QWERTY: MERCH MAKIN'

I have this recurring joke that follows me around wherever I may be within earshot of the funny person sayin’ it, essentially referencing that no-one I know knows what I do for work. Not my parents, not my wife, not my kids, certainly not my friends, and often, not even the people in the industries that I frequent (startup people).

I am in Sydney this week doing my ‘work.’ My wife, on our 14 year wedding anniversary this week, wished me well as I went to spend time with my ‘second family’ there, such is how confused she is as to what I actually get up to when interstate, and that could be the only logical explanation. Luckily for her, it’s actually quite boring she would find, as she gets so bored when I start talking my startup bullshit.

I also enjoy messing with the LinkedIn platform on occasion, since dry humour and sarcasm does not translate there. Such as on my latest post where I announced a trip to Sydney (most people call it travelling), which was largely half-read by the majority to mean ‘Moved to another city.’ AITA? You Decide HERE but it sure did do exactly what I know the algo is going to do. It. Served. It. Up.

The whole subterfuge of the thing has become this sort of running commentary on how elusive I am at even explaining it, which is A) quite funny to me and B) I sometimes wonder whether a little more of the boring path with easily explainable output might make more sense to do.

It would certainly on the odd occasion make things (potentially) easier on the financial side - less pitching of multiple things, more straight-down-the-line etc. But, whilst it can sometimes get old that it still feels a little that I am designing the future career, on the other side of that, I am happy that I continue to retain certain Peter Pan aspects, willing to explore interesting career opportunities and continue being curious.

At the moment it’s an overlap between content strategy and curation - writing newsletters, socials, casual and corporate comms, ghostwriting for founders in blog/linkedin form, planning and producing events plus the marketing to get the people there, engagement strategies (like all the things that someone would put into market before fundraising for a venture), launching and running podcasts, MCing conferences and small intimate events, developing place-based strategies, running curated dinners, designing editorial systems with AI, setting up email automations, pitching PR stories to journalists, being a journalist myself, reporting on conferences interstate as a journalist… etc etc etc you see how exhausting this looks written down?

It’s strategy and storytelling, made up of a million individual facets, and it’s how I ensure the card works when it gets tapped at the shops.

For some reason, the mix - this marketing mix - can be quite confusing to people that don’t operate in the same manner, perhaps in a more operational role or a little more specific.

Which is why some personal projects I have been involved in of late have been quite baffling to some people, such as my writing about merch every week with my collaborator Kayla Medica in a newsletter called DRIP DROP, and revisit designing my own merch.

“But WHY do you write about merch?” they ask.

It is baffling to me why that baffles people that I might want to write about merch or make some for personal/brand-building purposes.

It is almost as if there is this invisible line that exists, that when you step over it, you work in startups and you post on LinkedIn and everything else is strange. Or at least that’s the way I feel about it, as this sort of outlier I continue to be.

So I’m writing today about baffling people who are baffled by writing about merch so that this is less baffling, which is as clear as I’ll ever be.

MERCH MAKER

So, I designed these new pieces this past fortnight, which have been on my mind for a while, I’ve overthought continuously, and then I finally pulled the trigger on getting produced at Melbourne Merch Maker Full Cowboy, where Geremy McKay who runs it is getting involved in all manner off interesting merch projects and must think I’m an absolute lunatic each time I tap him on the shoulder for my latest ‘fashion creation’

Making merch has long been a thing I have enjoyed doing, since early days of the whoe world of being in a band and one of us would contribute a new design, or the 5 of us would spitball ideas and then the best photo-shopper in the team would produce it. The same went for flyers for our gigs: throw idea at the wall and see what comes back, confirm, ship it into the world.

Making merch within my world where I make a crust primarily is this funny old thing where people love merch, love to talk about merch, and yet, a low percentage of these startups or tech companies will really truly branch out into making the proper effort into doing it well.

