Testing organic growth, not just organic cotton.

Close-up photograph of my dirt-covered hand placing small marbles on asphalt, symbolising starting from zero and organic growth.

Part of my early strategy is to test organic growth. Our small social accounts have only just found their full vocabulary, and testing has started.

Instagram stats are not a healthy place to live in.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s fun. I’m up for the challenge. But, playing a medium-to-long-term game while looking at daily stats is a bit like watching an hourglass fill, one grain of sand at a time. That part is dull as anything. Luckily, not tied to my personal sense of power or validation, but absolutely tied to planning and upcoming projects.

A Game of Follows.

Sorry…couldn’t help myself. Why am I being such a dick about doing it the hard way? Well, I can’t fully test the financial sustainability of the system without starting with zero.  It’s a lot to explain in a short blog, but part of what I am testing is the zero-start-up (or near zero, let’s face it) cost philosophy as well. But I did start the blog, before all of this was born, with nothing. Free documents, free versions, free everything.

How am I avoiding burnout?

I’ve planned. Most of the end of 2025 was spent documenting, taking pictures of our prints and garments in real life. I have endless content to use; the hard part is putting it together in a way that is legible.

I’m not so good with patience.

I wish there were another two of me. But we’d need to be able to tell each other apart so one of them is a cyclops and the other has snakes for hair. Read into that, what you will. I just mean sheer workload and ability to make time to be able to separate myself from it for long enough to have a good idea. That’s tough.

Speaking of good ideas.

I’m currently working on the latest design. I’ve been recording some of the process, not sure what I’ll share yet, but, fuck ja, if organic growth and slogging sounds familiar to you then join me why don’t you?  

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.  

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.

Subscribe to The Studio Dispatch for more.

That’s our newsletter.

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