This year has seen a lot of growth for this project. It has not been easy starting from zero a year ago and rebuilding an entire bandanna brand to the stage we are at now. We are ending this year with a very different bandanna that we put a lot of thought into. The entire design was conceptualized in a peculiar set of circumstances. While always looking at old bandannas and designs not related to bandannas I happened upon a old Japanese border design that became the wavy lines and UFOs on “Operation Mindfuck”. The design I happened upon consisted of wavy lines and sake cups that to me looked very much like UFOs. The interior of the design is based on an old Japanese “kamon” or family crest, of “akatori”. To me this looked very much as how the aliens are perceived in many sci-fi media formats. The energy of UFOs and aliens felt very connected to the “Illuminatus Trilogy” during such tumultuous times of reality being distorted by conspiracy theory and political rhetoric, this theme felt very appropriate. Compiling all these design points and ideas I consulted with Yurika, and she added the clouds and sashiko-esq details. All in all a very tidy bandanna.
The color palette was something I have been aiming to do for a few years. First was using iron oxide pigments to some degree as a reference. With current exploration of Mars, and the high definition photographs beamed to Earth, a whole new image and palette emerged from the “Red Planet”. First was the black iron oxide, and then the mixing of these with an ochre and a rusty orange. It came out spectacular. I like the retro feel of it and the warmth of the lighter colors on the dark black/brown.
The other colorway was based off an actual 1800s Turkey Red bandanna. One of many in my collection… with some careful color matching we got to a very nice deep rich scarlet, with a sharp black and creamy white. These two color variations I feel set off the design very nicely. The “Mars Oxide” colorway feels autumnal but something that is very cool. While the Turkey Red, staying true to classic and antique bandannas, feels authentic and versatile.