THE ONE EAR BRAND | PURRFECT SPACE & IDENTITY IN A SEA OF BANDANNAS

We are approaching the summer and a milestone for this project; one year anniversary. We have survived tremendous odds, and came out with a plethora of new bandannas.

I also have to apologize for the constant delays in orders shipping. Running the entire brand alone is not only strenuous its also incredibly difficult to keep track of when production will actually arrive. Thank you all for your patience. On with the new bandannas…

Yurika and I have are constantly working on designs, and sometimes random things happen and we switch gears to work on something that transcends any other ideas we have. In the case of “Purrfect Space”, this is precisely what happened.

Stumbling around ideas in my head I had always thought cats move and look like they are in zero gravity. Cats move with a liquidity and flexibility that makes them so fascinating. Yurika uses her two cats as models for our designs so there is a lot of realism in what we do. Back to where I was thinking… cat move in what resembles zero gravity, it was natural to imagine space cats. Looking through retro Hello! Kitty prints I found some retro 1980’s/90’s tartan check designs that felt more like Japanese woodblock prints than pop culture prints. The whole idea of characters on a tartan check seemed like a really nice bandanna concept. So we went with it and got stopped at the color palette.

To be an original bandanna brand I think it is important to work on color earnestly and not just do status quo colors like red and blue. I mean there are plenty of those out there so where can our customers find their own uniqueness in a sea of boring? Color…

I find that unusual color balance can bring about transcendence for a design. Something that blossoms with its unique color palette. In this case I went with my curiosity and Google sensei. Looking up the “ugliest color” I came to the amazing hue of Pantone 448c. Truly remarkable color, a mix of cat vomit and army green. Perfect. Side note when the internet tells you something you should disregard it immediately and find a way to make it work. In this case I think ugly can be balanced with some softer colors. I didn’t want to use yellow as we already used in on the Sincerity. I felt a bit inspired by astral projection and crystal energy, and believe a fantasy is best realized in the form of expression, and the perfect pink and a serene blue were infused with the 448c. I feel the balance is perfect and felt healed after seeing it together with the cats floating. My implementation of “Quantum Color Theory”.

A word on the beach balls… these are actually beach balls from the 1800s. Referencing a 1800s era bandanna I found one with beach balls as the main print element. Very cute! I also strongly felt these needed to be included in the design and cats would naturally be bouncing balls in space as apart of their experiments. Purrrrrrfect….

Once all these things happened there is always the case of the second colorway. This is always a daunting task, as you don’t want one to overshadow the other. Like a magician and a sidekick. Thinking about what we had created with the 448c I decided on focusing on colors that have already been done, especially with those that have been used at or around the neck area. I started studying vintage neckties, specifically Hermes… they have great color palettes. Eventually I found a nice combination of green and blue and it was the perfect mix. Combined with the tartan check it felt a bit soccer hooligan and a little cute. Both colors carry a aesthetic fragrance of fun and spectacle with a dash of cat fur covered sweatpants.