How Organic Growth Effects Design

I started this business with an idea, a pencil and every free version of software you can imagine, from google docs to the first free-website blog.

I haven’t spent anything on ads, sponsorship or traffic. Yet.

It’s been 8 months since I launched the shop and over a year of solid build from websites to caps. I had to do it this way.

Organic cotton, emblematic of our organic growth journey

Socials are not the only strategy

Organic growth on social media, is like swimming upstream.

You are playing for free, in a pay to play environment.

Platforms that are designed to feed you sponsored content, are not going to prioritise unpaid content, that’s the simple version. Never mind algorithms.

It’s also unavoidable if you’re trying to sell something whether that is a t-shirt, a service or your personality. When you have a zero spend strategy, it’s a brutal combination. Unless you happen to have a large…personality.

It means slow growth, minimal distribution and many nights spent looking at every single little thing to make sure that I have done everything I can to move any kind of lever because that is all I can do.

Which also got me thinking…

What if all socials vanished tomorrow?

How would you promote your business?

No Instagram, no TikTok, no Reddit, imagine absolutely everything was gone or this list will get stupid.

What would you do to get the word out?

It’s made me look at what we offer in a different way.
On platforms made to entertain, how do I entertain? And how do I reach people offline?
I started looking for growth opportunity elsewhere, for story, for development, at strategy and landed on something interesting.

Recognise The Canis

This is fragment one. This is the start of what has been a seemingly endless development journey which has led me to characters, tokens and worlds. It’s unfolding and to be discovered.  And the reason why I’ve been scribbling down notes at 1am again.

Cryptic I know

And for good reason. Find The Canis. This is an example of what zero spend can do to design, when you’re forced to design your way out of constraints. It’s conceptual and being slowly released but, on paper, almost brilliant.

Organic design is the outcome

I’m not going to lie, although it’s a constant constraint, zero spend is fundamental for another few months, whether that is fortunate, or unfortunate remains to be seen.

What it does to your design strategy, however, is worth experiencing.
What do you do when you can’t buy attention?

It’s an exercise I’d recommend to any founder. If you can handle it. I have started from zero. I have fully formed business architecture, a designer range in development, a sustainable, circular core system that has just morphed into The Canis, and it all started with a blog called The Pavement Special. I don’t mean to blow smoke up my ass, but no one else is so…

I’m painfully aware of how many businesses fail and how many challenges there are ahead. I just can’t seem to stop. Sometimes I think I should…but then I end up starting another design, or mapping out worlds or fretting over dye, or sitting down to write, or making tiktoks (shakes her fists at the sky), or working on strategy, or tweaking the website, or…

P.S  Or that’s how you know this wasn’t written by AI. K’ Bye.

What is Mongrel Logic

It’s been a little while since I have answered this question.
Mongrel Logic is me.

A flip on a negative

A close up the Pastel Eye design.

I’m not an idiot when it comes to linguistics.  I am also not an idiot when it comes to emotions. I chose the name The Pavement Special originally, to name a thing that hadn’t been defined. That way I could write about whatever I wanted and in theory, the name could remain unchanged. I do enjoy business architecture.

I started a blog with no direction, zero SEO, literally a digitised dear diary. I needed a place to just write without thinking too much.

But, I spent 8 months not doing anything because I got two puppies. the month after starting it. Two. Littermates. If you know, you know. Turns out I am an idiot about some things.

One sunny afternoon we were coming off a dog walk, we were attacked by a bigger dog, who lives in our cul-de-sac, I might add. Everyone was physically ok. Lex has never been the same since. He thought the world was butterflies and sunshine before that moment. Zen is the more, suffer in silence, type. Just like me.

Rage fuelled caps

I was so angry about the dog off lead, the effect on the puppies, the effect on me, the fact that he made no adjustments and just kept walking the dog past our house, every day, three times a day. We had to make all the adjustments. I don’t blame the dog. Ever.

But a piece of my mind involves a piece of my fist due to the rage around this situation, so I decided to do something else instead.
Try to raise awareness, make a cap, donate profits to an organisation that cared about dog welfare and who can lobby. I have not forgotten about this. I never will.
And when it comes to animal welfare, the welfare of those less fortunate, you have found my hulk smash button. Now, I don’t have big fists, in fact when I look at a pinky-finger I am baffled that such a small bony thing can exist.  

I built a monster

I started working on the embroidery for the cap first, and I started looking at makers. Very soon discovered that my print on demand idea was not executable.  No custom fabrics. Hardly anyone did embroidery at that level.

