Discovering Vograce and how to create our own Merchandise

Written by Ross Locksley on 27 Nov 2025

We don't take many advertisers for UKA, chiefly because I'm rather strict on who I allow on here. I could sell gambling or dating ads all day, but I want to introduce readers to services that they can genuinely use and fit the hobby.

With Vograce, who make keyrings, pins, badges and other merch for artists, I was a bit out of my depth, so I asked my artist friend Sophie to check around in the community for opinions. It was overwhelmingly positive and Vograce is widely used by creative types to make charms and other merch for their stalls at events. Confidence high, we decided to work together, and I'd even test the service using our own mascot, Mizuki - after all, some keyrings and stickers for the site writers would make a nice little "thank you" for all the work they put in. 

And so I spoke with Carmon at Vograce who was extremely helpful and we worked out a deal. I was given free reign to write about my experience using the service, so here we are.

How does one go about creating keyrings? Well, we needed art to start with, and thankfully if there's one thing I can be very happy about at UKA, it's the artists I've worked with over the years to create a mascot. I invested a reasonable chunk of money into creating Mizuki for UKA over a decade ago - I've always been enamoured with Japanese cartoon style, so why not make our own UKA-tan and splash her around the site? She's been through a few revisions over the years when we've wanted a refresh, but I really had to start with our current iteration by Xeph Nyan.

When we created the new  version, I asked Xeph to give me a base drawing that we could update with new outfits and so he did, creating a "naked Mizuki" and then multiple costumes to put on her. Sometimes I fiddle with these costumes a touch - I like the barefoot Mizuki for now as Xeph added that detail and it seemed a shame to cover it with stockings and boots, but it gives us an option for an "alt" keyring down the road. The current version will be a limited run exclusive to writers and then whatever we have left over going on to our upcoming merch-site, with a larger "public" run with her full outfit available later on.

I popped the artwork over to Vograce, who quickly turned the order around with a set of keychains and stickers arriving in about 2 weeks - perfect!

When they first arrived I was worried that the plastic was scratched - happily my friend Tom was here when they dropped on the mat and he was quick to point out that they all had protective film on (I am a muppet when it comes to protective film - I thought my Sony RX1R's screen had started bobbling 2 years after buying it, I only realised it wasn't permanent by accident...) Once we popped that off, they were absolutely perfect. Great print quality, vibrant colours and beautifully cut around Mizuki's elaborate costume. 

I'm very, very happy with them.

The stickers came out wonderfully too, once again cut to shape and printed clearly with vibrant colours. Needless to say my 6 year-old daughter, Thea, helped herself to a couple for her playroom with a Minx-like glee (I'm letting her read too many Beano comics...)

Having found both the service and the quality very much to my liking, I started working with Sophie on our next project - metal pins! One will be Xeph's SD Mizuki in her Kaiju costume, the other a brand-new piece of work by Sophie, which I can happily preview here:

I can see the ability to create our own little charms, pins, standees and other items is going to get addictive. Last weekend I visited both Hyper Japan and Thought Bubble, and I was surprised at just how many of the vendors were using products made by Vograce! I now shop for two when I visit these shows, with Thea now prizing her pin-bag and all the exotic characters I find for her to put on it, but I have my own too for the ones that catch my eye. 

Apologies for the inconsistent lighting on these photos, the weather is all over the place...

As you can see, I didn't hold back. All the vendors I spoke to were also very happy with the service, so I've been very happy to help promote the company this month and put my own money into creating some cute and very fun charms that I hope to share with you all soon.

So if you're an artist who wants to create your own merchandise, check out Vograce. I'm very happy that I did!