Turning garments into an ARG
A behind-the-build note on how a question about making streetwear “entertaining” led to The Canis'; an ARG built from characters, factions, artifacts and resistance.
There is something about organic business growth that forces you to think.
I have started this from my own pocket, my own blood, sweat and brain cells.
Recently, I asked the question, how do I make garments entertaining?
A photo of my notes in progress on building an ARG from our range
The question led somewhere stranger
I started by looking at my characters. Things I drew when I was 14, 17.
What I was thinking about hasn’t really changed. It’s evolved. I started mapping alignments.
Characters became artefacts.
Artefacts became factions.
This is also where I decided Artifacts was cooler than Artefacts, sorry England.
Story had already been forming around them; each garment had its own ‘for who’ declaration based on the art.
What if you could “battle” or align in the street? Choose your faction.
Can garments carry allegiance, story and resistance?
Ancient pressures.
Ways of holding your ground.
The Canis emerged.
Recognise The Canis
Two weeks of game mapping, architecture and linguistic gymnastics led to The Canis.
Suddenly, it was alive.
Not just another shop, a small theatre of resistance. Rebellion.
Defiance.
The garments became artefacts in a wider struggle because, in ways both obvious and hidden, this is a battle for our lives.
Has it changed my social media habits?
No. 😆
It’s an exercise I’d recommend to any founder
Not because it will solve your distribution problem. It may solve nothing.
But asking the question led me to unearth the world that has been hiding in plain sight for over 20 years.
A Christmas Of Refinement.
I now find myself waking in the night with tension from holding down Ctrl +C and not pasting it, because technically, I’m asleep.
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.
Verbal bondage and visual systems.
Naming the work while building it: three characters, a new visual system, and the first time the whole thing can breathe.
AI visual showing the three characters to Mongrel Logic, a small part of the process of developing our visual system.
The tiny problem when you build like I do is the language evolution as I progress. I’ve changed the website more than I have changed outfits this year.
Defining what hasn’t been defined.
Learning how to talk about the three characters I inhabit in this world has been extremely challenging. Every time I refine even the smallest phrase, the knock-on effect of clarity in one area means a complete rewrite in another.
It’s ok, I won in the end.
I have emerged from the wilderness of my own mind, covered in moss, dirt and ichor. But I think I might have finally moulded all these things into one coherent, cohesive story that finally has its visual shit together.
The evidence of our evolution is here for all to see.
I don’t mind that. At all, actually. I have built this from scratch. Whether it’s finding identity in wording, or arguing with myself over flat felled seems and GSM, pattern makers, choosing our manufacturers for the limited editions; it’s been one hell of a journey to be able to stand here next to a thing that looks like a thing. The beginnings of a thing. A ‘th’ if you will.
Mongrel Logic has found its stride.
Which is good because I walk fast. I have not stopped in months. The tiniest bit of wording on the website, image, description, product seen and the coming soon limited-edition range is all occupying my head. All trying to find its mark.
It took a minute, but this is the first time it’s felt like it can breathe.
There is much more coming. And so much more to do. I’ve just finalised a visual identity system. And our next hoodie design is under construction. I’ve just finished rewriting the website again, and for the first time, I think I have a plan for our socials. The AI image above was part of that journey, trying to articulate the three characters of my business. I needed a visual way to help me delineate language and this helped quite a bit.