Hot on the heels of new baseball caps and dad hats we have two more products to help boost your Back to School sales. We’re preparing to launch mouse pads and desk mats in the next couple of weeks. Customers won’t be able to purchase them yet, but they’re available in the uploader so you can start getting ready for launch.

Designed and sold by UrbanEpiphany and HeloBirdie

About Mouse Pads and Desk Mats

Mouse pads are 24.1cm x 20.3cm (9.5″ x 8″) with a 3mm (0.1″) thickness.
Desk mats are 80cm x 39.4cm (31.5″ x 15.5″) with a 3mm (0.1″) thickness.

Both products support optical and laser mice. They feature a microweave polyester surface for optimal mouse control and an anti-slip natural rubber base. Mouse pads and desk mats have anti-fray edges and a pill-resistant surface so they’re super-durable. They’re also easy to spot clean with a damp cloth.

Designed and sold by noviajonatan and Norman Duenas

Adding the New Products to Your Shop

To enable an existing design on mouse pads or desk mats, scroll down to the new tiles in the uploader, check you’re happy with the positioning, tick enable, and save changes. If you’d like to customize your design you can use “Replace image” to upload a version just for these products.

You can also use the bulk enable tool to speed up your workflow.

• Head to Manage portfolio
• Tick the check boxes for any designs you want to enable
• Choose “Enable on” from the menu
• Select mouse pads or desk mats then click “Enable”
• Check the your designs are well positioned, then click “Enable” and “Save”

Please take extra care to only enable designs that suit the products and double check for any obvious issues like white borders.

Design Tips

The image dimensions are:
Mouse pad: 2559 x 2165px @250 DPI
Desk mat: 8268 x 4331px @250 DPI
Image type = JPG
Aspect ratio = Landscape

Creating designs for these products is pretty straightforward. It’s always worth taking time to make sure any existing designs are formatted well so your customers will be happy with them. In particular, make sure your design covers the full surface area of the product and you’re not cropping out key details or significant parts of your image.

Designed and sold by vonik and noviajonatan

Marketing Tips

Mouse pads and desk mats are great Back to School products. We shared some customer insights on the recent post announcing baseball caps and dad hats, focusing on high school and college kids. If you’re thinking about making new designs for this audience, it’s worth revisiting those tips.

In addition to Back to School, both products are easy, affordable ways to personalize a home office, workspace or or study area. Many people are still working from home and investing in making their work and study areas more comfortable. They also make great gifts for anyone heading back to the office.

Incorporating Trends

If you’re looking for design inspiration, exploring trends is the way to go. Some of the most successful artists on Redbubble have found a way to incorporate trends while still being true to their own unique style. It doesn’t mean changing your whole approach to making art. You should always be driven by what you’re interested in creating, but spend time thinking about your audience and their interests, how they link to current conversations or cultural moments, and how this may influence what people are searching for.

Artists often tell us they struggle with incorporating trends so here’s an example. A couple of topics have come out of the Tokyo Olympics in recent weeks. There’s excitement around new sports like surfing and skateboarding, and many people have been inspired by amazing young athletes like Sky Brown and Momiji Nishiya. Articles like this also reference skateboarding’s rise in popularity, especially among girls and young women. The article also talks about how more people want to reconnect with nature and are trying outdoor sports and activities as a result of the pandemic.

It’s a great example of a broad topic that has trending elements. From here, you can pick a niche that interests you (skateboarding, surfing, badass women inspiring others, hiking, connecting with nature, fitness, health) and do keyword research to find the most popular search terms and related topics. Search social channels and news articles to tap into conversations and see what aspects are most popular. Armed with this information you can create something in your own style with a better sense of how you’re going to tag your work and connect with potential customers.

If you’re looking for more tips, read our article on identifying trends with artist Katie Crumpton.

Designed and sold by vonik and Norman Duenas

There are more shopping occasions in the second half of the year as we head towards holidays so it’s the perfect time to add new products and let your customers know about them. We hope mouse pads and desk mats inspire you to add some amazing new products to your shop, and don’t forget to add baseball caps and dad hats if you haven’t already!