About Us
Inked Gaming started out as Inked Playmats on June 10, 2011. Our mission from the beginning has been: Let you customize the way you play; easy and affordable.
InkedPlaymats.com was built to help you customize your gaming experience. Our first product was the playmat and we have grown to include other products, such as dice bags and tapestries. Changing our name to Inked Gaming incorporates the wide variety of products we produce. A full site redesign and name change from Inked Playmats to Inked Gaming took place in July of 2015.
We realized it was time for our next evolution in 2020. We value high quality products and awesome artwork and felt that our brand needed a look to match. So, we accepted the mission of rebranding Inked Gaming with a new logo, color scheme, and mascot.
This is our new mascot, Kai. Our brand will be represented by an octopus to highlight our unique color management and printing process; our ”ink.” The d20 levitating above Kai highlights our love for the tabletop gaming community and calls to how we got our start in the industry. The gradient of colors showcase elements of Inked Gaming that make us, us. Each color represents one of these key elements.
Seaweed is our main color. This green will highlight our products and custom options. Coral represents Team Inked. This orange calls back to our roots at Oregon State University and our home base in Corvallis, OR. Next is Open Seas to highlight our Artist Program. This blue will help artists recognize and categorize information regarding the program. Urchin is used for the Affiliate Program. This purple will help affiliates notice details regarding the program. Our last color is Sunrise. This yellow represents our dedication to customer care and connecting with the gaming community.
In the last half of 2020, we’ll also be upgrading our website. Our goal is to create a more accessible and faster site on desktop and mobile to help you make your game, your style.
We are excited about the future and what our website will continue to bring to the gaming community. Thank you for continuing on the journey with us.
Our Story
Playing in a local Magic the Gathering tournament, a discussion was brought up at our table about how hard it is to get your own custom designed playmat. Not only is it hard to find a printer, but it can be expensive. That is when the idea of Inked Playmats was born. We began researching, designing, and finding ideas to make it easy for a player to get their own playmat. What we found was that a lot of players wanted the opportunity and there were already many designers doing commission artwork. Why not bring them all to one location? What you see today is the answer to that simple question. Following the same business model as Threadless and Infectious, Inked Gaming is bringing crowdsourced design to the gaming community.
Meet the Owner
T.C. Pool
Founder and CEO
T.C. grew up in the Willamette Valley. He started playing collectible trading card games in high school. After attending college at Oregon State University, he melded his passion for entrepreneurship and gaming to open his own gaming store, The Gamehouse, in Albany. He sold his business a year later to a local competitor and has been waiting for a chance to put the two passions together again. He is now married and a father of three beautiful young children. He plays many games with his oldest son and hopes to keep the tradition going.