Out to Lunch: Part 2

Nigel July 13, 2011 2 Comments

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…

Tancho

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.

Out to Lunch: Part 1

Nigel July 6, 2011 3 Comments

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

 

 

 

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…

 

Sliced and Diced

Nigel June 21, 2011 1 Comment

We’re hard at work on two new designs for shows for the summer: 11th Hour and Hot Lunch.  Before that, now seems a good time to get to know one of the first stars on the mayamada network: Samurai Chef.

Here’s what you need to know…
Show title: Samurai Chef.
Show idea: Cooking show were contestants prepare meals to be judged with the weapon of the week.
Host: The Samurai Chef.
Age: ?
Personality: Humorless.  Serious about food.
Favourite meal: Kebab skewers.
Quote: “Bring the next dish!”

I’m a big fan of the character and love the t-shirt design – I cut my cake the same way he does.  True story.

We’ll be spending a lot of time over the year bring out more of the characters and stories around the mayamada universe.  We’re working with an amazing artist known as Pinali who is helping to bring our world to life.

You can check out more on her Deviant Art page, and also take a look at her new webcomic Alter.

Head over to our Facebook page or leave us a comment below and tell us what you think of the new artwork.  More visuals are on the way so keep your eyes peeled.

 

Get Serious!

Mr L April 10, 2011 No Comments

So far the response to our original mayamada show, The Samurai Chef has been great but we don’t plan to stop there, goodness no! As summer approaches we have plans to bring out more tees based on original mayamada shows and we are happy to reveal some sneak peak info on some of our latest creations!

Show Title: Serious

Big Idea: If you serious about an idea or dream, with hard work and the right people behind you, it can become a reality!

Main Character: Blake Smithe [aka Blake Serious]

Age: 19

Personality: Confident, Cool temperament

Favorite Film: The Social Network

Quote: “One way or another, it’s getting done!”

As you can see this young chap looks pretty serious and we are itching to reveal more about the plot and supporting characters, so look out for updates coming soon.

 

For this show were working with an artist know as Illustriousman, a name  which kind of reminds me of the Illusive Man from Mass Effect 2 only this artist is not nearly  shady.  I personally really like his style and look forward to creating more characters with him. You can check out more of his work here:

http://illustriousman.deviantart.com

 

We have also been working with a talented animator Washue who has created a cool little gif of our Great Panda Dan from The 11th Hour. I really want reveal more about that show but for now I leave you with this:

Join our fan page to stay up to date with all or activities in the wild and check our more of Washue’s Art here:

http://washue.deviantart.com

Stay tuned!

Mr. L

Unfair Comparisons

Nigel March 22, 2011 No Comments

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.

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!

On the Comeback Trail!

What month is it?  What year is it?  December?!  Wow, time flies when you’re having fun.

We’ve spent the last few months working on the complete overhaul of the mayamada brand and we’re glad to say we’re almost there.

Way back, in a time when “Classified” still meant classified, we decided to put an end to our previous efforts at selling t-shirts with a smile and have a serious think about how we were doing things and what we really wanted to acheive.  We ended up agreeing that starting from the ground up was the best way forward.  There were many reasons for this, maybe they’ll be a blog post or two written about what we’ve learned!  To put it short for anyone in a similar position to us five months ago: if you feel things aren’t working out, take the time to step back and re-evaluate.  You never know what ideas can come about when you take a good look at yourself.  We did that and decided we could do better with our brand.

So what’s the new brand about I hear you ask?  Well allow me to introduce ourselves…

The new mayamada is all about showing off a positive and quirky confidence.  We’re making Japanese influenced clothing inspired by our fantasy world of Japanese television parody.  Yes you heard that right, we’re making up our own television network!

Think Japanese TV mixed with Looney Tunes and you’ll get a good idea of where we’re going.

So expect to see…well, anything really.  Off the wall television shows starring a random animal cast. Commercials featuring the latest product ideas to come out of our heads and anything related to TV you can think of and we can create.

We’re now gearing up for the launch of our first line of t-shirts and hoodies in January, which brings me to the designs you’ll be able to wear in about a month’s time.

Word Salad

The design reflect what mayamada is about molded to the shape of the mayamada Logo Kai…made up of a whole bunch of words.  Look closely and see if you can find them all out.

Serious Sound

Everyone likes their music turned all the way up right?  How about loud enough to crack skulls, because unless your music causes some long term damage, it can’t be good (just ask Keith Richards).

Cut the Cake

The first of many shows to feature on the mayamada network.  Samurai Chef is a cooking show which a difference.  Anyone can judge food by tasting it, that’s been done to death.  We say, if you really want to get to know your food…you just have to take a sword to it and see what happens!

