COMIC CON!!! Part 3

Okay first things first, I’ve just noticed a startling trend in our blog titles concerning exclamation marks. Now that’s out of the way we can have a look at what we got up to at today’s 2011 MCM Comic Con in London (UK).

We had a great time and in the process met some great people sporting awesome cosplay.

What follows are all of the entrants in our cosplay competition. The best dressed will win a free T-shirt! These pictures will also feature on our facebook page so you can tag yourself if you have been featured. Winner’s will be announced in a week’s time so check back often for updates.

 

 

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COMIC CON!!! Part 2

Okay first things first, I’ve just noticed a startling trend in our blog titles concerning exclamation marks. Now that’s out of the way we can have a look at what we got up to at today’s 2011 MCM Comic Con in London (UK).

We had a great time and in the process met some great people sporting awesome cosplay.

What follows are all of the entrants in our cosplay competition. The best dressed will win a free T-shirt! These pictures will also feature on our facebook page so you can tag yourself if you have been featured. Winner’s will be announced in a week’s time so check back often for updates.

 

Read more

COMIC CON!!! Part 1

Okay first things first, I’ve just noticed a startling trend in our blog titles concerning exclamation marks. Now that’s out of the way we can have a look at what we got up to at today’s 2011 MCM Comic Con in London (UK).

We had a great time and in the process met some great people sporting awesome cosplay.

What follows are all of the entrants in our cosplay competition. The best dressed will win a free T-shirt! These pictures will also feature on our facebook page so you can tag yourself if you have been featured. Winner’s will be announced in a week’s time so check back often for updates.

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Food Glorious Food!

Nigel May 16, 2011 No Comments

If you know us then you’ll know that we like food. There’s no way around it. That’s why my recent visit to the US was great timing, because they have a lot of it!

I thought would showcase my trip through the eyes of my stomach.

As well as pushing the boundaries of how much can be eating in a single meal, I made a great discovery: sweet potato fries! We have sweet potatoes in England…so why I have never eaten these before is a mystery.

The pork sandwich was amazing too.

What I can never get over though is the portion sizes. I usually aim to finish what’s on my plate but sometimes you just have to admit defeat.

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Brand New Website: Doing It Live!

mayamada March 17, 2011 No Comments

Those of you that tune into these pages often will know that we’ve recently finished our rebranding and have a new range of tees out under the new mayamada brand.  You’ll also know that we have been hard at work on our new website.  Well…(deep breath)…it’s done!

It’s been a massive effort and a big thanks goes to everyone who pitched in along the way (you know who you are), we couldn’t have done it without you.

You can take a look right now, check out the shows on offer an maybe even pick up a tee.

We hope you like it, let us know what you think of it in the comments our at our Facebook page.  We can’t wait hear from you.

The Problem of the Last Mile

Nigel February 27, 2011 No Comments

Ideas are easy, but finishing is (disproportionately) harder.

 

Our website is almost done and we’ve also just finished rebranding efforts including brand new designs (available now).  The whole experience has been a lesson in seeing things through to the end.

Everyone has good ideas (just as the Winklevoss twins).  As I’ve learned over the past year, that’s not difficult.  You may have some good ideas, some bad ones and one or two will probably be excellent.  But generally it’s something anyone can do.

So you have a bunch of good ideas, you pick one and run with it.  Putting in the work to implement your idea ranks a little higher on the difficulty scale, but getting 90-95% of that killer idea is still quite achievable.

The truly difficult task in any pursuit, is finishing it.  Getting to 100%

That last 5-10% is where winners are separated form everyone else.  For some reason that last mile – when you can see the finishing line but aren’t quite there yet – tests you much more than whatever work took place beforehand.

I don’t quite understand it myself, but maybe Malcolm Gladwell will write a book explaining it one day.

That is when you been at it for months or maybe even years and just want to see the finishing line.  When things are taken longer than expected and when the problems seem to want to crop up.  If you’re going to be successful, you can’t stop and call it ‘done’ at 90% – you have to persist all the way.

