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Rat Mats

Numbered desk mats in editions of 500, one artist per series, and a storefront built around The Sheet.

View live site

Brand · Storefront · Artwork

The Rat Mats lockup, a black rat silhouette beside the RAT MATS wordmark, centered on bone.

About the project

Rat Mats is a premium desk mat brand I'm co-founding, built on gig-poster culture. Each series is one artist's artwork, printed once in an edition of 500, every mat numbered on a sewn tag. When the numbers run out, the series is retired to the archive.

The storefront is built around The Sheet: a 500-square grid per series showing which numbers are claimed, with 12 marked squares that come with something extra (a mat from the next series, a signed artist proof, a year of Rat Club or a discount). The marked squares are visible on purpose, so picking one is a choice, not a gamble. Type any number into the Registry and its square flashes in the sheet above.

Status

The storefront is live, pre-launch. Series 001 "Dart" is my artwork. Series 002, its artist, the claim counts and the archive entries are placeholder data for design review.

What was interesting

  1. 01

    Scarcity as an interface. The Sheet makes '500 numbered, printed once' visible, and the visible marked squares keep it a promotion rather than a sweepstakes.

  2. 02

    Records that never change. Claims come from a seeded pseudo-random function per series, so any number's record is the same every time someone looks it up.

  3. 03

    Less copy, more art. Taglines and headings were cut across revisions so the artwork and the series names carry the page; hero type moved to container query units so it scales to its column.

  4. 04

    A catalogue, not a shop. The archive borrows from print-shop ledgers: one line per series, a fill bar, the art following your cursor.

Gallery

09 figures
The Rat Mats storefront hero on bone paper, the RAT MATS lockup beside the Dart mat bleeding off the edge, above a pink ticker band.
Fig. 01The storefront. The ticker reverses when you scroll up.
Series 001 "Dart" with its price and a Claim a number button, the 500-square sheet below and the mat artwork beside it.
Fig. 02A series and its Sheet, every number in the edition, with the 12 marked squares in amber.
The registry section on near-black, number 047 looked up and shown as open, above an amber "On press now." countdown band.
Fig. 03The Registry. Type a number and its square flashes in the sheet above.
The archive section in heavy black type, a tally of series, mats, sold-out series and artists, above the ledger of past series.
Fig. 04The archive ledger. The entries are placeholder data.
Placeholder artwork for Series 002, flowing ribbon lines in cobalt, red and amber on near-black.
Fig. 05Series 002 "Currents", concept placeholder artwork.

The mats04 designs

A wide desk mat design, a spiny, iridescent creature at the far left on a dark, textured field.
Fig. 06Design 01
A wide desk mat design, dense green schematic linework of orbits, grids and diagrams on black.
Fig. 07Design 02
A wide desk mat design, a cloaked explorer with a green blade and a red pack standing at the far right of a kraft-paper field.
Fig. 08Design 03
A wide desk mat design, two poison dart frogs in mint, pink and black on a violet field of dark leaves.
Fig. 09Design 04