The Design That Almost Broke Everything
Spineless was supposed to be a small protest piece. Instead, it nearly broke the visual coherence of The Canis. Five days, multiple redesigns, and one accidental stress test of the entire world later, the condition has arrived.
A conceptual piece testing if art styles can hold in the same world
When I set out to build The Canis, it was to try and solve a few problems at once.
I didn’t anticipate creating one instead.
Enter, the jellyfish.
I did not choose this design. It popped into my head one night.
I have a real fondness for political cartoonists. I grew up on Zapiro in South Africa and enjoy many of today’s artists.
The jellyfish concept was my own little protest. I shelved the idea for a couple of weeks until the jellyfish suddenly slotted into place within The Canis. A condition. Spineless. The enchanted ones.
It represents what confronts us. What we’re up against in The Canis.
Jellyfish nightmares
Spineless
I kept waking up at 5am with the jellyfish fading behind my eyelids. Hating it.
It took me 5 days to do. 3 of those were 7.5 hour sit ins.
The one that ended up on garment is the second third version.
I couldn’t see why. Was it conceptually weak? Probably. Was it good? I don’t know.
Nearly broke The Canis
Five minutes after I’ve built The Canis, I’ve designed a character that broke it. I could not tell if it was pushing one style of art too far.
If I have, which style do I go with, do I need to redesign everything and pick one or will this evolution of story be legible? My brain was a rolodex of symbols and iconography.
The irony is this is exactly what Spineless represents
The conditions that spread and fracture our systems, that push to the brink and force change.
I bit the bullet and released it into the wild. I still hated it.
I mocked up the world. I needed to see conceptually if it held. No one knows that the Raptor design is really a sleeping geometric creature. No one knows that the Sun Eater doodle has morphed into a formidable Token. No one knows how dangerous it is. The fragments are only just being unearthed.
It didn’t break
To my surprise, it held. Even if the AI concept mock-up has gone a little literal with Raptor…He was inspired by the Bio-Raptors from Pitch Black. Still some of the best creature sound design ever made.
Spineless
The enchanted. Because pressure always finds a form. The condition. Organic streetwear for those who recognise.
The next 5 designs are planned.
The next fragment is being unearthed.
I thought the jellyfish was going to break The Canis.
It didn’t.
I like it now.
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.