This project required some manufacturing and assemble that we weren’t too familiar with, but with the schematics and specifications from the Sportsnet creative department, the results were great. The awards look really cool and it was lot’s of fun working on these.

Have a look at the pics.

From the show: Lucas is sleeved out with Star Wars tattoos, making him look a bit like an enforcer in some kind of sci-fi Yakuza. Carrying around a decidedly factory default-looking laptop is not befitting a man who clearly holds customization near to his heart.

Very cool! This was a fun afternoon and the guys from Butterscotch were great to work with.

This being our first post of 2010, we thought it was the right time to outline some of our strategy for 2010 and some of our resolutions, which I’m sure you have some of your own as well.

We will be working on some very interesting ideas on products to etch, etching processes and other ideas. We have been laser etching your gadgets… and other items, for almost 2.5 years, and in this period of time, we have learned a lot, not only about etching, but dealing with customers, etching different and sometimes strange items, and to always try new ideas, before telling the customer that the etching won’t work. This experience also helped us with the startup of 3 new HiTechTattoos locations in Canada and US. On that note, stay tuned for other locations opening in 2010!

In 2010 we want to keep our blog going with more frequent posts, more etching ideas and really keep you more in the loop of what we are doing and planning for the road ahead.

We are currently expanding and indexing our artwork collection to serve you better. Many times, a customer comes over to the office to get their iPod or cell phone etched and they don’t yet know that to etch on the item. We show them our collection of images and most times we help the person come up with something cool to etch on their gadget. Currently we have several thousand images, but they are not very well organized, and finding the right image can take some time. We are still debating if we should make part of our collection available online for viewing, but either way it will be easier to find what you are looking for.

One of our current etching limitations is the item size. Our current lasers fir any item measuring no more that 12″x16″x4″ which fits any size laptop or a small briefcase. It has happened, not many times, that a customer calls us looking to etch a larger item or something that requires a bit more laser power than we have, so we are thinking if it will make sense to acquire a laser machine with a larger table size. If we do, we will definitely update the blog with the news!

In 2010 look for some new and very cool promotions from HiTechTattoos. Our first and only promotion, currently still running, to get $10 off any etching has proven really successful and we will keep it running until the end of February, 2010. We are already thinking of new cool ideas, and partnerships, to give you new great deals.

I guess that’s all for now and we look forward to seeing you at HiTechTattoos soon!
Time to get etched!

Don and his team are ready to take care of you and get you etched if you are in the Chicago area or really anywhere in the US. It’s easier to send your items to Chicago than getting them to us here in Toronto.

Are you looking to get your Christmas gifts customized? Getting that special someone a brand new iPod and would like to get it etched? Give Don a call to book an appointment at (815) 219-0050.

We are also getting ready for the events coming with the Christmas season, corporate parties or a private event with a laser etching station onsite. Have a look at the ‘Etching Pictures‘ menu above to see how cool the events are and how great the response is by the guest.

Hope to see you soon at the Chicago location.

Contact:

Don Taubin
don@hitechtattoos.com
(815) 219-0050

The bottle will be available in November 2009 but you can already pre-order yours at www.tkaro.com

From the manufacturer website:

The design was provided to us, which looked really cool, and we had to produce several cards, with variable media, i.e., different Username and Password on each card to allow the VIP guest to login to the Cartel website and try out the new features.

Other than variable media, the one side of the cards was to be etched with a ‘full bleed’ like you usually do when printing paper business cards, where the print goes all the way to the very edge of the document. With a laser, this is easier said than done, because you need to make your template very precise so you can etch more than one card at a time.  The last obstacle was the fact that some of the content in the card was extremely small to etch (comparable to printing in Arial 5pt) which is really small and etching on anodized aluminum looks like it ‘bleeds’ a little on the material.

We were able to get them etched, after a bit of testing, and they look really sweet! We are also a preferred partner with The Game Cartel so we really wanted to make these cards look as nice as possible.

Palm Canada got us in their booth to laser etch any phones from the distinguished guests. The response to the laser etching by HiTech Tattoos was great and many people came over to our table to see how the process worked and hangout with the Tattoo guys!

There were a few different challenges in getting this done: the size of the velvet pieces was a problem. Fitting all that material inside the laser while keeping it flat was not easy. But Kerry being a designer, found a nice way to fold it and leave some excess hanging out the front of the laser. Second, we never etched velvet before, so we testing many different types of velvet and different settings in the laser. We found one that Kerry really liked and her client also liked the result. Once these issues were solved, we etched the real pieces, straight from England, UK.

Here are some pictures of the results. Nice, eh?

The etched turn out great on the back of the unit, which was customized with the owner’s name and a company logo. Also, we were asked to etch the leather sleeve for the Kindles, which also turned out great. All the units were etched with different names and were ready for delivery the next day. Check out the pics.