How to stop listening to Sleep Token
Do you wake up in the morning and immediately; “I dream, in phosphorescence…” Yeah, me too. Here’s the (semi) cure.
AI artwork titled ‘The Sound of Metal’ a visual companion to the Sleep Token post
Do you wake up in the morning and immediately; “I dream, in phosphorescence…” Yeah, me too. Here’s the (semi) cure. “We dive through crystal waters”
An antidote to hypnosis… is more hypnosis.
1. Start with Turisas - Stand up and Fight, listen to the whole album.
2. Follow with Danny Brown - Atrocity Exhibition.
3. Finish with Jane’s Addiction Three Days (bonus points: roll into any album from the late 80’s to the 90’s straight after)
That’s how you flush Sleep Token from your brain.
You’re welcome. “Reflected in light, refracted in sound”
…Fuck.
What is The Mongrel Studio?
“The next chapter is finding a collaborator, making the cap and launching it.”
The first Mongrel Studio logo; the creative home behind Mongrel Logic’s sustainable design philosophy
The Mongrel Studio is where I designed my first cap. It had no name back then. It’s a physical space as much as it is a space inside my head. Where the ridiculous and the incredible are possible. I am one of those people who is interested in everything. I have the good fortune of wide-ranging experience.
I love both the light and the dark, I can easily be found cleaning with Devil wears Prada running in the background listening to Lorna Shore whilst contemplating why we’re trying to terraform a planet with no rotating core. This example isn’t exclusive.
Why did I develop The Mongrel Studio?
I can’t help with Mars. But after I designed the cap, I developed the studio to answer the design questions I have been asking my whole life. Why we do things the way we do and how I could do it better.
When I was a kid; at The Kruger National Park my brother and I slept in a one-man tent that was dripping with condensation, listening to Hyenas sniffing around the campsite. I still hate tents.
One night, there was an infestation of black beetles that stank worse than anything I have ever smelled. They gathered around lights and died in the thousands. I will never forget that smell, it took my breath away like horseradish or wasabi. I love both of those, I just mean the compound in the smell, it knocks your breath back into your throat.
I was looking at the streetlight outside the other night, it was at about midnight, and there was one lonely bug swirling around it; getting ever closer to the spider web spun across the light. It made me sad. I have always loved nature and deplore how we live with it.
What does this have to do with caps? Nothing. And everything. It’s the backbone of everything I do. It’s important to design with nature in mind. We must do things better. It can’t just be about profit and eating up resources. I don’t have an answer to it all. But I finally have a home for my mad scientist to live.
From a Cap to Solving the world’s problems
I want to help that lonely bug, and I want to help people be able to earn their own money. If you can’t afford to eat, you can’t afford to care about insects. The focus right now is making a cap that, with care, will last you a lifetime. It’s something that your kid might dig out of your cupboard in 20 years’ time and claim it as their own. Using the right materials. Not producing landfill in the form of fast fashion. Creating products that have a life on the second-hand market. Limited, capsule drops under the label Mongrel Logic™.
Transparency is key as well, I think. I don’t have everything figured out yet, six months ago there was no brand, just a blog and me trying to figure out what my next step was. Now I am madly pulling together design files and hunting for the right collaborator.
The next chapter for the studio
The next chapter is finding a collaborator, making the cap and launching it. After that, I have more tricks up my sleeve and a vision. The vision being the development of a house that empowers others to do the same and bring access to those who don’t have it.
How is Mongrel Studios going to help?
I know this is bigger than me. The hard part will be getting it done, but I’m not sweating. It starts with our signature edition cap, motivated by a desire to see people win, because we can’t solve the worlds problems if we are all constantly losing.
Welcome to Mongrel Studio.
If you are still reading, thank you. Follow along to see the cap launch unfold and watch what becomes of this space. Collaborators welcome. Subscribe to the newsletter; coming soon and follow on socials. This is just the beginning.
How to Start a Business When You Don’t Even Know What It Is Yet
“I did have a closet full of the skeletons of dead dreams. And I was determined not to add to it. I had no idea what to do, I just knew I had to do something.”
