Home page of the Morley Space Etsy Store. The four images in the banner were entirely generated by AI.

Screenshot by David Gewirtz/

I recently devoted about a week of my time to setting up an Etsy storefront. In this article, I'll show you how (and probably more interestingly,where) I used AI to create my experimental Etsy print-on-demand business.

The career-expanding power of side-projects

I have long adopted the practice of side-project time. While my articles have regular deadlines, much of my other work -- especially client projects -- comes in waves. During seasonal downtimes, I will often pick a side project and give it a go. I wrote two very popular books during side-project time, built a bunch of software products, created something like 40 pinpoint iPhone apps, designed and built a self-lifting motorized CNC cart, and more.

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These side projects aren't necessarily meant to be side hustles. For me, side-projects are about learning and exploring new skills, stretching my capabilities, and maintaining my technical chops. I then take those learnings and fold them back into my main work, which brings us back to the topic of this article.

I've been exploring generative AI in a big way since just before Christmas last year. Although I've studied AI for decades, the capabilities of generative AI in tools like ChatGPT and MidJourney took me by surprise. Like many of my colleagues in the AI world, I  honestly thought we were 20-30 years away from the astonishing level of functionality we've been seeing in the past few months.

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So, here we are, living in the future. I've shared my worries with you, but I haven't delved too far into the benefits. Could generative AI be used to cut work time, create new value, and actually create products - in a fraction of the time such tasks have taken in the past?

That's what this side project is all about. 

(Note: Throughout this article, I'll be showing you AI prompts and responses. The prompts will be in bold and quoted, or flagged as such in bulleted lists. The AI's responses will be in italic text.)

Etsy print-on-demand integration

Etsy has the ability to directly tie its online catalog to print-on-demand service providers. This means that if someone orders a T-shirt or a pillow with a unique design from Etsy, it can send that order to a print-on-demand fulfillment service, which in turn will produce the design and ship it out.

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All picking/packing, production, inventory, and fulfillment are accomplished remotely. It's not necessary for an Etsy store owner to deal with any of that themselves. That means no inventory piling up in the garage, no runs to the post office, and no unsold inventory when the product sales mix turns out differently than the forecast.

This seemed perfect for my experiment. I set up an Etsy store that sells T-shirts, pillows, puzzles, and notepads. As soon as any of the products are ordered, the order is transferred from Etsy to (in my case) Printify, which prints the items ordered and sends them to the customer.

All I, as the store operator, have to do is set up the designs, and pay both Etsy and Printify for their part in the service supply chain. If the products sell, Etsy sends me the customer's payment (minus their fees), which constitutes my profit from the endeavor.

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In the remainder of this article, I'll talk about the store's creation, and where I used generative AI in each of the tasks involved in setting up the products and store identity.

Full disclosure:This Etsy store is in operation right now, and I get paid for product sales. Because this article is intended to be educational and not a sales pitch, I've discounted all the store's products to my cost for the next month. If any of my readers do decide to purchase from the store, I won't make any profit (even though Etsy and Printify will). I trust that approach will protect this article from any conflict-of-interest issues.

And with that, let me introduce you to Morley Space . . .

Morley Space: Purveyors of Fine Merch Since 2023

One of my favorite games of all time is Bethesda'sDishonored . Playing it, I encountered the name Morley, which is one of the four main islands in the Empire of the Isles.

Since I wanted to have a steampunkaesthetic in my Etsy store, and Dishonored has a very definite steampunk vibe, I decided I liked the name Morley for my store. I decided to use Morley Space as the store name because I wanted my online store to feel like an emporium, a space for creative products.

Also: How to use Midjourney to generate amazing images and art

It was in creating this online identity that ChatGPT and MidJourney were first used. I wanted a banner across the store to reflect that steampunk vibe, with a bit of a cartoon feel. I asked MidJourney to create images with the following characteristics:

1940s style color cartoon of a steampunk era artist studio.

I was astonished when it generated the following set of pictures.

I didn't like this first pass.

MidJourney and David Gewirtz

I didn't like the faces in them, so I had MidJourney give me variants of each of the four images, finally settling on the four that I then used in the shop's banner.

The shop's main identity banner.

MidJourney and David Gewirtz

Using Photoshop, I split the images so they were splayed out horizontally, and added the sign panel. And I had a very compelling shop header with the exact design feel I was going for. All told, it took me probably 30 minutes to get my shop's banner put together, with MidJourney doing the heavy lifting.

