Hey Clayton customers! Check out these cool designs that are being submitted by some of our other customers! Both of these picks were designed for weddings, and we love how creative they are! Both are two-sided designs. The top pick design was made on our white pearl material, with full bleed art that almost covers the entirety of the pick, so it gives the appearance of being golden on one side and pink on the other. Of course, both sets of picks display the couple’s name and the wedding date. The second pick design is on our white delrin material, which really makes the red color of the tree pop. Both pick sets will be great as wedding favors that can tie into the wedding theme and impress guests with originality. Are you planning a 2012 wedding? Start designing your custom wedding guitar picks today at www.claytoncustom.com. Looking for inspiration? Check out our website designated specifically for wedding picks that shows what customers have created before to help you come up with some ideas: www.customweddingpicks.com.

We decided to showcase a couple of really nice overbleed custom pick designs. Overbleed, or full bleed, is an option for custom picks that allows you to create your design so that the art, graphics, photos, text, etc. will extend all the way to the very edge of the pick, instead of having a border around them. This simple change in the normal design process will allow for some really cool effects, like the picks shown below. The pick on the left is our pink delrin material, and we like how the black design creates the effect of a patterned pick. The pick on the right is a white pearl, and the full coverage of the background in the art creates an illusion that the pick is colored instead of white, and has a really nice gradient. To have this option for your own custom picks, simply visit www.claytoncustom.com and start your design. When you reach the pick options page, you will see a box to the right that you can check to allow for the full bleed of your design. When you click this box, you will notice that the template on the next page will not include any border around your design. Just as a caution though, it is inadvisable to create a design that has a black full bleed background on a white guitar pick…these types of designs are highly susceptible to flaking once they are on the picks, and they often make the artwork appear muddy. Happy designing!

We wanted to show off an example of an awesome full color design for black celluloid custom guitar picks that one of our customers submitted. The design is pretty intricate and has a lot of detail, but it turned out really well. We love how the white and bright blue contrast against the black color of the pick. You can create a design like this on our custom guitar pick site: www.claytoncustom.com. Be sure to choose black celluloid as your pick material if you would  like to get awesome black glossy finish picks like the one shown. If your design has any color besides white, you will need to choose the option for full color print. Great colors for black picks include yellow, bright blue, bright green, and red. Black celluloid picks are available in the standard pick shape, and in three gauges; thin, medium and heavy. Create your design today!!

We are very excited to announce the launching of our new site created specifically for wedding guitar picks!! We have found that wedding picks are very popular, so we decided to make a site to help guide brides and grooms through the process of ordering custom guitar picks for the big day, and to provide examples of how guitar picks have been used by other customers for their weddings. To check out the site, visit http://www.customweddingpicks.com/. Be sure to click on the “Ideas”

section to see some examples of wedding pick designs, and photos of the picks actually being used! For more information about ordering custom guitar picks for your wedding, contact us at weddingpicks@steveclayton.com!

This week’s Pick of the Week was created for a band called Sweet Cyanide. They are a band from NYC and are currently supporting their 2nd full length album release entitled, “Sweet Cyanide II.” Singles from the album include Bad Jesus and Solitary Son. They have played the main stage at the Rock n’ Rev festival in Sturgis South Dakota with Three Doors Down, Hinder, Guns N’ Roses and Alice in Chains.  Throughout 2010 they’ve had the pleasure of opening for Halestorm, Bullet for My Valentine, Pop Evil and Extreme. Their guitar pick design was replicated on our acetal picks, which are semi-transparent white in color and have a really nice grip surface. You can design your own custom picks on our site at www.claytoncustom.com
To find out more about Sweet Cyanide, visit their website is www.sweetcyanide.com. 
There are music videos for their top song on their Youtube page: www.youtube.com/sweetcyanidenyc. All of their music is available on iTunes and Amazon.

Sometimes, the simplistic designs are the ones that look the best when it comes to custom guitar picks. Shown in the image below are some great examples of simple but awesome designs that were submitted by our customers. These were all created on our white delrin picks. White delrin material is a really nice, bright white that looks great with colors, or with black-only designs like these. White delrin picks are available in standard guitar pick shape, and in three gauges including .80mm, 1.0mm and 1.26mm. To create a cool black and white design like the ones in the image, visit www.claytoncustom.com today!

We have another endorsed artist this week! This time it is for Patrick Vega! Patrick’s pick featured this week is printed on our Acetal material with a lovely colorful design.  Patrick has ordered tons of different designs in the past from us, so he is quite the guitar pick designer. Our custom imprint department talks to Patrick quite often and they all really love him.  Patrick showed the love back by doing a video all about Clayton picks! Which is totally awesome! Check it out below.

A little background on Patraick is that he is a player that is capable of great technique. In general though, he follows the unexpected, adventurous route rather than the (expected) technical/theory route. Alternate tunings, tasty leads and heavy but ambitious rhythm guitar parts that are accessible yet eclectic.

Patricks’s playing and songwriting displays a blend of vintage grace & modern rock/metal attitude. The music is influenced by acts such as Nine Inch Nails, Alice In Chains, Joe Satriani, The Cure, Rage Against The Machine, KoRn, Puddle Of Mudd, Seether, Tool, Classic Van Halen, Led Zeppelin, PJ Harvey, Tricky, Ozzy Osbourne, Vega’s former guitar teacher Brett Garsed and various movie soundtracks.

All I can say is Way Cool! Check out his website at: http://www.patrickvega.com

This week we have a pick from the band Rock Sugar! You have to check out their website at: http://www.rocksugarband.com/. They have an amazing intro on their website. Here is a little description about their live show:

Sometimes at Clayton, Inc., we get a custom pick design that comes out so well, we just want to show it off! Here is an example of one of these designs. This design is for a company called Innovative Knowledge, and we love the color scheme of the artwork. On the front of the pick is the company name with the logo that they use, and on the back is a two-word description of the company (educational software), and the slogan that ties the company with these guitar picks: “It Rocks.” This is a perfect example of how a non-music related business can still effectively use guitar picks as a promotional item. They also did a great job at including the information about the company that they wanted without filling up the guitar pick with too much tiny text. This design was placed on our white delrin picks, which was a perfect choice. The bright white of the white delrin material is best for making bright colors, such as those in this design, really pop out. Delrin is also recommended over acetal picks if the design is two sided, because the white delrins do not have any transparency. White delrin picks are available in three gauges: .8, 1, and 1.26mm. They are only available in standard shape, but they can have single or full color printing. Show off your awesome design skills by working with our custom design interface at www.claytoncustom.com.

It is very popular for customers of Steve Clayton, Inc. to order custom guitar picks for a wedding. We have seen them used for many purposes, such as scattering on tables, favors for guests, part of wedding invitations, etc. One idea that we really like is to use custom picks for groomsmen gifts. During the preparation for the wedding, it is common for a groom to want to give a gift to his groomsmen as a thank you for their participation in the wedding. If the groom and his pals are into music, custom picks are the perfect way to give a thank-you that is both creative and practical! Custom picks allow for the names or initials of the groomsmen to go on the picks, along with the date of the wedding, and maybe a graphic that adds to the design. It is even possible to add custom picks onto the boutonnières of the groomsmen for weddings that have a music theming. Shown here are two examples of groomsmen pick designs, created for green delrin and white delrin picks. If the groom and his guys have been in a band together, the band name can also go on the pick (see the white delrin design).  This can add a special significance to these gifts that show appreciation for the friends that help pull the wedding together. If you have a wedding coming up and are looking for something special to add, design your wedding picks today at www.claytoncustom.com.