What a day! I always look forward to doing photoshoots for new tees as each one is something different and our photoshoot last week was no exception.
You’ve seen the story behind the show and the characters featured in the design…now we can tell you about the t-shirt itself.
The day stared off at a nice pub called the Lemon Tree. They were kind enough to let us take over the upstairs for hair and make up. The models Andrees and Riyonn were expertly made up…
…while the rest of us waited…
We’re back with another character from our upcoming show Hot Lunch, the mayamada show about a slick crew of sushi thieves out for payback…and a free meal.
This week, allow me to introduce you to…
A borderline narcissist and the brains of the crew, Tancho loves himself almost as much as Taishi loves cooking.
As Taishi is not one for details it’s his that makes sure every job goes to plan, and likes to make it known to the rest of the team.
He has a gentlemanly manner with a sarcastic edge and tries his best not to get his clothing dirty.
Tancho was the hardest to recruit to the team but eventually convinced joined the crew by the Taishi’s persistence and chance to be part of such an ambitious mission.
We’ll have the last member of the team featured next week with the t-shirt available to week after. We’re currently gearing up for the photoshoot coming up later this month. Stay tuned for more details on that in the next couple of weeks.
In the meantime, let us know what you think of the characters in the comments or on our Facebook page.
Work continues for the upcoming release of a new t-shirt design later this month for our show Hot Lunch: about a slick crew of sushi thieves pulling heists in the name of revenge.
We’re continuing our collaboration with Pinali, who is doing amazing work to help us bring the mayamada world to life.
We’ll be profiling the three stars of the show, one a week until the t-shirt is released at the end of the month.
Hot Lunch centers around an aspiring chef and part-time thief. Humiliated after he is dumped out of Japan’s most prestigious cooking institution, he assembles a crew of top thieves with a plan to hijack food from best graduating chefs of the same institution.
So without further delay, allow me to introduce you to….
Taishi means “ambition” in Japanese and is the main protagonist of Hot Lunch. A petty thief turned criminal mastermind with a passion for sushi, the charismatic leader is out for revenge and will not let anything get in his way.
His usually cool temperament is only ruffled when there been a mistake on a job, or in the kitchen!
Look out for details on the next member of the team next week…
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.
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.
I’ve only recently been a fan of the Johnny Cupcakes. If you’re starting up your own independent clothing brand, it probably won’t take you very long to come across one of the biggest players in the market. Being based in London, I was naturally exited to here that he was opening a store right here in our very own Carnaby Street.
Given that the launch was a week ago I realise I’m a little late on this…but who wears a watch nowadays anyway?
I was one of the super fans that camped out (I don’t have the patience!) so I decided to go the weekend after launch and check out the new addition to his bakery theme shops. As well as the surprise at seeing a piece of London turned into a quaint little bakery, I also got the chance to meet the man himself!
He was kind enough to give me and a couple other t-shirt startups his time with a mini-lecture covering some of the important things to consider when starting up a brand. I’ve got to say it’s always a pleasure when people who have achieved success remain humble and accessible like that.
Looking at the launch and the reaction, I figure many people in the same position as us were thinking something along the lines of: “How could I ever reach that stage?!”
But talking with him made me realise that when you’re starting out you need to avoid comparing yourself to already established brands. It was clear to me that he, like everyone else that has started anything significant has had to struggle though the early stages.
By all means set the goal of getting to where these guys are – big ambitions are a must. Even though I’m pleased with the start we’ve made, I always want our own t-shirts to be better, our designs to be better and our brand to be better.
But it’s always worth remembering that these guys – Johnny Cupcakes, Ugmonk and Tokidoki to name a few – have been around for years and have had all the struggles and made the mistakes your going through now. You can’t expect to be a breakout hit after a year and comparing what you’re doing now to what they’ve been doing for years is unfair on yourself. It’s better to focus on your own brand and making your own path…but some help from the experts shouldn’t be ignored either!
By the way, if you are a starting brand, I advice you to check out his story. That’s not to say his way is the only way, but it should inspire you to find your way.
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.
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%.
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!
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!
