Hi gang, by now it’s possible that no one is reading these posts any more, but recently I had a bit of a ‘what the fuck am I doing’ moment and it was actually quite helpful to revisit this blog as somewhat of a diary for the last 4 years and see exactly what I / we did… and that helped with the feelings over being overwhelmed now that we’re almost 4 years into the big 5 year plan.
As you may know, Dani and I have recently moved to Sydney, so now it seems the Dead & Buried team / concept / soul is spread over two cities with the actual studio space still humming along in Melbourne and us two in a new city, making new friends, doing new things and making new challenges. There is a possibility that Dead & Buried II will start up here in 2014, but we need to be sure it’s worth the time and effort as part of our new outlook and set of priorities.
In a nuthshell we’re up here mostly due to me taking on a job as a User Experience Designer – which admittedly was pretty out-of-left-field when I took it on, but it seems its a position that suits me perfectly, designing things that make life easier for people which is essentially what I’ve done my whole life when given the chance – but we are also hoping to capitilise on some of the drive, business savviness and dollars that Sydney is all about.
We love Melbourne for it’s DIY attitude, but it started to seem like we were trapped in a cycle of ‘earn a little, spend it all again’ and it didn’t seem likely that it would be a path that would take us and our products to the world. The move to NYC is still my #1 driving goal that gets me out of bed each morning, so taking the opportunity to move cities was too good to pass up.
So, at the moment Dani is busting ass making 10 times more work than she has ever made to hopefully sell out of at the Big Design Market in Melbourne early December. I’ve officially shelved my fashion/shoe stuff for ANOTHER few months, as we cant realistically launch a label, work full time and make market stock all at once … so like a big chess game, we’ve made a strategic plan to smash through 2013 and get on with things in 2014.
Dani also has a PR agency now, so we are currently making a lookbook for her latest collection, I’ll put some images up here next week when it’s released. VERY EXCITING.
I could rattle on all day, and there are lots of projects that have happened over the last 6 months that haven’t had much love, but for now here’s a quick summary :
– The visors I made for Christina Exie are currently travelling the world with her, recently getting a showing at Vancouver Fashion Week and MSFW, as well as appearing in a magazine editorial here in Australia.
– I did some top secret work for Dion Lee earlier in the year for his NYFW show. I helped out with some 3D generated terrains that made it in to this line of clothing. There might be more showing up in the future depending on if he / we are able to take it as far as we want to for next collection (the ideas he has are pretty amazing)
– My 3D printer moved up here with us and I printed out this mammoth piece for my pal Soren. He is going to get it cast from magnesium to replace a part on a vintage race car that he is restoring… pretty awesome being able to use modern tech to make things that would be otherwise impossible to source.
– Dani has over run our new house with jewellery. Here’s some shots of it all… we strive for a minimalist lifestyle, but there’s always something creative going on that fills up the empty tables (and we love it that way)
– As I mentioned, I’ve been helping Dani with her lookbook. She managed to arrange a beautiful looking photoshoot with a week’s notice and now I’m back at home doing retouching on a dozen images. Here’s a teaser, more to come soon…
I’m sure there’s more, but for now that’ll have to do.
Oh, and I just watched these 3 videos – which reminded me how much I loved our old studio and made me happy to know that there are other people out there like us who are 100% committed to doing whatever it takes and making whatever they need to get the job done.
GIZMODO – The Wildly Functional Studio of Video Wizard Casey Neistat, Part 1 from Gizmodo on Vimeo.
I found it comforting to be watching a video about someone’s resourceful studio space, whilst in a space that I’ve managed to squeeze in to a wasted corner of our house, where everything has it’s place and everything makes sense.
Thanks for reading, who knows where this journey will go, but at a bare minimum it has to make for an interesting book one day when allllll these twists and turns are put back to back as “The story of Dead & Buried, New York’s most beloved retail space”… ha!
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