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Etsy also wanted a slogan for the store. So I gave ChatGPT the following prompts until it presented me with one I liked:

Write 20 snarky slogans for a company named Morley Space

Give me 20 more

After a few spins of the "20 more" prompt, it gave me "Because the final frontier is just too darned far," which I decided was perfect.

Creating Thomas and Elizabeth Morley

In addition to a store name, I needed a proprietor. Etsy likes to put the name of the owner right on the home page. As part of the experiment, I asked ChatGPT to provide me with Victorian-era British first names, and among the list were Thomas and Elizabeth. So Thomas and Elizabeth became the proprietors.

Etsy also likes a store description. I found that asking ChatGPT to provide a description for both Thomas and Elizabeth seemed to confuse it, so I settled on this query:

Write a 250-word bio for Thomas Morley, the proprietor of a custom merch shop, who has traveled the world, mixes technology and art, and seeks out the best artists for t-shirts, coffee mugs, and other essential merchandise.

I then heavily edited the response, adding in details about Elizabeth, and tweaking it a bit to include phrases like "They are the proprietors of a custom merch shop that specializes in showcasing the work of talented artists and algorithms from around the world." You can read the entire description on the main page of the shop by scrolling down to The Morley Space Story.

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Finally, Thomas and Elizabeth needed a profile picture. So it was back to MidJourney. Here, I used the prompt:

hyperrealistic man and woman wearing steampunk goggles

MidJourney and David Gewirtz

I got back the following four images and chose the one on the upper right to represent Thomas and Elizabeth. To be fair, if I wanted an image that more closely represented me, I could have used:

hyperrealistic man with beard wearing steampunk goggles and top hat

MidJourney and David Gewirtz

I actually ran that prompt first, but didn't think that those scary, pompous-looking characters were inviting enough for the Morley Space vibe.

Making the merch

So now it was time for the merch. After watching several YouTubers talk about print-on-demand (PoD) and Etsy, I decided to use Printify as my merchandise producer and fulfiller. This decision is important because the merchandise producer dictates the selection of PoD merchandise you can offer, where you can ship, and -- often -- product quality. 

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Although I wanted to use MidJourney to produce some designs, I also had a cool collection of licensed art that I'd invested in for a previous project, and I wanted to use some of those images (which included some great steampunk animals) as well. In addition, I wanted to put some pithy sayings on a few T-shirts, mostly because they appealed to me.

All told, I fielded 24 products in the following categories:

• T-shirts: steampunk animal designs from my licensed art collection
• T-shirts: pithy sayings almost nobody but me would groove on
• Puzzles: retro-futuristicimages generated by MidJourney
• Pillows: cartoon steampunk generated by MidJourney
• Notepads: clockwork clown designs from my licensed art collection

The pillows used the same artwork as the main shop banner, so you've seen that prompt. I created a series of four retro-futuristic puzzles. The MidJourney prompt was merely this:

retro-futuristic

The results were just so good that I decided to use them as-is.

MidJourney and David Gewirtz

If I ever decide to put up new designs on the shop, I have these that were generated by MidJourney using the simple prompt of:

atom punk

MidJourney and David Gewirtz

Sometimes, it's possible simply to state a genre and let the AI go wild. Here's another one-word prompt with a similar genre:

dieselpunk

MidJourney and David Gewirtz

Here's another that is certainly usable on T-shirts and notebooks:

steampunk

MidJourney and David Gewirtz

Because MidJourney uses seeds to randomize results, it's extremely unlikely that what a "steampunk" prompt produces for me would be the same as what "steampunk" produces for you. In fact, as a test, I typed /imagine (what MidJourney uses to trigger a prompt) and typed in "steampunk" while writing this. Here are the images produced today:

MidJourney and David Gewirtz

That last image grid was produced using MidJourney v5, which adds a bit more photographic quality to the image. All the rest were done with MidJourney v4.

Using ChatGPT to name characters

I wanted Morley Space to have a lot of information for each product because I pictured Morley Space as a real-world shop or catalog, where the items would have long, detailed, glorious descriptions and backstories. I wanted each item to have a compelling name that reflected the steampunk-ish vibe. I used ChatGPT to help with producing all this content.

