Sun Eaters
A doodle. A grin. A giant cosmic worm.
Sun Eater began as a sketch over before evolving into one of the first true species of The Canis. This is how a bedtime doodle became mythology, original art, and sustainable streetwear.
I honestly have no idea why I put that doodle on a tee.
It must be his stupid grinning face.
He makes me laugh.
No one knew that this 11pm doodle, would become a species, a force of nature.
“I ate the sun, but I’m sorry!”
Star Maggots
Attracted to dying or unstable light.
They only know one way to solve a problem.
No world, no problem.
I almost deleted it
When I started the shop with my 20 year old teenage art, I knew they were characters, I knew there was a world.
The world just hadn't revealed itself yet.
While every other brand is doing back prints, sleeve prints and full-garment graphics,
I'm drawing star maggots.
Sun Eater is no longer a drawing
He’s a giant cosmic worm.
He cleans up.
He might eat our sun.
But he’ll definitely apologise after.
Let the design breathe
Inhale, hum, bark. (if you know, you know)
That's the transition from illustration to mythology.
I’m having so much fun. There aren’t enough hours in the day.
Though this heatwave is making me, question things. Maybe he should eat it…
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.
What is The Canis?
The Canis has been here longer than you know. Twenty years of characters, worlds, tokens and conditions; built before there was a name for any of it. The designs in this store are artifacts. Each one marks where something stands. Start with who you are.
Omens: A world within The Canis
The Canis can’t be entered.
Only recognised. That recognition is the doorway.
The Canis is a record
A world in development for over 20 years. Characters, villains, tokens, conditions, and the three primal elements, the Canes, that shape how you survive it. Every design in this store is an artifact from that world. Every piece marks where something stands.
Start with who you are.
Choose your element. Follow the marks. The record will guide you through.
Trouble is coming. Find The Canis.