The Beginning
This release showcases the culmination of an 11 month journey. When the initial spark for the brand was ignited, as I sat with my foot in a cast on my living room couch, from my dad asking, “You ever think about putting your artwork on t-shirts?”, it's honestly hard to believe where it’s at now. But luckily, I would eventually reconnect and cross paths with two individuals who would soon help me refine my vision and bring it to life.
After tossing some ideas around and slowly working on the project by myself for about two months, I finally reached out to an old friend of mine, Rich, whom I knew had some level of experience within the industry and also shared some similar creative outlets. The communication between us over the next month and a half was pretty informal and not all that frequent. Every now and then I would reach out to him to bounce some ideas around, or he would do the same.
Within the same month and a half window, I had began communicating with a local designer who was recommended to me. Little by little I would begin to share my vision for this project with him.
Things finally started coming together in February when I was heading back to the Philippines for my third trip out there. I planned to have a long layover in LA so Rich and I could get together. Initially, the plan was for us to visit a local manufacturing and drop shipping company based out of LA. However, it just so happened that the day I would be in town their shop was going to be closed. But in hindsight, I believe this worked out for the best.
Rich and I roamed around LA and Venice Beach for the day working in various restaurants and coffee shops, while also taking the time to checkout a few local retail shops and brands to gather some ideas. The brief layover ended with a quick visit to the infamous Venice Beach skate park to catch a quick glimpse of the ocean and watch some of the local skaters do their thing. Then it was time to head back to the airport and catch my flight over to Manila.
Originally, I was supposed to be in the Philippines from February until May. However, soon after I arrived in the Philippines the world would be introduced to Covid. At first, I was doing my best to ride out the situation and remain in the Philippines but then the government announced a 72 hour window before they would shut down all international flights. At that point I made the decision to return home. Throughout my month and a half long trip in Manila, Rich, myself, and the graphic designer, Connor, would stay in sync the best we could at the time. But it wasn’t until I arrived home that the ball really got rolling.
By the time I arrived back in the states the entire country was beginning to shut down. What turned out to be an extremely tough time for many families and individuals, and our countries economy on so many different levels, actually provided the three of us with the chance to slow down and really dial-in our focus on the brand.
The next seven months would consist of many early mornings, late nights, and weekends filled with work developing the brand. I’m not going to lie, there were a decent amount of bumps in the road along our path, but we maneuvered the best we could through the experiences and learned some valuable lessons in the process.
I can honestly sit here and say that none of this would’ve been possible without the collective effort of all of us working together and sharing a common vision.
Although this release is a relatively small starting off point, regarding the pieces we decided to offer, to us it represents the beginning of something much larger.
Our hope is that these pieces bring some level of inspiration to you and your individual journeys, while also helping paint a picture of the vision we seek to share with all of you into the future.
With love,
The Bijonari Crew