Almost anything. Not quite everything.

The principle

You describe something; we design it and a print partner makes it. Two other parties are involved in every order — the partner who prints it and the carrier who delivers it — and both have their own limits. The rules below are the overlap of what we will make, what they will print, and what the law in Canada and the United States allows to be shipped.

Everything not on this page is fair game. Rude, strange, intensely personal and deeply uncommercial are all fine. That is most of what people ask for.

What is refused

• Sexual content involving minors, or anything that sexualises a real child. There is no grey area here and no appeal.
• Content that incites violence against a person or a group, or celebrates a mass-casualty event or its perpetrator.
• Hate symbols and slurs aimed at a protected characteristic. Reclaimed in-group use is a judgement call we will usually get wrong, so we do not try.
• Credible threats, doxxing, or a design built around a named private individual’s address, workplace or movements.
• Designs that impersonate a real person in a way intended to deceive — a fake signature, a fake endorsement, a fake quotation attributed to someone living.
• Counterfeits: another brand’s logo, trade dress or character presented as theirs. See IP & copyright.
• Instructions for making weapons, explosives or drugs, printed as a product.
• Medical, legal or financial claims presented as fact on a product we would be publishing — “cures cancer” on a mug is a claim, not a joke.

What is allowed, and often assumed not to be

• Swearing, including on the front, in large type.
• Political opinion, satire and protest. Criticising a government, a company or a public figure is squarely allowed.
• Religious content, including the irreverent kind.
• Photographs of people you know, with their permission.
• Inside jokes that make no sense to anyone else. Most of the catalogue exists for these.
• Adult humour on a product an adult buys for an adult.

How a prompt is checked

Two passes. The first runs on the sentence before anything is generated; if it trips, you get a specific reason rather than a generic refusal, and nothing is charged. The second runs on the finished design before it is sent to a print partner, because an image can land somewhere the words did not point.

Both passes are imperfect in both directions. A refusal you think is wrong is worth telling us about — it is the only way the second pass gets better.

What happens

A refused prompt costs nothing and does not count against you. An order stopped at the print stage is refunded in full, including shipping, and we tell you which rule it hit.

Repeatedly submitting content from the refused list — particularly the first two items — ends the account. We do not do warnings for material involving minors.

Reporting something

If you have seen a Vessim product that breaks these rules, send it to hello@makevessim.com with a photo or a link. For a copyright or trademark complaint specifically, use the notice-and-takedown process instead — it is faster and it creates the record the law expects.