Designer drawing with a dog sleeping nearby ; early days of building the Mongrel Logic brand from scratch
There’s this peculiar phase at the start of any venture; a time when your ideas are still nebulous and even you struggle to make sense of them. You’ve technically started a business, but you don’t know what it is yet, it’s like trying to solve a puzzle with half the pieces missing. When I first started, I felt like I was wandering in the dark. You kind of hope people don’t ask you what you do; because you still don’t know and by now, you feel like you should have it all figured out.
Why did I start out with nothing?
When I started The Pavement Special, I had no capital, only a basic skills assessment, and a gut feeling. I had an eight-year-old phone that was so outdated that watching a video on YouTube was a frustrating experience, with ads overlaying the video and audio for both playing simultaneously. My laptop, with just 3GB of RAM, was barely functional. I could only afford free Google docs. I had no job at the time. I did have a closet full of the skeletons of dead dreams. And I was determined not to add to it. I had no idea what to do, I just knew I had to do something.
Not knowing what to do and doing it anyway.
I knew I liked writing, but I had always kept the idea of writing for a living hidden away, so I dug it out the closet and put a pretty frock on it and dragged it to work. I spent a year trying to be consistent and often struggled. During this time, while I worked through my existential crises and endless questions, various ideas came to me. Some ideas were fleeting, and with hindsight, not good. Others took root and are growing into projects that are now in development. For example, the birth and development of my brand, Mongrel Logic, a cap designed as wearable art. It’s a first step toward a broader studio vision.
What have I learned from this?
I aimed to achieve small technological advancements and growth whenever I could afford it. Thankfully, I found a job during this period. This job became both my investment strategy and my biggest time obstacle, which I still battle today. I have learned that doing something is better than doing nothing and waiting is pointless; regardless of what you think you need to get started, begin with what you have. I had no idea I would be sitting here with a cap and a studio six months ago. The way it all came together, one stone at a time, is still incredible to me.
Why did I do it like this?
I decided that acting was better than sitting and thinking about what might be possible if I had a thousand dollars. Or ten thousand, or fifty, or waiting till things were right. I decided that I could no longer wait until I had the money, the information or the hardware. I’ve already spent over ten years researching. I just didn’t know that what I was doing at the time, was research. After living through the worst decade of my life, I felt angry at everything. I had expected things to be different by now. And we still don’t have hoverboards. I relied on my gut instinct, trusting it for the first time in a long while.
Ok, but how does building this business, in public, help you?
Well, I’m failing for all to see, forging in the fires of…gawd…Sorry. I’m proving that it can be done, whatever that thing is you want to do that you don’t know what it is, but you know you can’t stand it here, so it’s better than not doing it. (Surely?) I’m proving that you can achieve your goals, even if you’re not entirely sure what they are yet.
The Unexpected Journey to My First Product
“Often, I find what I am looking for in the cracks. In the dirt. In the uneven surface. It’s not because I sat down, followed some steps and planned the perfect product. It was by accident. Not by careful design”
Concept artwork representing the early, unexpected journey to Mongrel Logic’s first product; the Signature Cap.
I have always wanted my own business. I’m inspired by creativity and art. I’ve always been an artist but never saw it as a profession. I got caught up in corporate and confidence got lost. I’ve started and failed a few businesses, like previous blogs. I have wanted to be everything from a vet to an astronaut. While picking turnips and taking ballet lessons.
Knowing the ‘don’t want’ before the ‘want’
When I started the blog; I didn’t know what I wanted to write, but I discovered what I didn’t want to write. I knew I wanted to make products eventually, but I didn’t want to make products that would end up in landfill. I didn’t want to just be out there making noise on social media trying to compete for attention. Hype is not my thing. Lemmings. Realising what I didn’t want to do, I began experimenting with different approaches.
MacGyver-ing my way through my business’ first year
I threw the rules out. There was no SEO in the beginning. Nothing. Then I gradually started incorporating which rules were for me. I grew in consistency…more or less. When it was less, I was behind the scenes figuring it all out, planning, strategizing, calculating, plotting. Forgetting to take pictures for social media. Learning and growing.
Pivot, Pivot!