These designs will be available on a limited run in January and you can make show you get yours  now by reserving a t-shirt now. where also giving 10% off your entire order when you use the promo code “LOGOKAI”…so what are you waiting for?!

mayamada switches on next month.

Stay Tuned…

Never Too Young To Start (Apparently)

As we continue to make progress with the mayamada re branding.  I’ve taken to reading a lot more about this whole t-shirt business thing.  Reading books on branding, business etc.  Checking out blogs and other brands is also a really good way of getting to know the industry, seeing what’s out there and being inspired by other peoples efforts (there’s some seriously good stuff about).

But I was really surprised by this brand I discovered via an article on IAMTHETREND.  The founder Local Advancers posted some good tips for start up a t-shirt brand too.  One that really spoke to me was the call to visualise every detail of your brand.  I learned (and still am learning ) this the hard way.

I think if you are going to start something and do it properly, you have to have the end in mind.  Visualising every aspect of the brand i.e. what the brand means, how the designs will look, how the tees will wear, what the packaging will look like etc is crucial to making a consistent and hopefully successful brand.

What’s significant about though this is the founder’s age: only 15 years old.  Now I don’t know about you but I was nowhere near starting a business when I was that age and I’m only slowly getting the hang of things now.  So to see that kind of drive at a young age is remarkable (and doesn’t make me feel like I’ve wasted the last 10 years of my life at all!).  What’s more is the t-shirt design look good, check out the site for yourself.

I just hope our launch will be as solid.

New Tokidoki Purchase

I may be late to the game here, but I recently picked up a couple tokidoki tees from TheGiantPe​ach.com.

Couldn’t decide between the two so I got both.  Choice paralysis averted.

I like to see different brands come together and collaborate to create something interesting. Also that Marvel let their characters be re-imagined like that. Cool stuff.

Now I’m on the look out for more interested t-shirt collaborations.  If you know any drop a comment below!

Some Thoughts On Developing A Brand

We recently decided to completely re start or t-shirt brand.  Everything is being done from scratch as we look to make a really great brand and product for people.  I always thing it’s good to know when something isn’t working and make the decision to stop, make changes and most importantly, learn from the experience.  As we go through the process of building a brand, some thoughts came to mind so I thought would write them down for anyone in a similar position.

When you start out a brand I think there are some crucial things to consider:

Brand

Image source: logodesignworks

If you are looking to put out a brand that can be recognised it must be given serious thought.

You t-shirts must have some kind of link between them, something to hold them together something that people can sink there teeth into so to speak. There are so many brand out, what makes your different? They don’t need to look the same, they don’t need to even all be t-shirts, but there should be something to attract people beneath the designs themselves. That just my opinion anyway. I like the brands developed by people Johnny Cupcakes, Tokidoki and Superdry because of their strong concept that shines in everything from the website to the product to the people behind product.

Team

Image source: icebirdy

Are you doing it yourself or in a group? If by yourself have you got the right skills? You might be good at design but if you can’t get the business right then you might find it difficult to get traction.

I’m a fan of working with other people who are good at what they do, so we have a small team of people here. If you have a team make sure you’ve got the might mix of people to cover all the angles.

  • Vision – What is the long term plan for your brand, Where are you going with this?
  • Product – The designs you create to the physical the t-shirts you put them on.  Print, material, packaging etc
  • Business – The foundation of it all.  Sometimes the boring parts, but essential to making something successful

Even if you’re in a group, be prepared to wear different hats when starting out. We recently had to do taxes for the first time and the only thing it taught us is that we needed someone to do this for us next time! Really, it was not fun (respect to people who have to do this for a living!)

Plan

It’s an oldie but a goodie: “He who fails to plan is planning to fail” – Winston Churchill

Once you have all the pieces together how exactly are you going to make it happen? What’s the next step. I’ve never been a big fan of pages and pages of documentation (you’ll see why in a bit), but you need something on paper so you (and everyone in the group) know what you are going can coordinate actions. If you don’t have the discipline to even write down a plan of attack, you’ll probably never make it to the castle gates (not sure where that analogy came from…).

Adapt

Allow me to contradict myself. As soon as you start that plan you scribbled down, it’s going out the window. Let me explain. Things change and rarely ever go exactly as planned and you need to be flexible. This is why I’m not for hugely detailed plans, because that’s fairytale and it won’t happen like that.

Enjoy it

Image source: mjagiellicz

Last, but probably most important. Don’t do something you’re not going to enjoy. We only at the very start of are journey and it been tough, I can’t imagine what experienced and successful brands are going through but I hope to find out as I’ve enjoyed it so far.

Do you agree? Disagree or have anything to add? Drop a comment or vist our Facebook page.