Stickers
Branding | Design | Marketing
Keeping the culture going. My first summer in Toronto was in 2005, I got my first summer job as a graphic designer and I didn't know anyone in the city. Back then, if you were creative, you had to be in the city. I met a lot of talented artists (musicians, photographers, and graffiti artists) and started getting into graffiti and tagging (my hand style was terrible). Over the years I went from tagging Queen St. W to making stickers and stickbombing my areas.
Funny thing thats how I got reacquanted with an old friend because they saw one of my stickers still posted on a traffic stop that I posted years earlier.
Global Fixed Gear
Branding | Community | Design | Marketing
Global Fixed Gear was a brand I started with a couple of friends. We all rode fixed-gear bikes, and didn't really have any rides that were catered towards our riding style... so we started our own. One of the projects I worked on was called TarckTuesday - a casual weekly group ride for other fixed gear riders. We'd link up at a random park and go for a ride to parts of the city that were difficult to access alone.
Part of my role was to create a flyer every week and blast it on social media. We originally started with 3-5 riders but ended the season with ~30+ riders.
Alley Cats
Illegal Bike Races
I've been riding fixed-gear bikes for almost a decade. Its like a regular bike, but I don't have any gears or brakes on it - I'm one of those hipsters. But anyway I've been in the bike messenger scene for a while, and for the last few years I've been running alleycats.
Alleycats are unsanctioned bike races that take place in major cities. Fun fact: The first alleycat originated in Toronto. The idea behind them is simple: ‘I know the city better than everyone else’. The race checkpoints are revealed the day of the race, and mine are usually near the downtown core.
The first alleycat I did - ‘Bike Gods Must Be Crazy’ - had 27 participants and I was able to raise just over $1000 which I donated to Charlie's Free Wheels (a volunteer run bike shop that teaches lower income kids how to fix and maintain their bikes)
The second 'Bike Gods Must Be Crazy' - I was able to donate $500 to Toronto Food Share and another $500 to an Indiginous Food Drive
Apparel / Tees / Sweaters / Jackets
Branding | Design | Marketing
In 2022, I designed these custom sweaters Cool Cats Finish Last. I used a local print studio to get the design silk screened and only sold them locally. I made 40 sweaters and they all sold out within the first month.
Toys
Branding | Design | Marketing
For the longest time, I've wanted to turn my skribbs character into a designer toy, and in 2022, I saved up enough money and bought a 3d printer. I find myself always coming up with excuses for why I can't do certain things, and as a new years resolution I decided - no more excuses.
I reached out to local 3d print shops and they were trying to charge me anywhere from $300-$500 for a sample and decided if I bought a 3d printer it would pay for itself after 3 prints.
I spent 4 months learning how to setup my printer and finally getting a successful print. During that time I learned how to model my character in Blender (open source 3d tool).
Chrome Sunsets
Community
Chrome Sunsets is a Collective started by myself and OzOkOh. We wanted to create a safe space where we could show off local talent. Toronto is full of creatives and our objective was to get to know the artists on a deeper level.
