Friday, February 26, 2010

Perfect makes practice

This Squaredy Cat is like a perfect slice of cheese.

Upon 20/20 hindsight, it seems there could have been many ways to create a "perfect" Squaredy Cat. Maybe it depends on our mood. Perfect symmetry seems like it should have been the way to go instead of just a perfectly unadorned cat. Maybe this is only more proof that perfection doesn't exist, but the desire to achieve it will always drive us.
If you are perfect, then you are fortunate. We will strive to make a more and more perfect Squaredy Cat for everyone. But, then, what's perfect for one is not perfect for another. Let us know when we make your perfect Squaredy Cat.

Be trendy if you like. Here's why.

We hope you think Squaredy Cats are more than just trendy. We want to stick around.

We couldn't think of any trendy looks that would still remain semi-generic so that this cat would make sense as a representative for more than one specific trend. We just picked the "backward baseball cap" trend. Very basic.
The thing about trends is that they are looked at as style by some people, and viewed very negatively by others. Though, from the outside a trend may seem annoying, we all struggle to find out who we are and what we like. Giving in to a trend now and then is an easy way to see if you want to fit in or stand out - or a little of both.
Be a trend-setter or a trend-follower, or be wishy-washy about trends. If you like it, it shouldn't matter if it seems to others that you give in to outside influences. Isn't their judgment of you just another outside influence? Forget'em. Be trendy if you like.

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Okay, Computer. You can wait.

Sometimes it's best to just stay online. Today is one of those days.

We posted this to the Facebook page on a day when it was somehow bright and sunny. It was a day of relief from the miserably cold weather we've been getting. We hope we inspired at least one person to forget about their computer or mobile device for at least a few hours because the miserable weather is back with a vengeance. It's cold and wet with slushy snow in New York City. If your weather is different today please get outside! You say your laptop needs you? You say you have to call tech support? Try it later, after you've taken advantage of what has become the rare event of sunshine.

Monday, February 22, 2010

We made NEW T-shirts :)

These Squaredy Cats t-shirts will be collectibles!

Yay! We made T-Shirts :D
These 9 designs won't be available forever.

The last set of T-Shirts has been removed and retired FOREVER!
Don't wait for these to disappear too.

Tell us on our Facebook Page which one you want next!

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Magnets are here!

These Squaredy Cats magnets are collectibles!

Yay! We made magnets :D

These 9 designs won't be available forever.

Bulk packages available for schools and parties :)

Tell us on our Facebook Page which one you want next!

Super-Duper

What a great day to get outside! It's been so cold lately. Enjoy the beautiful weather, and get some fresh air. Squaredy Cats and the internet will still be here when you get back ;)

Friday, February 19, 2010

Which is more fierce?

 We prefer the teal background…

over the yellow background.

After the suggestion to do a "Cheetah Squaredy Cat," we brainstormed ideas for more big cats. We love lions, and lions are fierce so the logic was easy here. What was hard was getting the mane right. We did four different manes before finally settling on one. But we think we may have jumped the gun on the background color being yellow. While designing our new buttons we used a teal background for the lion, and think that color works better.

Which background color do you like best?

Chase your dreams

Cheetah Squaredy Cat will help you chase your dreams.

A fan on our Facebook page recently suggested we create a "Cheetah" Squaredy Cat after she saw our "not squared to go wild" (tiger) Squaredy Cat. We always love your suggestions, so keep'em coming. It's important to us that what we design works, so, though we liked the idea, we needed a good reason for a cheetah.
After some thought and brainstorming here we added a few other big cats with appropriate phrases to accompany them. Cheetahs are known for their speed, and with our hopes to always present a positive message we associated our own attempt to chase our dreams as toy designers who want to have our own successful brand. The chase may last a while, but when it comes down to it you'll always be happy trying to achieve your goals. Don't be scared to try.

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Buttons are back!

These Squaredy Cats buttons are collectibles!

Yay! We brought buttons back :D

These 9 designs won't be available forever.

Bulk packages available for schools and parties :)

Tell us on our Facebook Page which one you want next!

You're #1

Are you watching the Olympics?

The idea behind this cat didn't have much to do with the Olympics that are happening now. This cat isn't competing in a Winter Olympics event. We thought this was definitely a competitive cat, but could be on the school Gymnastics Team. Whatever you do, do it to excel if you are enjoying it. Be the best you can be. That doesn't mean you have to be the best over-all. Just don't be afraid to try. The gold medal with a "1" on it could easily have been a ribbon with a "4." That's the message here.

Emo supremo


The emo Squaredy Cat was conceived to wear her heart on her sleeve, but we weren't sure that the literal translation would be recognizable at all. We decided a heart with a cross bone as a barrette would cooler. There wasn't a lot more that went into the thought process other than using purple because we think somehow purple seems like an emotional color that isn't necessarily representative of any specific emotion.

Sunday, February 14, 2010

We belong to you

We promise this is the last Valentine's Day Squaredy Cat we'll be posting this year. This one goes out to THE FANS on the Facebook Page. Because of your wonderful reaction to our cats we have the courage to do our best to get these cats into stores. Now it's very likely that will happen :) Thank you so much for all your supportive messages :D

Cupid, draw back your bow

This was the second ever designed Valentine's Day Squaredy Cat from last year. It was based on our "not squared of kisses" Squaredy Cat. Notice the heart-shaped nose?

cuckoo for cocoa

We thought it would be fun to make the cat himself chocolate brown instead of choosing which kind of chocolate he actually likes. This guy is pretty simple. If he doesn't get any chocolate for Valentine's Day he's heading straight to the store tomorrow to get it at 50% off ;)

The kissing bandit

Do you know the band, KISS? The guy with the star on his eye (Paul Stanley) originally wore his make-up to look like a bandit with a mask. That's the kind of inspiration behind this kissing bandit Squaredy Cat. An unintentional effect of the cat's pose is that she looks like she's blowing kisses - in other words, giving them away. Maybe she steals kisses from the rich, and gives them to the poor :P

The very first Valentine Squaredy Cat

This was the very first Valentine's Day Squaredy Cat we ever designed. Their simple shape lends itself to looking like a hug or outstretched arms every time, so we extended the arms slightly to show this cat was reaching out as far as she could. I love you *this much* … all the way around the world :)

Everyone has a secret

At least once in their life everyone has either been secretly admired or was a secret admirer. We chose the very graphic question mark and black cat to resemble one of those "your picture here" style graphics. We think this one will make a nice card. What do you think?

