Custom Design Guide

So you want to design a custom, and want to make sure it has the best chance of being chosen for the next batch? Good idea! This guide will show you what I (as the designer at Grunge Bunny) tend to look for in a custom design request.

First of all, the Order Information and FAQ pages should cover some bases for general information about GB hoods, and all custom design submissions are now taken through the website. If your design is chosen, a quote will be arranged and you'll be sent a Paypal invoice. Your custom design order isn't confirmed until at least half of this invoice has been paid up front, and if the 50% up-front payment remains unpaid for more than 48 hours after being sent, your order will be cancelled. Full terms and conditions are available on the website and will also be included in the invoice.

Design Templates

You can download the templates from our Custom Templates page. PSD files can be opened in Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Procreate and some other design apps. The PDFs are supplied with layers.

Here's an example of the design template - this example shows the cropped ear shape. There's a design template for every style of ear, and also each hardware colour available. You can also add or remove the ventilation freckles.

For artistic liberty designs, please scroll further down the page to the relevant section for more information!

If you have a specific design in mind, the most useful thing for me to receive for custom orders is the Design Template shown above. The design is sight-copied from your design template onto the print file which makes up the individual pieces of the neoprene, which is generally pretty accurate - changes will only be made if they're necessary to work on a hood. You won't be shown any previews of your hood before it is printed unless you specifically request it in your design prompt, as this significantly adds to the mental load of keeping on top of everyone's custom designs in any given batch. If you have asked to see a preview of the design before it is printed, only limited areas will be shown - e.g the top of the muzzle or the eyebrow area. I can't share screencaps of the entire design as the print files look really weird in their 2D form, and it would make it far too easy for GB's signature hood style to be copied!

It should also be noted that your design submission is final, so please be absolutely certain on each aspect of the design (size, choices of ears, piercings, hardware colour and the design itself) before you submit it.

Here's an example of a specific character design (on the previous 2020-2022 design template), and the finished hood;

As you can see, they're very close!

Markings

When designing a hood, I generally try to keep elements contained to one 'area' at a time if possible - so ears, forehead, cheeks, muzzle or jaw. It can be tricky to line up markings across the intersecting pieces of neoprene, particularly on the highly curved area where the muzzle meets the cheeks. There is some slight variation between where the markings and hardware sit on each individual hood with them being entirely handmade, so it's helpful to have a design that utilises curves or soft markings where they intersect, like so;

The area where the side of the muzzle joins the side of the face on both of these hoods has a curved marking which makes for a more elegant transition of markings between the two areas.

It is possible to line up straight or very precise lines, but due to the thickness of the neoprene and the way the material is transferred from being 2D into a 3D shape it can look mismatched at certain angles, like so;

You can see here that when viewed from a 3/4 angle, the gold stripe that crosses from the upper to lower side of the face looks misaligned - but when it's seen from facing that area of fabric directly, it's perfectly aligned. This is because the thickness of the neoprene creates a 'step' between the two areas. A design won't necessarily be turned down just because of 'steps' in the markings, it's just something to consider when putting together a design. The hardest areas to align are the side of the muzzle to where it meets the face, the bottom of the muzzle to the lower jaw, and the base of the ears to the top of the face, because they are all very curved areas.

Important markings should be kept at least 1cm from the cut edges of the neoprene as the amount of shrinkage when the design is transferred onto the fabric can vary.

The inks used for printing are environmentally and marine safe as realistically possible, meaning we stick to CMYK - this means no true neons (although colours can be printed very bright), glow in the dark, metallic or similar effects. White areas of a hood will react under blacklight due to the base white colour of the fabric being visible - just like how a white t-shirt will glow under blacklight. A colour swatches section is included on the design template so I can get as close as possible to your design. The printing process tends to make the colours come out a little lighter and with a slight velvety shine, and the highlights and shading make the shapes of the hood look more dynamic. If you want a really vibrant hood, it's best to put the colour swatches in as a slightly more vibrant tone than you'd like it to be in real life. The colours are printed on a white base fabric, so this white base can make colours come out a little paler. Putting a very saturated or slightly darker colour in your swatches should help to counter this.

On a side note - if you can't decide whether or not to get ventilation freckles on your hood, I would generally recommend them unless they will actively have a negative impact on the design of your hood. They really do make quite a noticeable difference in the breathability of your hood, and we all need to breathe!

