thought would be the lettering in the same typeface for SATURN ROOM on the back base - the negative space in the tattooing on the back has a rocket ship shape that is one of the graphics saturn uses. the hardhat will be removable and have a straw hole in the back, and Saturn is working on a "Golden Driller" cocktail for the mug specifically

hope you guys enjoy and pick one up when you're in town - i'll post more pics as i receive them from the factory producing them - kind of hoping to possibly do some more as a side gig possibly now that i'm working out all the logistics kinks in regards to working with a factory in china, pricing, minimum runs - all the boring parts of business.

final to-size sketches:

rough sculpt - had to have the face re-done 4 times

final sculpt approved for mould making: