Thur’spiration

Sometimes you need to take a departure from what you do to something that’s slightly different in order to get inspiration.

Throughout the birth and growth of the Suffoca brand, I’ve found that a lot of people, whether it’s in interviews or conversation, will ask you what your inspiration is and, as I’m sure you’ll have realised for yourselves, this very rarely comes from a single thing.

I have collected different images for years. I used to rip out pictures, adverts from anywhere and everywhere and collect knick-knacks that I’d lay out in a scrap book to help give me that kick start you sometimes need when approaching a blank canvas or piece of paper without a solid concept in place. It’s strange, and wonderful, what effects collecting attractive imagery can have and it’s on this experience that sites like Tumblr and Pinterest have built themselves up on. The effects can really boost your confidence, structure your ideas and even make you feel happier overall!

I’m all for positive intervention. Being happy and positive will have a knock-on effect in everything you do and lead on to more happiness or success as you see it.
Combination
After watching a series of Aaron Draplin talks, it’s clear how much sharing your findings and knowledge can have an effect on others and which can then come back to help you out in many ways, if you’re lucky.

Therefore I’ve decided to start opening up my collections of inspiration, maybe in a traditional mood-board layout or maybe even by featuring different artists and people that inspire me. With any luck these things will give you some great ideas as they have done for me.

Berlin Visuals

I often tell my friends you will never regret taking an opportunity to have an adventure and so far it’s proven true.

I popped over to Berlin for 24 hours, catching a super early flight. The sole purpose was for a Puma x Sneakerfreaker book launch which was set for the night. On my way over, I got to meet some rad people and hear their stories whilst we flew through the air.


I have only been to Berlin once before and I’ve been dying to get back over to explore. So, after a quick stop at the hotel, I set off with my new companions to wander through some city hotspots.




The thing I really love about these opportunities is being put on the spot, and thrown in at the deep end with new people. So you have to introduce yourself and most of the time you end up starting a friendship on a random adventure; which is something you can always relate on. This time I was lucky enough to meet Jimmy from Footpatrol, Dan from Urbanindustry and a friend of a friend, James, who lives in Berlin. It was the perfect mix of people which made the trip great, so thanks for that guys! As always I doubt that this will be the last time I see these guys and hopefully it won’t be the last you see of them on the blog!





We spent the night/morning roaming around taking in as much as we could, just before popping back to the hotel for an hour’s sleep before catching the plane home. Berlin, until next time…


This Rhubarb drink was all sorts of strange, but in a good way…

Magic Ears

I think I will have seen everything, When I see an elephant fly.

Took a stroll with the guys to clear out are heads. There’s a lot going on behind the scenes of Suffoca™, some of which is taking time to enjoy the outdoors with mans best friend.


We also decided to tackle a mammoth bike ride, riding miles across country up and down hills, while are legs went numb we all pushed are personal goals and returned in once piece. My shoes had pedal marks on the soles and for an hour or two we all rocked the wind swept hair, eyebrows and leg hair.

Mike Ride

Buy the ticket, take the ride.

I took some time and grabbed a few shots of Mikey the other day to help him out with a project his working on for 14BIKECO. Mikey, like I have said previously in my blog, is one of the most genuine people I have met, and he has an amazing family. I’m always more then happy to help him out with something he is so passionate about.

We strolled over to Piccadilly and with my camera in hand we snapped away. I’m pretty stoked on the outcomes and got some really nice shots for an out-of-the-blue shoot.
The day was packed with hangouts: having lunch with Adam and catching up, to meeting up with Ed straight from an interesting meeting he’d had. You can see a snippet of our shenanigans after grabbing a smoothie. ( Video )

After cracking out some work, I set off to meet my good friend Jamal for an interesting night at Rankin’s Hunger TV party. I checked my bag into the cloakroom and put on my dancing shoes, was a cool night and I had a good laugh with some new pals.

It’s great meeting new people. The best relationship you can make with someone is a friendship and when you’re getting your career on track, whatever you’re doing, it’s great when you can start helping one another out too. The world is a small place, so the more friends you make the more opportunities will arise. Get chatting!