This past weekend, Mr. Sanders the Art teacher at Sachse Middle School, helped organize a vinyl toy painting event for all of his students. With the help of several artists from the Vinyl Thoughts event, about a hundred students got the chance to see how addictive the customizing of vinyl toys can be…
You had to sign up and pay for the event in advance, but you got to pick from several different types of vinyl toys, and all the painting supplies were provided. Just needed to add a little of your own creativity! There was an introduction from the Vinyl Thoughts artists before the painting began, but the kids needed little instruction to get started.
Some great ideas were coming from these kids… Just so impressed with the Popeye design! They understood the character creativity was strongest with supplemental pieces added to the vinyls.
All boxes were used and all toys were covered in art… After seeing all the fun, many kids that did not sign up before, were hoping to pay at the event. But it was a sold out event, so everyone is looking forward to showing off their skills at the next event!
Last night was the grand opening of Ada’s Closet in Grand Prairie, the newest retail spot in the DFW area for you to rep some bad ass streetwear. The owners are launching a clothing brand called Bitter Streets which is selling in store already. It was raining all day and night but there was still a great turn out! Dustin Cavazos was there for a great set and even did a new track from his upcoming album In And Out Of Sleep… Marcus Luera spinnin all night, bumpin the party!
The store has a great opportunity in our floundering economy cause they are bringing into effect a new concept for streetwear retail shops… A big reason why we love going to the local conventions like Kixpo and Sneaker Summit is because we are not just purchasing new, you have the opportunity to negotiate great prices on pre-owned too! There are so many collectors in the DFW area, now you have a retail spot to bring your gear that you know will be able to sell.
To outfit the store opening, I brought several of my Sleepy Dan designs from season one and they have a great stage presence! The shop has tons of other big name brands, but they are workin on getting more local indie brands in house to rep DFW… So you can expect some more parties like this coming up soon.
Ada’s Closet has a great layout, lots of space, some great painting on the back walls, a huge courtyard out front, and tons of parking. I am sure there will be some bad ass parties here come Summer! Shops like this are definitely driving the streetwear scene in DFW…
Had the time to meet lots of new friends including guys from The Deep End… Everyone has some great ideas they are just starting to work on, so it’s gonna be a Spring n Summer with lots of new events and brands starting out!
This past week I started the Collab Blab column at I Am The Trend. The purpose of this column is to uncover and share the most creative design collaborations.
The second posting for Collab Blab just released this week. So I wanted to make a graphic to illustrate the column moving forward. Keep an eye out for the new column postings… if you worked on or have a favorite collab project you think should have a spotlight review in this column, please email a short description and link to the design to sleepydanclothing at yahoo dot com. If the collab has serious merit, it will get some recognition!
Hope you wore a little red today! Love really is all you need, but on days like today you need a little something extra to show how great your love is for that special someone…
I made a sketch just for today, so print it out and share with the one you love!
It does not matter who you love today… Your family, your pets, your neighbor… Just put a little love in your heart!
This past weekend, my great friend Brian from the Public Trust hosted the CADD Bus Tour. He invited me on the fantastic voyage to help and take pics to publicize the event from the inside out. So you’re coming along for the ride now!
This tour was traveling to several Dallas galleries but was focused on the Obey Propaganda installation by Shepard Fairey that took place a couple weeks ago. His goal was to create murals in 10 visible spots around town. I very much respect a project of this magnitude and appreciate his effort to bring so much attention to our city! His art has made our town that much more beautiful.
The tour started at the Dallas Contemporary where the previous weekend held the Obey party. If you were on the CADD Bus Tour, you get a sweet swag bag including some Sleepy Dan extras and a signed Obey lithograph that I was helping roll up…
The gallery tour started with drinks and Brian giving a rundown of all the places we’re gonna visit, starting with a Rob Pruitt installation currently up at the Dallas Contemporary. Very interesting display of creative texture and medium.
The Obey pop up shop was still open at the DC gallery and packed with merch…
They even had framed pics for sale of all Obey installations around Dallas. I am by no means a great photographer and there are so many bloggers sharing pics of his Dallas work, so I am sure you can easily find pics of all the murals…
We took a luxury bus gallery hopping all over Dallas while Brian gave an inside story about the designers and what drives them to succeed.
Just to show an example of the mural size, this Obey mural is about 20 foot tall x 100 foot long and right outside the DC gallery.
At each site, Brian explained how the murals were constructed and why each site was chosen to be a part of the Obey installation.
The process was simply cutting out printed paper and applying paint in the negative space. Each structure had a brick surface and levels of paint were applied for each detail layer.
All murals were in the downtown Dallas area, several were located just off the MHH bridge. Beautiful scenery… after all the construction is done!
We traveled to the Sour Grapes studio where they were hosting an open gallery.
This group is the Dallas powerhouse of artists! All year long, they’re hosting and taking part in events all over town, and have carved out an amazing following because they use so many types of medium.
The Sour Grapes team has tons of affordable work and so much fun to hang with! They took the time to tell to everyone how they started out in high school as a graffiti team then transformed into this artist group that takes pride in how much they give back to the Dallas artist culture. Very impressive!
To complete the event, we traveled to the Omni hotel in the downtown area for a guided tour of their art holdings on several floors then had drinks at the beautiful bar level overlooking the famous Dallas skyline at night. The recently remodeled Omni has an amazing light display on the surface of the whole building, so the surrounding skyline reflects the dancing colors at all angles… Truly a beautiful end to an amazing adventure into the arts community of Dallas!
This past week the Centre released new additions to the Triple D line. They worked on some great cut n sew pieces with varsity style chenille layered patches and some amazing print type layouts. Great new line and really cool for Sleepy Dan to be on the retail floor next to this new line representing Dallas style!
It’s a huge boost for Dallas to have brands like Triple D to compete on a national style level. Centre has some amazing brands on their retail floor, but it makes locals happy to represent the city they love!
The Sleepy Dan hood sweatie has found some great new fans, but the winter won’t last forever. The Spring line will release soon and looking forward to havin another party… I got some great projects in the bag already!
The Underground Dallas event 4 is this weekend! Hosted by Art Love Magic, this event has been a showcase of the most creative artists contributing to the Dallas arts scene. Painters, musicians, vinyl toy designers… everyone is there!
This past weekend, I invited Joonbug from Fresh Kaufee over to give him an in person tutorial on screen printing. Gotta see more of his amazing character art come to life, so hopefully so he will be printing on his own…
Setting up screens for printing, mixing inks to get the right color for his latest design, then sharing some printing techniques… Joonbug took to the process like a duck to water!
Experience is the key to screen printing. Just gotta create more designs and work the process over and over to fine tune your skills. Screen printing is definitely an art form when it’s mastered!
No matter what you’re printing, this process is always fun to learn, but it’s so much more rewarding when you work projects for your own brand! Brewing up something from nothing, then able to print and sell from your own control is the best help I can give anyone. Contact me if you wanna set up a printing tutorial of your own…
Each shirt you print is your little baby… Then taking care of your baby with the folding and packaging to keep the presentation crisp and perfect! You can check out the video of our KAFFEEN printing project too.
In total the printing only took a couple hours to set up, print everything, then breakdown and cleanup… But the experience of printing Fresh Kaufee shirts is priceless! Hopefully I will have the opportunity to share more printing tutorials with other local brands soon. Keep in touch :)
So what do you do when you get your hands on a new pair of kicks? Fresh out the box and ready to get laced… Do you lace em all different or do you stick to one style?
Going to local sneaker conventions like Kixpo, Sneaker Summit, Sneaks Up, and smaller trading parties - I have seen some crazy designs! You need the low down on some lacing style from Sneaker Freaker.
I like to stick to the classic Over Under style but this Double Helix design brought to you by Ian’s Shoelace Site is pretty sweet too! You can see there’s some madness to every method… some added style depends on what lace colors and thickness you use!
For an added bonus Ian’s Shoelace Site is sharing the Fast Knot instructions. Bring a little extra style to finish your lacing! With more than just the rabbit ears chasing around the tree and into the bunny hole… Grow up already!
Traveled to Houston this weekend for the Winter 12 Sneaker Summit. A much better event than last year! Huge space at Reliant Center and heard that it was sold out… Took so many pics, so get ready for show and tell.
They did a great job creating some custom printed type designs. Every year the event gets a little better!
Better music and headliner artists were definitely great to see at center stage! Bonus was the dancing girls the entire time, switchin off at stage left…
Huge crowds will keep events like this a staple for Texas. Fans really come out to buy and promote their own projects. Projected logos on all the surrounding walls were a great touch, really created a finishing touch for the space!
So many kicks so little time! Great deals to be made in the sea of soles, if you can find your size. I’m a size 14 so it’s crazy difficult! Just stopped asking after the first dozen tries…
Walking in the door I was on the lookout for these! Definitely needed the glass case to keep your hands off…
Loved the creative signs making you aware that all the specialty kicks were hands off. Wonder how comfortable they are…
Once Anthony found the perfect pair, they were his golden precious! It’s like being a kid in a candy store… Just pick your flavor
So many friends like the Heat Seekers Krew and @Tha_Fattest hangin. Got the chance to talk to new contacts and meet with friends already helping promote clothing brands like The Blot Says.
Fans looking to buy and sell some serious product can’t be carrying around boxes… Gotta think smarter not work harder!
Gonna wear kicks like a dookie chain to take advantage of the selling space. Fans attending are allowed to walk around displaying kicks they wanna sell or trade… Just gotta make em an offer!
The packaging of new kicks has gotten crazy this past year! Just as much attention going into the sales display…
Gotta love the Freddy Krueger design from Nike… Especially lovin custom displays like this to catch your eye!
Everyone’s fav of the show was the Nike / Nerf packaging! Nerf color scheme kicks come with the Nerf hoop and ball, then the cardboard backboard of the hoop pulls out of the box top packaging! Bad ass but just like the Marty McFly design, but will not see anyone wearing these…