I knew I needed to have the fabric made. I knew the cap construction needed to be custom, the embroidery needed an expert. I started hunting.  

This is where the designer range was born. Months of research, designing, and work and some number crunching, led to me to where I am now. I have spent nothing on this business; aside from running the websites, I don’t have anything to spend. As much as it is a practical reality for me, it is also part of a system I am testing. The reproducibility of the model. More on that later.

When I understood what I needed to get the cap made, the designer range off the ground, I knew I needed an engine. Something to fuel the designer range, that could stand on its own as well as exist as crossover, and crucially, matched the ethos of the luxury streetwear range I was developing.  I needed one project to fund the next one. Yes, fuck is right.

That’s when the art came into it, drawings that for some inexplicable reason I had held onto, taken across continents with me, suddenly had a purpose. The worlds I was building as a teenager, the stories, characters, novellas and the fifth try at starting a business and the second at a clothing line, suddenly all made sense.

That was the last time anything made sense. Haha.

Being responsible for the life cycle of your product is extremely important to me. I was born in Africa. I have lived equal numbers of years on both the African and European continents by now.  I know what it is like to be part of the problem and part of the solution.
I’m far from perfect, but I am so sick of the lazy, profit driven, greed led approach to business that I wanted to build something better.

Where regulations follow

You can call me naïve in 12-24 months, in the meantime, hold my beer. You may not be old enough to remember this, but products used to come with a lifetime guarantee. Microwaves, dishwashers, washing machines, fridges, all came with a guarantee. Not a warranty, a guarantee.  These days it’s hard to find anything that lasts more than 12 months. Organic cotton will still be in your wardrobe in a decade, just starting to fray.
When you design with the product’s entire life cycle in mind, you need to ensure you can answer for its journey once its owner is done with it, and it has to be made first from ingredients that allow it to be returned, remade.

Being early is only half the problem

I hope I get to bring my vision to life. I’m never convinced that it’ll work, but I am determined to try, because if it does, we are ahead of the regulations that will absolutely be brought in regarding product lifecycle.
When I chose Teemill, it was because they aligned on a design level.

When I ordered my first sample, I was honestly surprised at the quality. And the print colour was stunning. I knew I had found my engine. It’s been 7 months since I launched the shop, and it’s been 9 months since I came up with the idea for the cap. I feel like I’ve been working for four years.

The fact that I can’t spend on growth is agonising, but also crucial for the first 12 months. Which is kinda soul destroying in a way, being in this phase of the business, I have no idea what people think.  Releasing vintage, unchanged teenage art first, was the hardest test this little engine could pass. And we did.

Designing with constraint, whether that is showing art that was in skill unrefined, and not changing it, designing within our print box, no sleeves, no backs, no cuffs, no detail, has honestly allowed me to play in ways I never imagined with the designer range and prompted me to think about details I might have otherwise overlooked.

I can honestly say there is nothing like it out there. For both our everyday sustainable, circular streetwear range and our designer range. I’m not here to shit on other people’s designs, I love streetwear. Whether understated or street couture that serves one purpose and that is to photograph, I’ve been a lifelong fan. Are we the underdog? Absolutely, this was built for underdogs. Will you have seen anything like this before? No. Why? Cos I drew it when I was 14, 16, 17. Etc. And because I have been designing this range for a very long time.

Way before the dogs, before the blog, when I was still in primary school, scrap booking fabrics, dresses, cuts, colours.

This is Mongrel Logic.

The Unexpected Journey to My First Product

Concept artwork representing the early, unexpected journey to Mongrel Logic’s first product; the Signature Cap.

I have always wanted my own business. I’m inspired by creativity and art. I’ve always been an artist but never saw it as a profession. I got caught up in corporate and confidence got lost. I’ve started and failed a few businesses, like previous blogs. I have wanted to be everything from a vet to an astronaut. While picking turnips and taking ballet lessons.

Knowing the ‘don’t want’ before the ‘want’

When I started the blog; I didn’t know what I wanted to write, but I discovered what I didn’t want to write. I knew I wanted to make products eventually, but I didn’t want to make products that would end up in landfill. I didn’t want to just be out there making noise on social media trying to compete for attention. Hype is not my thing. Lemmings. Realising what I didn’t want to do, I began experimenting with different approaches.

