Building Worlds
Building an original world isn't always about making progress. Sometimes it's about waiting for the next piece of the puzzle to reveal itself. A founder's journal on comics, creativity and building The Canis one step at a time.
The most frustrating thing about building an alternate reality streetwear game and world is that my brain needs rest in between.
The cognitive load of the past week has been brutal.
Letting the puzzle emerge rather than making the pieces fit is honestly annoying.
I don’t often stare at a blank page for very long, or at least if I do, then there is my first clue, I’m barking up the wrong Tenet.
The Comic
As The Canis underwent its own supernova, and exploded in every direction, I have been trying to work out what goes in the comic.
I already had the story, so how hard could it be right?
A week of hardly anything. Small notes, one hour of progress, and then the end of thought, for the day not just that session. And when I say end, I mean end. Of productivity as well, not just comic book text.
That’s been rough, I don’t like slow. Everything is already slower by its nature, independent brand, solo founder, circular fashion.
It feels personal, when it goes even slower because I’m still going a thousand miles an hour.
But the comic has emerged successfully.
Concept artwork exploring Spineless, one of the Conditions spreading throughout The Canis.
Art is next
This is actually what I was most afraid of but having gone through the comic book tunnel and emerged the other end, with game stronger and story stronger, the art has become what I am most looking forward to. I just wish there were two of me.
Kerryn and Nyrrek
Why am I picturing one with a hunchback?
Printing the comic
I’ll be hiding it online first. Once I have done the work that needs to be done, over the coming months, I will see if people want it. You might have noticed hardly anyone knows we exist yet.
I just need to move house, and then that will be my focus. In the meantime, tell someone you know.
Much bigger than me
I’ve quietly built a behemoth.
Does anyone have any biscuits?
The Canis Game
What exactly is The Canis? After days of trying to define the world I was building, I finally realised the answer was staring me in the face. This behind-the-scenes journal explores the game, the comics, the cards, AI, and a painting from my teens that somehow predicted it all.
It’s hard to articulate how many things I hold in my head on any given day. Building this game out is fun and terrifying in equal measure. I’m sure you can guess why. But in case you can’t, its fun because I get to play for a significant portion of my time, making up star maggots and mapping their evolution.
It’s terrifying because it’s early. Literally no one but me asked for this.
Kinda rule number one of business.
I have a habit of approaching things from a different angle.
It is so actively in development, that I have been asking myself the question, what is ‘The Canis’, is it a world, a universe? Yes me, the builder of it. This has been going on for days.
And only just landed on the right words, roughly sixty seconds ago.
It’s a game. Duh.
Really, I blame my to do list. It wraps around the planet at this point.
Designing the cards
I can’t be an expert in everything and believe me, I am not. I have enough background to build this without feinting each day, but I have gaps.
One rather amusing one, was realising how integrated the cards and comics are. To anyone who has been building games for centuries, I salute you. It was only when I sat down to write the comic that I realised I had to design the cards first.
We haven’t even got to the art yet.
The art
While recording for socials this week, I have been talking about AI. Love or hate it, its here. I only use my own art to generate our AI reels.
It’s how I can test personalities, ideas, concepts, styles, formats without spending 14 weeks trapped in an art cycle that I can’t maintain.
I draw all the hoodie designs, characters, and worlds. I am drawing all the comics, cards and I write the blog, my website and my world. This is not an AI world.
It seems like it has been living in my head a very long time; I found a photo of an old painting I did, and thematically, it’s eery how it is kinda all there without it knowing what it was yet. This was painted sometime in the 2000s.
Eyeballs, weird trees, random entity. That giant sun. Spooky.
Now, I started this all with art from my teens, but finding this photo with all those elements was nuts. This painting has now inspired another world and characters.
I use AI to help research, SEO, editing, project management, and images.
I dream of the day that I can hire writers and artist etc.
The thing that bothers me most about AI, is sustainability. With it being the backbone of everything I build, coupled with no data and warranted suspicion, it remains to be seen how we deal with that, globally as well as individually. This blog is not long enough for the rest of the arguments so moving on.
A painting (and photo) from the 2000s. Looking back, it's strange how many themes that became The Canis were already there.
When are the comics coming?
Now-now. Over the coming weeks I’ll be sharing progress and taking you along for the ride.
And the cards?
Just-now.
Official terminology…
It’s happening now. I have already started. The world is coherent, the game is playable, the system is working, the world is growing faster than I can keep up. I just need to build all the other parts you can play with.
No pressure. When I start licking the chalk I will let you know.
The Ecodesign Regulation
The EU's Ecodesign Regulation marks a major shift towards circular products. As Digital Product Passports begin rolling out, here's why they matter for fashion, transparency and the future of sustainable design.
The Ecodesign Regulation is an EU framework designed to improve the sustainability and circularity of products throughout their lifecycle.
This week marked an important milestone. The Digital Product Passport infrastructure went live, with textiles identified as one of the EU's priority sectors.
Fashion is no longer later. It’s happening.
We built for this
It’s always been a priority for me to build something that was sustainable.
Our fabrics are made from 100% GOTS certified organic cotton. Our factories are powered by renewable energy.
Our dyeing process alone, is worth reading about, all garments are dyed in a closed loop system where water comes out clean enough to drink.
Using low-waste digital printing technology and water-based inks that conform to GOTS and Soil Association organic criteria is crucial to circularity. Our inks contain no animal-derived products and are not tested on animals.
And we print on demand, reducing overproduction.
Organic cotton garments awaiting production. Building sustainability begins long before the first print is applied.
Why DPP?
Looking at textiles, most people don't know much beyond what's printed on the care label.
There is no dye information, which is traditionally toxic and uses and wastes a lot of water.
No manufacturing information, where was it made, does the product contain restricted chemicals?
Yes, these can be found in clothing.
There is no recycling or repair information.
And nothing about how much carbon was produced when making it.
Up till now all that has been required are garment care labels. Wash cold, no tumble dry, fire warnings.
It’s the beginning of the end for greenwashing. “Made sustainably” is no longer going to cut it.
People, Product, Profit
This is how it should be.
We’re nowhere near, sadly. But these regulations walk us toward a circular future where ending fashion waste is an outcome.
It’s not just textiles, steel, batteries and iron are in the priority groups. If you’ve been reading this blog from the start, you’ll know Ive been bitching about low quality products built to last a year for as long as I’ve been building.
We are a long way from the kind of future I would love to see, where every product has been designed for its entire life cycle. This is where it starts.
What happens next?
Testing.
Phased rollout.
At the time of writing, the DPP regulations have only impacted very large producers.
Large producers are now prohibited from destroying their unsold textiles and footwear.
Early days
As with all new regulations, there will probably be challenges along the way.
Like what to do with the 30% of clothing that doesn’t get sold.
You can see the changes already, a large fashion retailer here in the UK has been advertising the same green dress for the past two months. Now it’s all about re-wear, reuse, recycle.
When I started Mongrel Logic, I wasn't trying to follow regulation. I was trying to build a better way of making products. Seeing circularity become part of legislation feels like confirmation that the industry is finally moving in the right direction.
We're still at the beginning. But for the first time in a long time, it feels like fashion is being asked to think beyond the point of sale.