TL;DR: Merch in Startup world is shit (I don’t mind saying that as a blanket statement, it’s 99.9% objectively true), and it directly inspired the reason to write the DRIP DROP newsletter with Kayla: “A Place Of Worship For Great Merch.” You can read it here:

Of course, it is also contingent on me to produce great merch if I am to be so snooty about it, so that’s what I set out to do in all the bespoke, one-of-one pieces I create, and I’m writing about a little bit of that thought pattern just for today, as I wear them all throughout Sydney this week, and talking about them a little bit more on *shudders* LinkedIn.

INSPO

So, I have this thing where I like to brand pieces, but always love anything where I can have a piece in subtle-mode, ie, a bit more IYKYK, where maybe the brand name is not visible, more just logos or even, no logos at all and this can all be very mysterious!

I have merch in mind for the future that I would love to sell as a range as well. Now is not that time, but I have this particular capsule range that I have always wanted to do, I think it would go really well for a niche audience actually, and the branding of the company that makes it (me, c/o GROUP GROUP) would be almost non existent, just letting the hero design treatment and utility of the apparel speak for itself.

Regarding inspo, there was actually 2 pieces of formative merch that I refer to for that IYKYK aspect, and they reappeared to me this week in different forms, in the same 24 hour window.

INSPO #1 ‘Zero’ by Smashing Pumpkins
INSPO #2 ‘Jane Doe’ by Converge

ZERO

I remember my grunge-era very well back in high school, with Nirvana probably top of the pile in that scene - even with the infamy of Kurt Cobain’s death - and a group like Smashing Pumpkins releasing an absolute masterpiece like ‘Melon Collie…’ which I was quickly obsessed with thanks to this pervading aesthetic and dreamy nature throughout, interwoven with some pretty fierce tunes. My daughter is now right into ‘1979’ and ‘Tonight Tonight’ and I’m gonna buy her the Zero t-shirt this Christmas which she’ll love.

And it’s that tee, so symbolic of that time, which never had ‘Smashing Pumpkins written on the piece at all I believe apart from the SP logo on the back of the neck or sleeve, that was one of the earliest memories I can recall of band merch signifying a band, but represented in this sub-brand way, which I was always attracted to. Less is more, as they say.

JANE DOE

We’re moving into much, much heavier musical territory here, but with Converge’s announcement this week of their appearance at the upcoming brand new Lucidity Fest in Melbourne c/o the Destroy All Lines team, I’m reminded again of the Jane Doe design that appeared on their 2001 classic, and has embodied both Converge and that particular hardcore/metal period so perfectly, without the word Converge being needed at all.

Jane Doe is easily one of the most recognisable images I can recall in my life, and I think a lot about how simple a statement it has come as it continues to endure. Often, with no further mention on the shirts of Converge at all.

RECENTLY

So I’d gotten to work on these pieces myself - I don’t think I’m much of a ‘brand name across a t-shirt’ person, nor am I ever going to be a ‘logo on a North Face or Patagonia vest’ as people love to do in my industry.

GROUP GROUP ‘FBI Jacket’

It’s funny, I was actually playing Alan Wake 2 on the PS5 last Summer and you have this ongoing shot of one of the characters wearing their FBI jacket, from the back so the ‘FBI’ its always present, and I think I was sort of immersed in the game a lot then snapped out of it and said to myself “Y’know what, you should make that jacket yourself.”

And like a rolling ball of momentum, so it was. I did dance around on whether that would be one of the first pieces done for DRIP DROP, but figured since it was too bespoke that would be too hard to produce more for people if we wanted to reproduce/gift. Plus, GROUP GROUP is such fun and great name for my business that I just enjoyed how simple a statement it was, and showcasing it in this way is highly effective.

SEEDS Chore

I’m not much of a branded t-shirts person unless they have some personality. I like jackets, and I like to make nice ones. This is an Army Green Chore from AS Colour, with a mix of printing and embroidery. On the pocket with ‘SEEDS’ text, we actually couldn’t embroider that as large as I wanted (it’s to do with the backing required, and the space in the pocket required) so we settled on the heatpressed lettering to make that big. Plus, it’s not likely to be washed as much as a tee, so the quality will stay intact.

