Journal

Notes, decisions, and build logs for the tools I use.

01
2026-04-01
Claude Code + Cursor setup

The editor setup behind everything on this site. Claude Code in a terminal, with Cursor as the window around it. Also why this series stays on the CLI rather than switching to Claude Code Desktop.
02
2026-04-02
One Hostinger VPS, every project

Every project on this site runs on one rented server from Hostinger. One monthly bill instead of ten. Plain-English explanations of what a VPS is, what SSH does, what Docker is for, and how Claude Code reaches the server safely, plus what to decide before copying the setup.
03
2026-04-03
Markdown pyramid, a Claude Code skill

A small add-on for Claude Code that keeps it from reading every note in your project on every session. Saves on per-question cost and keeps files you weren't working on safe from accidental edits.
04
2026-04-04
Service account + campaign planning

How to plan a content series in a Google Sheet, then let a small Python script write to it. Free Google service account, the `.env` pattern, 60 lines of code.
05A
2026-04-05
Making generative art with AI to sell as print on demand

The rule book behind Lowphi, a small art imprint. Five colours from a golden-angle rotation, six suprematist shapes, Fibonacci timing, and a print-on-demand plan. Plus a short detour into why the Russian avant-garde still matters in 2026.
05B
2026-04-05
The Lunaire case study: personalised embroidery

A second print-on-demand case study. Lunaire is a celestial imprint sketched in 2023: personalised embroidered apparel generated from a buyer's birth data, plus a plain tone-on-tone second option. Live generator on the page.
05C
2026-04-05
The Lunaire case study: a phone case

Staying with Lunaire for a second product. A phone case where buyers pick between two and eight pastel neon colours and the generator makes a dye pattern underneath a fixed wordmark. Live colour-picker on the page.
06
2026-04-06
Comparing print-on-demand providers

The framework for picking a print-on-demand partner for prints and phone cases. Criteria to compare on, the providers worth benchmarking, and the common traps that only show up after the first real order.
07
2026-04-07
Selling personalised PoD products

How payment stacks shift between fixed-SKU catalogues and personalised per-order products. Fixed fits Shopify in minutes. Personalised requires a custom site with direct Stripe. What each combination costs, and why the product shape matters more than the country.
08
2026-04-08
Visual identity and brand alignment

What visual identity and brand alignment mean for a small label. Findability (SEO and AEO), a competitor benchmark, a name check, brand colours and logo, and why the price has to fit the brand it belongs to.
09
2026-04-24
Setting up Printful: store, product, API

From zero to a live print-on-demand product in one day: which Printful store type to pick (and why not Shopify), choosing the Stanley/Stella blank, designing the chest and sleeve in the Printful Design Maker, and the API token setup that lets a custom site place orders later.
10
2026-04-25
The tonal sweatshirt: artistic direction

Designing the Lunaire sweatshirt: tonal black-on-black embroidery as a quiet-luxury cue, the chest wordmark in Heavitas, the sleeve edition number in Concert One, and the small typographic decisions that survive an embroidery machine.
11
2026-04-25
Building wearlunaire.com

Standing up wearlunaire.com on the same VPS that already runs eight other things: a second virtual host inside the existing nginx container, a reservation form on a one-page hero, a /api/reserve route reusing the contact backend, and Let’s Encrypt issued by Traefik. No new infrastructure.
12
2026-04-25
Wiring it all together: site, Printful, payment

The end-to-end pipeline from a reservation on wearlunaire.com to a Printful draft order: server-side PNG generation, the per-order placement override mechanic, real cost numbers, why the manual approval queue is v1, and why Stripe Checkout deliberately ships second.
13
2026-04-25
Marketing without a budget

The hardest part of launching a personalised product with no audience and no money. Realistic about budgets (the Bieber Coachella comparison everyone should stop making), waitlist mechanics that market themselves, picking one platform deeply, and the fun zero-budget tactics that actually move the needle.

Plain-English definitions of the technical terms used across this journal. Every term links to the episode where it first lands.

AEO (answer engine optimisation): How a brand appears when someone asks ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini a question. Similar ingredients to SEO (clear writing on crawlable pages), tighter and more declarative wording. episode →
API (application programming interface): How one piece of software asks another to do something, without a human clicking through screens. For print-on-demand, a script can upload new designs and create products in batches rather than by hand. episode →
Approval queue: A draft-order pattern where an order created via the API sits in the dashboard until manually confirmed. Nothing prints, ships or charges until the seller approves. The cheap version of a quality-control step. episode →
Claude Code: Anthropic's command-line coding tool. Runs inside a terminal, reads your files, writes them back, runs commands on your behalf. episode →
Container: Isolated environment that packages an app with its dependencies, so it runs the same way on any machine. Docker is the best-known way to make and run containers. episode →
Digitisation: The process of turning an image into stitch paths an embroidery machine can sew. Most services charge a one-off fee per unique design; for personalised pieces that means every order incurs the fee. episode →
DNS (domain name system): How a friendly domain name (like `lowphi.art`) gets translated into the numerical IP address a computer actually needs to reach a server.
Domain name: The human-readable address of a website. You rent it annually from a registrar.
Draft order: An order created via API with the confirm flag omitted. Sits in Printful’s dashboard until manually approved; nothing prints, nothing ships, nothing charges until the seller clicks confirm. episode →
File library: Printful’s central store of uploaded design files, indexed by id and reusable across products and orders. A per-order override points to a file id rather than re-uploading the same image. episode →
Knockout: A transparent shape cut out of a printed design, so whatever is underneath shows through. Used on the Lunaire phone case to let the phone's own finish become the wordmark colour. episode →
Object storage: Cloud storage for files, organised into buckets. Not a website host; just a place to keep files that other systems can read from over the internet.
Per-order override: A Printful order line item that swaps in a custom file for one placement (e.g. the right sleeve) while inheriting all other placements from the synced product. The mechanic that makes generative-per-order possible. episode →
Print-on-demand (PoD): A printer sits between the store and the customer. Orders forward to the printer, who prints and ships each piece only when someone buys it. No inventory. episode →
Registrar: A company that rents domain names to you on behalf of the global domain registry. Cloudflare Registrar, Namecheap and Porkbun are common picks.
Resend: A transactional-email service. Sends system-triggered emails (order confirmations, contact-form replies) through one API call, and handles the deliverability setup that most people get wrong.
Service account: A non-human Google account used by scripts to read and write Google services (Sheets, Drive) without logging in interactively. episode →
SSH (secure shell): Encrypted way to log into a remote server from your own machine, usually to run commands on it. episode →
Sync product: Printful’s term for a product configured inside a store, with fixed variants (sizes, colours) and a default set of placement files. Per-order overrides modify placements at order time without changing the synced product itself. episode →
Tonal embroidery: Embroidery in thread that nearly matches the fabric colour. Visible at close range from the thread sheen, almost invisible from a distance. The quiet-luxury cue used on Margiela tabs, Yohji labels and the Lunaire chest wordmark. episode →
Transactional email: System-triggered email sent to one person at a time (order confirmations, password resets, contact-form replies). Opposite of newsletters or marketing blasts.
VPS (virtual private server): A rented computer running in a data centre. You don't own it, you lease it, usually for a flat monthly fee. episode →