NEW Byte Review merch is here! - In case you missed it, which if you follow me anywhere would be really difficult, then I’m very happy to announce we made some cool merch and it’s now all out now! You can pick it all up here.
I say it a lot, but we couldn’t be happier with how it’s all come out, we made a mug, sticker pack, wallpaper, and a limited bundle with everything including a limited edition coaster which looks really sweet. It was so much fun to bring the Byte Review redesign to life, taking something digital and turning it into a real thing you can hold is a great feeling, and maaaan I love those stickers so much!
The only thing I will say is; working on your own merch is hard. Trying to summarise what works for your brand and what works as an actual product is one thing, but then you’ve also got to think about if anyone would even want it. I always like to put myself in the customers shoes - is this something I would buy if a creator I enjoyed released it? And with this little set of products it was a yes.
I’d already been using the mug and stickers for over a month while we worked out the little details and it was hell for me to not show them off all the time! There’s some cool behind the scenes of the process in my day in the life video, which you can see here if you missed it :
What’s new with Kiroku?
Well, this is an easy one - it’s the new Byte Review merch of course (shock!) In other news Rachel’s broken ankle is nearly fully healed so she’s back in the studio and resuming her amazing job of wrapping up all your purchases so old sausage fingers here doesn’t have to anymore (yay!) and obviously, back to designing awesome new things.
On the subject of new things we heard the first sample of Kiroku Radio Vol 5 AND we have a cool collaboration coming up with another artist to make some very unique new wallpapers!
Creator Spotlight
🧑🎨 andre_wee - I discovered André through his very awesome stickers he designed for the Fujifilm X100VI release, but he’s also a highly skilled and varied artist! From sketching people in cafes to making amazing work in blender, Andrés style is incredibly varied while remaining uniquely him. I met André at the M4 iPad Event in London and we shared a few beers. Great guy, great art!
🍋 minimal_lemonade - Imagine if Teenage engineering had a page for product ideas that never came to life. This page is basically that, showing off very sleek industrial designs of products that I’d love to exist! I believe this is a repost account but it’s a cool curation nonetheless.
🏙️ NEVER TOO SMALL - I’m sure some of you have already watch this channel but it’s one of my favourites on YouTube. It looks at amazing tiny homes that are usually owned by architects and how they’re designed to be crazy functional despite being in a small space, super inspiring to watch.
Apologies for delay with these newsletters! I actually wrote an entire one on my time at the M4 iPad Apple Event in London but I felt I had covered it so much on YouTube and Instagram that a newsletter would be too much. I’m going to rejig it and release it as a ‘What’s it like to go to an Apple Event’ style one - hopefully you’ll find that a little more interesting than a recap!
Talk soon.
- Tom



‘What’s it like to go to an Apple Event’ looks like a good idea especially because it’s your first