I love a great chore jacket, and stand by it that more companies should make them for their team. But I would just wear this as a normal piece of clothing when heading out as well, and that’s what I like to envision when designing new merch. “Would I simply just wear this day-to-day?” And it has to be a yes.

(Also, it has a very in your face ‘GROUP GROUP’ embroidered ON THE COLLAR)

GRO UP ‘IT DEPENDS’

So, this is part of a bit of a ‘marketing/storytelling’ range I’ll keep producing from now on, on my SEEDS platform, that’s the piece at the top of the article.

With this ‘GRO UP’ range, I’ll just keep creating new and different pieces I want to wear, more as fashion than ‘work’ - this one was a specific Uniqlo Shacket, just different pieces that I design as a piece of fashion, and again, something I would wear in most occasions and scenarios day to day.

“It Depends” is just a bit of a nod and wink to what gets mentioned day to day in my world. Ask a product designer for their thoughts on what the next action would be, this might be their response. It Depends. This one will definitely be a conversation starter at the very least, as will the next ones in the GRO UP range (which relates to a new article theme I pushed out last week on SEEDS): https://www.seeds.how/

DRIP DROP Tee

And, funnily enough, I went with a more generic t-shirt for DRIP DROP initially to get started on making some merch for that project. Have to wear something under those jackets y’see.

I actually really like the design as simple as it is. I used a healthy amount of Procreate on an iPad for this one to get the hands into shape. A little imperfect, a design for now, until we design the next one, and thats about as uncomplicated as I make it.

So that’s it, that’s a little insight into Merch Makin’ I won’t write about that very often and don’t want to fill DRIP DROP just talking about myself.

I envision making pieces like this sitting alongside all the other important bits and pieces that go into building a brand’s, which really shouldn’t be that baffling to anyone.

That should explain why I design merch, and where I get some of my inspiration from.

Maybe. It Depends.

Gaz

A Little Curation For Ya

I’ve been pushing out these playlists, with various curated moods. Not that I need to apologise for my curation, as it’s what I enjoy listening to, but this one is extremely heavy, so if that’s not your thing, it’s not your thing. However, I did pick some classics for this one, so there are little-known numbers in there, and some some absolute ragers in there that would set a crowd at a festival off. Like when Converge play Concubine.

Here’s a quick preview:

User by Robotosaurus - oh wow, I have just never gotten over this song from this collab album (also with Coerce) thanks to two of Aus’ finest from yesteryear. It is a snarling, raw and wild listen that gets to breathe plenty and still sounds crucial in my playlists after all these years.

Concubine by Converge - one of the wildest songs to ever open a metal album. For some, this is an absolutely feral din. For others, it is a triumphant and euphoric explosion of pure primal energy. For many, it’s both, and a guaranteed tune to get on-the-fence fans ‘into the pit.’ And it still sits in lists of ‘100 Greatest Heavy Songs of All Time."‘

Needles In Your Skin by Oathbreaker - never ever thought I would see this band in Australia, with Oathbreaker also playing the Lucidity Fest with Converge, and they are playing their classic Rheia when here, which as a massive fan of that album is just incredible news. The ending to this song, with all it’s howls and shrieks and pent-up explosion of energy will never get old in the ears.

Ladies Night by Crippling Alcoholism - this band makes some of the most unsettling tunes ever. Not especially heavy in terms of loudness, but it’s all a little off-centre and has this sort of darkness embedded throughout what is this sort of indie tune. Or is it Pop? Or is it gloomy rock? Extremely hard to pin down.

Big Writers Block by Coilguns - this noise rock band from Switzerland play some of the more chaotic, experimental noise rock you’re likely to hear, and it wouldn’t surprise to hear that on many a mixed bill. There is a drum solo in this particular song that I haven’t been able to forget, this pummelling, time-changing sequence with some of the most frantic energy, which just speaks to me.

Prev Playlists:

GROUPED DARKNESS
GROUPED MOOD