[No. 049]
Design
Recently, my boss at Skunkworks blessed me with a unique opportunity to design for a collaboration between Levi’s and 88rising titled Road to FAM (Future Asian Music). This was h u g e to me, as I’ve been a fan ever since the Head in the Clouds album. While my favourite singers aren’t attending this year, it had me thinking about how much has changed since that album. The singers within 88rising, the people around me and more selfishly, myself.
That album was released ~6 years ago. During that time, I was jumping from one agency to the next, while building my first website on Wix. I had fallen into a business rabbit hole and decided to start a POD (print on demand) business. With my mind set on the goal, I drew during the day, and designed my website at night for my first product launch. I remember working relentlessly during those months to make it happen, creating new designs, finding manufacturers, setting up shop, building the website layout, and…
✷it totally bombed.
Right in my face, dude. I wasn’t just sad, I was soul-crushed. It took me a lot longer than usual to get myself off the ground again because I had invested so much time, effort and money into the project. It was my first genuine taste of defeat, and I remember sulking over it doubly hard as it was happening during a rough patch. Since then, there was always a hesitance in creating anything product related. So, when my boss presented the opportunity, I buckled at first. Not in any way that besmirched my own capabilities, but rather the ill thought of “will I fail again?”.
Fast forward a month, it exceeded my personal expectations and that’s enough for me. For what it’s worth, I’ve documented the journey on this page as a reminder that failure is part of the process. There’s no sense in expecting failure when you do your best in the present.
As for that gloomy question, I’m glad I answered well. Had I answered otherwise, this photograph may not exist today:
Levi’s booth at the Road to FAM event in KL, Malaysia (Thanks Ling!)