Why we’re building the engine before the designer range.

Abstract hand-drawn black hole sketch representing time, gravity, and systems pulling inward, an early visual study tied to the foundations of Mongrel Logic.

Every brand would love to start with the hero product, the piece that looks like the brand. We do too, but for us that’s the destination, not the starting point.

This isn’t just about organic cotton.

It’s about organic growth. Everything you see here has been built without investors, without paid promotion and without shortcuts. Not because those things are inherently wrong, but because designing out waste is the backbone of how this business works. Including financial waste.

Proof of concept before expression.

Building the engine first has allowed us to test out the logic of the system early. Not just sustainability, but design language, production decisions and how the work is received. It’s also how early signals are built.
It’s a way to learn without burning capital, and to refine without panic. This is how the Designer range gets funded without debt, without rushed decisions, and without compromising the thing its meant to be.

Starting at the “wrong” end.

Most brands build authorship and architecture after they launch, often because the first product has been funded. As it stands today, this little business has no debt, and that’s an intentional constraint. It means doing things in a different order. At times the harder order.

Mongrel Logic.

There’s a reason this business is called Mongrel Logic. I am Mongrel Logic.
It’s frustrating to work with systems that reward speed over thought.  But it’s also incredibly effective at testing whether something can hold its shape.

Time is part of the design.

Time.
And we’re right back to the first blog and where this all started. Time to build the engine. Time to see what holds. Time.
The designer range is coming. Not as a gamble, but the next logical phase.

On a personal note. I’m not good at time. I’d rather walk than wait to catch the bus. I’ll get there faster.  

Baaplrvlsrsppdtedpdspot.

Founder (me) drawing the latest design, Lilith’s Corsage

I know it’s not a word, but it’s the best one I have for everything I have been doing over the past month. Brand architecture and authorship, practice-led research, visual language systems, reflective studio practice, platform dynamics, threshold and entry design, process documentation, and sustaining practice over time.

Which all sounds very fancy for a fuck-ton of work.

And it has been. But every month that goes by, I refine this little system and fine tune it and it’s really starting to look like what I had in my head. It’s been hugely frustrating at times. Some research is still going nowhere due to the nature of what I am trying to build, I am early. Being early means I need to define, not copy. And do it in a way that I can stand by proudly. When you are the first to do a few things, there is no one else to ask.

Which is equally Great! And terrifying.

Luckily, I am that busy I don’t have a lot of time to think about the terrifying and just focus on the next thing, and the thing after that. It sounds cryptic, and it’s not meant to. Inside my little brain is everything that we are about to launch next. We have three upcoming projects, one of which is the designer range.
All the designs, web development, copy writing, trademarks, legal, fulfilment, packaging, that list above, are all juggling for top spot. I can only pick one thing at a time.
Not to mention Insta, which for the first time is starting to feel like a thing. I can’t tell you how much work has gone into that, far too many 2am finishes.

A strong finish to 2025.

We got our first orders through and our first reviews, I’m living in a world of firsts now. It’s quite fun. And we’re off to a hell of a start for 2026, having ironed out my Baaplrvlsrsppdtedpdspot.

What’s coming in 2026?

This year I’m planning to launch the designer range, where this all started, with Mongrel’s first design, before any of this was a thing, our signature cap. A cap isn’t really a winter thing. I have another two big projects lined up for the next month to three that are in the wider Mongrel universe but not linked to the designer range, more on that later.

Deep breathe and plunge.

As I stand here, right on the edge of the precipice, it’s a very cool place to pause. From this vantage point I can look back and still see everything I have built, to get me where I am now. And I am about to jump off the proverbial cliff (suited up) where I will lose this perspective and gain a new one. I can see everything laid out in front of me, or the possibility of it, and the hard solid ground behind me. It’s still quite peaceful, despite the noise in my head. All of that is about to change.

A Christmas Of Refinement.

Lilith’s Corsage in progress

Much to the annoyance of everyone around me, the amount of work I have been doing to build this little engine that could, has kept me up so late that I almost saw Santa.

Have you ever dreamed in ctrl c, ctrl v?

Neither had I, until I started building the shop. I now find myself waking in the night with tension from holding down Ctrl +C and not pasting it, because technically, I’m asleep. This should give you some indication of how many alt texts, descriptions, documents, versions, oh my!

The little engine that could.

Four days of drawing later, our latest design, Lilith’s Corsage, is now on the website. I wanted to do a lily, but not floral in the traditional sense. I pulled elements from older drawings and folded them into the piece; that’s where the checkerboard petals come from, for example.

I guess now the test of the dream begins.

Not the ctrl copy and paste dream. The whole thing. I’ve tried breaking it, and it stands. And now I’m about to roll the proverbial boulder down the hill.

Too many metaphors?

This is the first chance I’ve had to flex in two weeks of product design, store development, and endless strategy work. So yes, too many metaphors. My brain is trying to wake up after long hours of repetitive tasks. It’s not quite there yet.

A refined store front and some new pyjamas.

That’s really…a wonderful thing.

Mongrel Logic is 2 months old!

Mongrel Logic Cupcake with Logo icing (not its not real, how else do you give a website and a brand a cake?)

I’m not going to lie, that was painful. It was fun, but also painful. I have built a shop, rebuilt a website, more times than I can remember, our designs are rolling. Fixed embarrassing errors, all of them, I hope.

We’ve got new designs coming

I’m working on our next design as, well…not as I type that would make me an octopus. But now. Currently.

Now it’s time to spread our wings

It’s been a massive amount of work to get here. I’ve been up till ungodly hours sorting out everything from marketing strategies to future Core Range designs and our Limited-Edition range.

It’s all been worth it.

I started the blog two years ago with no direction and just waffled on for over a year before I developed any of this. I have some loyal bloody crew that have watched me do this from the start and talk about everything from cutting down trees to the thing that sparked the cap idea. I’ve built this in public, which we will continue to do. I started with nothing, I started before the idea, and here we are.

Excited for 2026

There is a lot in store for 2026, we have artists we will feature, we have the designer range, launching next year and will continue to grow our circular, sustainable, deliciously soft organic cotton designs, bringing you circular, wearable art that’s been built to endure.

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It was hard to stop, this digital cupcake features our first design. I’m hungry now.

A Quick Note on Our Studio Hum

DJ at work

Since changing all my social profiles to business accounts, I can no longer post my videos to my favourite songs, boo! And no disrespect, but it’s hard to find something royalty free that is incredible.

I became an overnight sound designer.

Which was a lot of fun. Finding sounds, editing them, finding samples playing around with layering; weird, random sounds coming out the office. The problem is, it’s very time consuming. And I am all about time saving. So, I made a sound. We have an official sound. My days of sound designing are over.
Our base layer came from a Sample Focus clip called “Gospel Choir Hum” by user2866535286451.
We adjusted it, shaped it, sped it slightly, and paired it with a bark that sounded exactly like Zen; turning a simple sample into the signature Mongrel Logic™ sound.

The shortest career ever

Well, it was fun while it lasted. But I can’t tell you how relieved I am to just be focused on visual content again. It’s cut my content creation time in half. And I’m rather proud of it. Woof.