Styles

My favourite styles to design tend to be those which honour the smooth texture of the neoprene. Markings come in a few styles - crisp and clean 'toony' style with no fur-style details, gentle 'soft' shaded style, semi-toony 'spiked' fur, and semi-realistic 'flecks' style. Whilst I can also do a more realistic full 'fur' texture, I tend to have a preference towards 'toony', 'soft' or 'flecks' style markings. Here's examples of these styles.

Some designs combine multiple styles or something really wild, which I love to design!

I tend to avoid designs that have a very strict markings layout that won't work with the way the pieces of the hood intersect - e.g very complex markings that must line up exactly across the muzzle, face and cheeks would be difficult to pull off. Sometimes I have to alter designs slightly to fit markings onto a hood where they will best fit the 3D design of the hood and it's sections, even if the design has precise and particular markings. Reading this guide will hopefully have set you up to know how to avoid this for the most part!

When it comes to what I tend to avoid for custom hood designs, popular copyrighted characters, characters from shows or games primarily associated with minors, or anything with particularly controversial themes tends to be a no from me. Otherwise, I'm open to very simple designs, more complex designs, and really unusual and out-there stuff is also great fun! I love seeing designs that I wouldn't have thought to do myself. It's really exciting when I get prompted for a custom design that's unlike things I've designed before, especially if the design isn't overly complicated - relative simplicity can make for a really striking hood design vs something highly detailed, especially considering a lot of the time the hood will only be seen from a couple of feet or further away. Equally, I like to make sure a good portion of the custom designs in each batch won't be overly time-consuming to create, so that I can get everything finished in time to meet the estimated dispatch date.

The more complex and time-consuming a design is, the longer it will take to create, and therefore the more expensive it is. Payments for customs are taken half up front and the remainder whenever you like up until the dispatch date, and are organised via Paypal invoice to keep things simple. if you want something that's not been seen before but need to stick to a budget, I'd suggest considering requesting a recolour of a premade design - for example, a pink and blue Doberman would be both unusual and more affordable.

If you've had trouble grabbing a particular premade design in the webshop or need it in a size that hasn't been listed so far, please do reach out when customs open as this should be achievable. Also, if you think you might not fit in a small or large hood, we should be able to accommodate for that too.

Artistic Liberty Designs

Artistic liberty commissions are always very welcome! The best way to go about this is to provide a general theme, and then any features, colours or ear styles you'd particularly like to see or definitely don't want on your hood, and if you'd like piercings. You can also provide 1-3 inspiration images of hoods, dog breeds, colour palettes or themes that I can create a design from.

Liberty commissions are very much a surprise for you - no previews will be shared before your hood is completed. If you are hoping to provide a completed design or multiple completed designs to be combined into one hood, then your custom isn't an artistic liberty one. To keep things straightforward, I prefer a client to either be very specific with the design that they want and to provide a completed design template, or be the total opposite with a very loose 'vibe' they're aiming for and to let me run with the idea. This is to avoid the potential miscommunication that can arise if someone has an idea of what they want but hasn't provided the full details needed to match what they have in mind.

For example, an artistic liberty prompt I had great fun with was the following;

1. Ear Style(s): Buddy, pointed
2. Ventilation Freckles: Yes
3. Hardware Colour: Shiny Silver
4. Size: Large
5. Design & Colouration: Artistic liberty please! I have an affinity for pretty purples and blues, and I love stars/space-related themes, but I am open to what you would love to design!

This was the outcome - pretty cool, right?

If there's anything you're still unsure of, please do reach out for a chat! It is worth bearing in mind that I am the only designer and also the owner of Grunge Bunny, so if your design isn't picked for a batch of customs it doesn't mean that I don't like it or don't want to do it - sometimes the sheer volume of custom order requests means that I can't complete them all in a single batch of customs. If you didn't get chosen last time, I'd recommend reading over this page again to make sure your design has considered all the points discussed here, and then reapplying next time customs open. I do try to make sure that people who have applied for a custom design more than once will get their custom chosen eventually - if it has been submitted multiple times and not chosen, it is more likely to be something about the design that is preventing it from being chosen. I'd be happy to discuss this with you.

Have fun designing and I hope to hear from you when customs open!