Also: How to write better ChatGPT prompts

For the steampunk animal T-shirts and clockwork clown names, I gave ChatGPT prompts like:

• Write 10 full names for an anthropomorphic gecko who wears a hat.
• Give me ten more without the word gecko.
• Give me ten more without words that mean lizard or gecko, but just provide the feel for the name.
• List 20 words that rhyme with gecko (and begin with a soft G).
• Make them two-syllable words.
• Give me 20 full names for a polar bear that wears a coat and sailor's cap.
• Give me 20 cool first names for a polar bear whose last name is chillybear.
• Do that but use people names.
• Give me 20 unusual people names that begin with C and would go well with the last name of chillybear as a storybook character.
• Give me 20 full storybook character names for an anthropomorphized polar bear who wears a cap.
• Imagine if Wonderland was all clockwork and steampunk and if the white rabbit had a name that fit his steampunk story origins. Give me 20 first and last names, no titles.
• Give me 20 possible last names that imply rabbit.
• Give me 20 adorable first and last names for a dog who's also a pirate.
• Give me 20 intimidating names for a bulldog who's also a pirate.
• Give me 20 Victorian last names that begin with a soft G.
• Give me 20 names for a kitten who is also a steampunk pirate.

From these lists (a few spun repeatedly with "give me 10 more), I chose: Hector Hare, Growler Grimley, Asp Ashworth, Boots Clockpurr, Arthur Decko, and Chester Chillybear. I used a similar set of prompts to name the clockwork clowns, the retro-futuristic puzzle designs, and the Victorian offices and studios in my images.

Using ChatGPT to write character stories

Next up were the product descriptions, and here I decided that each product would first tell the story of the subject and then provide a description of the product. So, for example, Abner Squawkwell (one of the notebooks) has this character story, generated by the AI:

Gentlemen, behold Abner Squawkwell, a remarkable creation of modern artifice and engineering! This clockwork clown skull, with its large teeth and wide, eerie smile, is a spectacle to behold. Its gleaming red nose serves as a beacon of merriment, beckoning all to come and witness its mechanical marvels.

As the cogs within its clockwork mechanism turn, Abner Squawkwell is brought to life, his movements as smooth as they are precise. Its creators have truly outdone themselves, for Abner is not just a machine, but a work of art.

With its uncanny appearance, Abner Squawkwell is sure to evoke a range of emotions from all who behold it. Some will be filled with wonder and delight, while others may be struck with fear and trepidation. But make no mistake, Abner Squawkwell is a marvel of science and technology, a true testament to the boundless imagination of man.

So, come one and all, and witness the clockwork clown skull that is Abner Squawkwell, a creation unlike any other in the world.

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To create these stories, I used prompts like these:

• Tell a five-year-old the story of Yap Yardarm, a small dog with a big spirit who sailed with pirates. Do it in two paragraphs.
• In the style of Jules Verne, write a two-paragraph storybook description of the personality of Hector Hare, a tough-as-nails anthropomorphic rabbit who lived during pirate times, suitable as a story for a five-year-old.
• In the style of a Grimm fairytale, write a two-paragraph description of the personality of Hector Hare, a tough-as-nails steampunk rabbit who... [fill in the blank].
• Tell a five-year-old the story of Boots Clockpurr, an incredibly cute cat with a hard, take-no-crap personality, and how he served as an equal with bands of roving pirates.
• Tell me a one-paragraph story in a news style about Stanley Chortlehoot a clockwork robot skull with a wide grin.
• Write a description in the style of Jules Verne about Abner Squawkwell, a clockwork clown skull with big teeth, a wide, scary smile, and a red nose.

I selected the stories and asked refining questions of the AI. I also did a final edit. But the backstories of 20 characters would have taken a lot longer than a couple of hours if I'd had to write them all from scratch myself. The pithy saying T-shirts didn't get stories.

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Most of them, like Abner's story above, were cute, fun, and frankly good enough for an Etsy store description.

Using ChatGPT to write product descriptions

I wanted product descriptions for each product to go along with the backstories of the characters. It wouldn't do to just say something was a cotton T-shirt or a pillow or a puzzle. I wanted detailed, welcoming, almost overwhelming descriptions that evoked a special feeling about each product.

In short, I wanted Jony Ive.

And so, because ChatGPT can channel the style writing style of particular individuals, each product category got a treatment like this:

In the style of Jony Ive, write about a square throw pillow that comes in 14-inch, 16-inch, 18-inch, and 20-inch square sizes, is 100% spun polyester made from recycled polyester, and has a beige plastic zipper with metal head that allows removing of the pillow cover for cleaning. The pillow is custom printed from an original steampunk 1940s style cartoon illustration.

ChatGPT produced:

Presenting the Square Throw Pillow, a masterpiece of form, function, and sustainability. With four sizes to choose from - 14-inch, 16-inch, 18-inch, and 20-inch  - this pillow is the perfect addition to your home's d