What has been key is changing direction when something didn’t feel right. I was still trying to find what “it” was when I came up with the caps. But what started as a print on demand idea for a side hustle ended with me designing a cap that only a highly skilled atelier can make. Even after this, I still spent time messing around with other ideas before I was able to recognise it for what it was and focus in on it. I was almost done with designing the cap but still trying to develop a Manifesto for buildings giving back energy. I don’t know shit about energy, anthropology or infrastructure. But I do know about caps, design and fashion.
Product design by accident
Often, I find what I am looking for in the cracks. In the dirt. In the uneven surface. It’s not because I sat down, followed some steps and planned the perfect product. It was by accident. Not by careful design.
Ok, now it’s being carefully designed but the birth was completely ‘winged’ into existence.
One small cap, one giant leap in development
The products I develop will always have a real-world benefit attached to it. The goal is to build something completely regenerative. That has been my modus operandi from day one, even without a product. We need new businesses that work differently. This is an ongoing personal battle and something I am working to define.
I don’t have it all figured out, but I do have caps, so it’s probably okay. Looking back, I’ve learned that embracing uncertainty and following my instinct led me to create something meaningful. If you’re on a similar path, remember it’s okay not to have all the answers, sometimes the best ideas come from unexpected places.
This Got Out of Hand: How a One-Month Website Move Became a Beast of a Business
Somewhere between “I don’t know what I’m talking about” and “I think I designed a cap”: I created a beast.
Concept artwork symbolising Mongrel Logic growing from a small blog into a full design studio.
I’m back baby!
Remember when I said this would take a month?
Yeah…try three. But it’s not because I ghosted. It’s because the tiny thing I thought I was doing decided to grow teeth.
I was just planning on moving website platforms, moving my domain, I have reasons.
Since then, things have escalated. Fast. Somewhere between “I don’t know what I’m talking about” and “I think I designed a cap”: I created a beast.
It's not just a cap. I’m now thinking about ateliers, military embroiders or Japanese, maybe even an upholsterer. All in the pursuit of what might be the coolest cap ever made.
Sorry I took so long…
The timeline blew up. But so did the dream. What started as a blog shuffle is now pointing towards building regenerative, limited, luxury products that actually mean something.
Why I Named it that: The Unexpected Story Behind My Brand
After years of starting blogs then abandoning them; I finally came up with the name The Pavement Special when planning blog number five.
The Pavement Special Logo designed by Kerryn Hewitt
This is the story about how my brand names came to be. How a solo, self-discovery voyage turned into a design studio. It’s also an example of why doing something is better than doing nothing.
What’s with the name?
After years of starting blogs then abandoning them; I finally came up with the name The Pavement Special when planning blog number five. A pavement special is South African slang for a mongrel dog. I’ve always found it funny because I identified. That’s a bit like me.
The Pavement Special was born
I chose The Pavement Special because I needed a place to talk about anything and everything until I figured out what I was making or doing, so it seemed appropriate.
I had no idea what the blog was about. I didn’t bother with SEO at all for the first year, I just wrote whatever I wanted or thought I should write. I had two starting points. I can write (ish), and I can draw (hmm). Everything else was in the dark. I’ve felt like a pavement special my whole life. I decided to own it.
I had no idea that I would be getting puppies shortly after, who were, coincidentally, mongrels.
Mongrel Logic and Mongrel Studio soon followed.
After a year of writing I finally planned my first product off the back of a dog attack. Sounds worse than it was, I was trying to process it and deal with two extremely anxious dogs when I thought of my signature design.
None of this was planned, it was discovered in the moment.
When I wrote my first blog article, I thought it might be a blog about helping spouses of partners with PTSD. Turns out, I really hate talking about my problems. I’m more… solution oriented as a person. I tried writing reviews, I wrote about things I’d seen but after I came up with the cap, I wrote about business. That’s when everything changed. That was roughly six months ago.
Welcome to The Pavement Special, a blog about my brand Mongrel Logic and my design studio, Mongrel Studio.
If you had asked me two years ago if I would be sitting here doing this, I would have told you, you were crazy. I planned to do the blog, but I went in blind. I was going stir crazy thinking about it and I had to start just doing it. The hardest part of that has been spotting the patterns in my own mongrel madness to discover what I was making. Now? I’ve designed a cap I cannot wait to wear. What started as a humble blog and…really me thinking out loud, has turned into a signature edition premium cap.