Browse the bakery sweets

Don't you love browsing all the delicious looking pastries at the bakery? That's what we had in mind when we made this sweetie. This was another of our Style Guide cats from last year. We really wish we'd thought of making a Facebook page a long time ago. Who knows what we'll come up with for Valentine's Day next year. We hope by then the plushies are out!

Love you

When we started designing Valentine Squaredy Cats this year we realized it is important for everyone to remember that whether you have a Valentine or not it's important to always love yourself! Be a strong person, and always believe in you.
This is the first cat to use thumbs.

Can you "LOVE" a sweet?

When we first came up with the concept of Squaredy Cats it was still pretty vague. Thanks to our agents, we learned to focus the idea, and put together what is called a Style Guide to present to potential manufacturers and stores. For the Style Guide we put together last year we included four cats for Valentine's Day along with several others seasons and holidays . This was one of the first we put any dimension to. Before this cat all the art was extremely flat. We still like the flat look, but sometimes it makes sense to have the depth to make a box of chocolate look as delicious as possible!

XOXO

We really wanted to make a Squaredy Cat *pop* off a bright pink heart, so we associated it with the phrase, "not squared to XOXO." The phrase is pretty open-ended. It means hug and kiss, but it can be a romantic smooch or a friendly peck; a warm, loving embrace or a passionate cuddle.
Maybe XO also looks like an *ouchie* emoticon. We hope it doesn't hurt you to love :)

Dog ears aren't just for bookmarking anymore

We couldn't wait to post this Squaredy cat on our Facebook page a couple of weeks ago because a few fans were suggesting a "squaredy dog" or "squaredy puppy." We might try something else to incorporate dogs into Squaredy Cats at some point, but for now this one will have to do ;)

Friday, February 12, 2010

An honest reflection

You may need a mirror to read this ;)

Yesterday we posted this cat on our Facebook Page with the question, "If you could change one thing about yourself what would it be?" and we were blown away by the honest responses. Never before when we've asked a question did we expect you to actually open your hearts to us so much. Squaredy Cats hope to continue to send a positive message, and we so appreciate that there was no making fun in that thread. We hope you all can continue to be positive with each other. Thanks to everyone who responded.

This Squaredy Cat was designed to be simple with no stand-out features that anyone could associate with something they may feel negatively about in themselves. In other words, there's nothing so special about this cat, but also there's nothing really wrong with this cat. We hope you can look at yourself in the mirror, and feel good about what you see. We're all different, and we're all the same. Your reflection is beautiful :)

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Don't make me scream

I scream, you scream, we all scream for Squaredy Cats!

Welcome to our Facebook fans. We recently set up the Squaredy Cats Blog to feed directly onto our Facebook Page. Here some of what you'll get to see is what our thoughts were in our individual designs. We hope you enjoy it and invite your friends :)

"Not squared to scream" has been on the plate for almost a year, but with all we are developing for Squaredy Cats it was difficult to get many new designs done. Our friend Anne has a baby, and for a long time he would just scream and scream! She asked us to do a "not squared to scream" cat that was for a boy.

We're glad it took so long for us to do for two reasons:

1. We only recently started to break out of our original design rules we set for ourselves, and this cat is breaking one we had already broken plus two more! He's not sitting flat like all of our original Squaredy Cats, but the two new additions are a longer tail and a chin. We started using the big happy smile only recently, but with a scream we though it made sense to break out of the square a little to show he's really screaming. You'll see more designs that incorporate this feature in future cats.

2. We designed the "not squared to scream" cat just in time for John Henry's 1st birthday. Happy birthday, John Henry!

Friday, February 5, 2010

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Get LOST!

Is John Locke a Squaredy Cat?

We thought it would be fun to try some fandom Squaredy Cats (for the internet collection only). The premier of the final season of LOST was last night, so we did this yesterday, and posted it to the Squaredy Cats Facebook page. Surprisingly, it seems the younger fans are not so into LOST. Well, the rest of us are not squared to show our support to a John Locke lookalike. The numbers 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, and 42 have real meaning for us :)

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Silly. We forgot.

Squaredy Cats are silly.

Silly us. We forgot to post this one. We designed this one (along with some others) to show a certain company that may want to make plushy Squaredy Cats. Cross your paws for us!

Happy Groundhog Day

Is this a Squaredy Groundhog?

Thanks to our fan, Eric on our Facebook page for reminding us today is Groundhog Day!
The shadow here is inspired by Tex Avery animation. Hope it's not too squarey for ya!

Monday, February 1, 2010

The power of veggies


We had some reservations about the strength of this Squaredy Cat. The art felt a little weak, but we couldn't figure out what to do. The phrase was too important to let go, so we went with it. To our surprise we were flooded with responses to it on the Squaredy Cats Facebook page! We're very happy that so many fans know that just because it's good for you, it doesn't mean it can't be delicious! Keep telling us which veggies are your favorite :)