Year One

Year One

This has been my escape.

It’s officially one year since I opened the Teemill store, aka the Core range, aka sustainable streetwear, aka where the Artifacts live in the Archive. 🤣

In case you hadn’t noticed, I build backwards. No one in their right fucking mind would build an entire business architecture before building product. Except for me.

I’ve not scratched the surface of what I plan to build, but the fact that I can shake it and it doesn’t fall down, is, annoying actually, if I am honest.

I always find a loose nut. It’s one of my favourite games is try break it. I’m very good at it.

Model wearing Corruption, a condition in The Canis.

Game on

The next step is finding people to play.

My social strategy thus far has been ‘post and bail’. Which is good for, nothing, it’s good for nothing.

Now that the hardest part is done, the next hardest part must begin. Which again, is backwards, but can I get enough people to care? That remains to be seen.

Really…supposed to do this the other way around.

Streetwear, mythology, art and games

Ja. I know.
But, I’m bored. In real life, I live in a uniform of holy trackies and sweaters.
At any given moment I could be somewhere ankle deep in mud, in my office, or getting covered in dog.

I can’t wear my nice things because there is no “out” where I live. I work from home.
I need something that still looks artistic, inspired, authentic.

And at the end of the day, all covered in cobwebs, bugs, Canis, dog hair, who knows what else, missing my cat and family, I just want to be comfortable.

Worldbuilding chaos

What started with an idea for a cap led to gradually constructing an entire creative ecosystem.

A sustainable streetwear label, a publishing platform, a mythology, a visual language, a product architecture, a content system, a worldbuilding framework, and a long-term business strategy, all while working a day job, navigating financial pressure, grief, you know…life.

What will year two bring?

I have absolutely no idea.
I know what I’d like to happen.

When I started The Pavement Special in 2023, before this website, before the cap and the clothes, I had no job.
Again.

I was desperate to do something stimulating, that I knew I wasn’t going to find in any role. I had nothing but time on my hands that I didn’t want.

I started writing.

I probably should have quit by now

Believe me, I’ve thought about it.
I’ve rattled it to the bones, and it won’t bloody fall down.

I’ll think about my socials and well, lack thereof, the challenge of getting this in front of the right people cos I’m blending genres like mad. My audience is scattered.

And just when I think, ok, maybe this entire thing is a dumbass idea, another condition will emerge, another character, another story, another arc, another level.
I’ve stopped shaking it. Now I just hang on for dear life.

“Arise my mighty pink army! Scatter left, scatter right, attack!”

…

” Beware geneticists, with their craziness and hybrid monster fantasies. Beware the things they do, they’re geneticizing monsters with geneta-glue”

Crabulon. Evil Scarecrow.

To the two people that get that, welcome, where you been?

And to the handful that have been here from the start, thanks for sticking around.

Conditions, Myths and Cards

You ever have that wtf have I done moment? How about several of those in a short period? Welcome to my world.

I’m pleased to say nothing is broken. Creativity is flowing.

But I have butterflies the size of chickens in my gut because now I am also a TCG designer.

Classifications in The Canis: Characters, Tokens, Conditions, Entities.

Don’t Panic

As I’ve been building this sustainable streetwear world, I have been thinking about art.

Everything you see on garment or on a physical product, I have dawn myself. In a world increasingly filled with AI-generated imagery, authenticity matters.

Like everyone else, I use AI while developing ideas. The Canis is still young. A couple of months old, give or take. Honestly, I've completely lost track of time

The cards on the site are version one mock-ups. The final thing I know will take longer, I am not even sure if people care enough to want them, so a lot remains to be seen.

I’ve been panicking about TCG’s because, I’d like our cards to be really good.

I've spent enough time around things like D&D and trading card games to know how much work goes into them. I'm not trying to dethrone Pokémon, Magic and D&D. Far from it. If anything, I'm increasingly humbled by the ridiculous amount of effort that goes into building these worlds and systems.

It’s okay, like I said, don’t panic. But I am not going to try sell you version one mock-ups just so you know. Like I said, we’ll do them properly. The same goes for the comics.

Writing The Canis

Everything is completely intertwined with The Canis, I move when it moves.

From writing the mythology to character development, it genuinely has been unfolding.
Partly through my own reverse engineering genius, and partly through completely strange moments of insight.
Like at midnight last night, suddenly thinking, we have a sun eater, we might as well have a moon eater.

Don’t ask, I have absolutely no idea what that is. (Please not another worm)
Anyway.

Okay, bye

So much to do.

Building Streetwear Mythology

I grew up in the era of gaming magazines, comics, album covers, flags and posters. I thought Gerald Brom had superhuman abilities. Mythology and fantasy were my textbooks.

I can talk to you about stories, systems and art for days. The Canis is my attempt to build mythology, collectibles, comics and game mechanics into a streetwear brand.

What’s left of what was on my wall in the 00s.

Mapping game to garment

The first part was easy, ARG mechanics slot right in, designing the characters and mythology, however, can be painfully slow.

I just spent the entire weekend drawing a new version of Sun Eater and the villain, both of which were canned. I’m torn between game iconography and art and have not stopped testing concepts.

Comic books

Accompanying the core range and TCG’s are comics. This is where the story unfolds.

The next generation of art is in progress; provided I stop canning them.
The rulebook is done, version one. The first series of cards is done as well. As the visual language evolves, so will these.

Never thought that kid cutting art and articles out of gaming mags would be designing TCG’s but, there we are.

Star maggots

Sun Eater is part of The Originals; the first batch of my old teenage art I used to start the shop. Weird, misfit art. In its own right.

Reworking this doodle into a re-usable artifact of The Canis has been one of the biggest challenges to date. Raptor is on this list as well.

Due to an obsession with cosmology (Et Al) we have star maggots and axiomatic entities.  

Building worlds

I used to complain about my to-do list. Now, I miss it.

It’s been fun and challenging but it’s the start of mythology.

ARG game mechanics, rules, cards, comics, and an evolving world all mapped to our core range.  
Can’t stop now, this giant world keeps rolling.