It helps if you have a good team of people around you to fill in the gaps that you leave (like graphic design ability and patience!), but however you get there just remember that you’re not done until you get to 100%.

Re-launch Photoshoot

Mr L February 6, 2011 4 Comments

It’s been a while since our last photoshoot and here we are again, this time near Brick Lane (btw, great for curries if you are in that part of London). As you probably know, we have 3 new designs on the way and the aim of the shoot was to to capture the essence of each with the use of somewhat quirky yet related props.

The day started off pretty early (well early for a Saturday if you ask me). As you would expect, the models had to be made-up and changed  before we made our way to Spitalfields market where our Word Salad T-shirts were shot.

The idea was to create a visual pun by including a bowl of salad sprinkled with colored magnetic letters and chopsticks . We asked the models to have fun with the props and as you can see, they had a great time.

Not too far away we took the pictures for the Serious Sound design which is about about music and good vibes. The props were a combination of a vinyl record and headphones – why you would want to walk around with a vinyl out of its sleeve is anyone’s guess but it’s quirky so we ran with it 🙂 .

Finally, we found a wall with somewhat odd graffiti and this served as the location for our Cut the Cake tee shots. The prop here is a rolling pin, often used for baking … or bludgeoning if that’s your forte.

Over all it was a great day and we’ll feature the final pictures on our brand spanking new site so look out for further announcements over the coming weeks!

Mayamada: Behind The T-shirts

mayamada January 16, 2011 2 Comments

Ok maybe not so much behind as right in front and taking pictures.

Things are finally coming together with the t-shirts and hoodies for our new brand.  The t-shirts have been printed and we’re putting the finishing touches on them now.  Remember, you can still put in a reservation for a t-shirt or hoodie and we’ll save one for you when they’re available.

There are three new designs in a range of colours.  Here’s a sneak peak of a few:

As we speak our t-shirts are being stitched with with come cool tags…we got a bunch just to be sure!

We’re also giving away free goodies with every order.

It’s exiting to be making progress heading towards the launch of the new brand.  Drop by our Facebook page and let us know what you think.

The launch is in February…Stay Tuned!

What For?

The pieces are coming together as we prepare for the release of our new range of t-shirts and hoodies.  We have to get the t-shirts tagged, packaged and shipped to our first customers, sort out the website and organise a photoshoot all inside three weeks.  This month is going to be crazy!

If you’ve been following us from the beginning you’ll probably have seen our previous efforts to sell t-shirts…which didn’t go so well.  I’m one for learning from failure and since then we have completely rebranded our efforts and are almost ready to re-launch.

Towards the end of last year, I was asked why we we’re going at this again after our initial efforts didn’t go as planned.  The question took be by surprise, not because I didn’t have an answer, but because it was obvious to me.  So obvious I never actually stopped to think about the answer before.

Because this is what we want to do.

Because we want to create a really cool brand that people can related to, create something that takes our interest in Japanese culture and puts our own spin on it.  Because we want to make something great.

I recently watched the Social Network and for all the negative perceptions of Mark Zuckerburg and the general concerns over Facebook (security, privacy etc), for me the biggest takeaway from that film (or “movie” if you’re reading this stateside) is that at the end of this day he went and did something great because that’s what he wanted to do. He didn’t ask for permission, didn’t check with anyone along the way (except Justin Timberlake).  He just did it and that spoke volumes to me.

Now, before someone make a crazy assumption, I’m not saying mayamada is going to be Facebook.  What I’m saying is that creating anything from nothing is hard, but that doesn’t meaning you let setbacks stop you if that’s what you really want.

So here’s to making things happen and to a great 2011 for everyone reading this!

McDonald’s on the Runway

While I was on YouTube doing some hard “researching”, I came across these two Japanese ads for McDonald’s.  There old, but funny…in a strange “how did you manage to make the Ronald McDonald outfit fashionable” kind of way.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UKLncvGxQ8

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6n9JBlebFw

It did get me thinking though.  What if you did a whole runway show with the McDonald’s cast at their fashionable best?  Hamburglar and those slimming stripes.  Mayor McCheese does have quite a regal style…The Grimace is a lost cause though.