MacGyver-ing my way through my business’ first year

I threw the rules out. There was no SEO in the beginning. Nothing. Then I gradually started incorporating which rules were for me. I grew in consistency…more or less. When it was less, I was behind the scenes figuring it all out, planning, strategizing, calculating, plotting. Forgetting to take pictures for social media. Learning and growing.

Pivot, Pivot!

What has been key is changing direction when something didn’t feel right. I was still trying to find what “it” was when I came up with the caps. But what started as a print on demand idea for a side hustle ended with me designing a cap that only a highly skilled atelier can make. Even after this, I still spent time messing around with other ideas before I was able to recognise it for what it was and focus in on it. I was almost done with designing the cap but still trying to develop a Manifesto for buildings giving back energy. I don’t know shit about energy, anthropology or infrastructure. But I do know about caps, design and fashion.

Product design by accident

Often, I find what I am looking for in the cracks. In the dirt. In the uneven surface. It’s not because I sat down, followed some steps and planned the perfect product. It was by accident. Not by careful design.
Ok, now it’s being carefully designed but the birth was completely ‘winged’ into existence.

One small cap, one giant leap in development

The products I develop will always have a real-world benefit attached to it. The goal is to build something completely regenerative. That has been my modus operandi from day one, even without a product. We need new businesses that work differently. This is an ongoing personal battle and something I am working to define.

I don’t have it all figured out, but I do have caps, so it’s probably okay. Looking back, I’ve learned that embracing uncertainty and following my instinct led me to create something meaningful. If you’re on a similar path, remember it’s okay not to have all the answers, sometimes the best ideas come from unexpected places.

This Got Out of Hand: How a One-Month Website Move Became a Beast of a Business

Concept artwork symbolising Mongrel Logic growing from a small blog into a full design studio.

I’m back baby!

Remember when I said this would take a month?

Yeah…try three. But it’s not because I ghosted. It’s because the tiny thing I thought I was doing decided to grow teeth.

I was just planning on moving website platforms, moving my domain, I have reasons.
Since then, things have escalated. Fast. Somewhere between “I don’t know what I’m talking about” and “I think I designed a cap”: I created a beast.

It's not just a cap. I’m now thinking about ateliers, military embroiders or Japanese, maybe even an upholsterer. All in the pursuit of what might be the coolest cap ever made.

Sorry I took so long…

The timeline blew up. But so did the dream. What started as a blog shuffle is now pointing towards building regenerative, limited, luxury products that actually mean something.

Why I Named it that: The Unexpected Story Behind My Brand

The Pavement Special Logo designed by Kerryn Hewitt

This is the story about how my brand names came to be. How a solo, self-discovery voyage turned into a design studio. It’s also an example of why doing something is better than doing nothing.

What’s with the name?

After years of starting blogs then abandoning them; I finally came up with the name The Pavement Special when planning blog number five. A pavement special is South African slang for a mongrel dog. I’ve always found it funny because I identified. That’s a bit like me.

The Pavement Special was born

I chose The Pavement Special because I needed a place to talk about anything and everything until I figured out what I was making or doing, so it seemed appropriate.
I had no idea what the blog was about. I didn’t bother with SEO at all for the first year, I just wrote whatever I wanted or thought I should write. I had two starting points. I can write (ish), and I can draw (hmm). Everything else was in the dark. I’ve felt like a pavement special my whole life. I decided to own it.

I had no idea that I would be getting puppies shortly after, who were, coincidentally, mongrels.

Mongrel Logic and Mongrel Studio soon followed.

After a year of writing I finally planned my first product off the back of a dog attack. Sounds worse than it was, I was trying to process it and deal with two extremely anxious dogs when I thought of my signature design.

None of this was planned, it was discovered in the moment.

When I wrote my first blog article, I thought it might be a blog about helping spouses of partners with PTSD. Turns out, I really hate talking about my problems. I’m more… solution oriented as a person. I tried writing reviews, I wrote about things I’d seen but after I came up with the cap, I wrote about business. That’s when everything changed. That was roughly six months ago.

Welcome to The Pavement Special, a blog about my brand Mongrel Logic and my design studio, Mongrel Studio.

If you had asked me two years ago if I would be sitting here doing this, I would have told you, you were crazy. I planned to do the blog, but I went in blind. I was going stir crazy thinking about it and I had to start just doing it. The hardest part of that has been spotting the patterns in my own mongrel madness to discover what I was making. Now? I’ve designed a cap I cannot wait to wear. What started as a humble blog and…really me thinking out loud, has turned into a signature edition premium cap.