Some neat type from the old Paris underground.

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This was my first venture to Paris and from all the things i’d heard it was going to be interesting, so with my paint brush’s at the ready i set off . I can’t say i know alot about Pairs but i did know i wanted to check out the Musée du Louvre, from seeing it in nomours films and skate movies i thought it was time to see it for real and it does look incredibly beautiful especially at night. The Museum its self was real neat, just as you would expect packed out with bundles of art history, but the thing that i really enjoyed the most was the selective few, who were recreating some of the paintings while peopled crowded round staring in ore. 

You guys by now should know I think birds are amazing.

My time in Paris was short, but i managed to pack in aload of memories and one was meeting this dude Matthew. He works for the only rock radio in Paris OUÏ FM and has all his fingers dipped in pies, from playing in a band Admiral’s Arms to helping manage a big merch company, working in PR and more, i guess he likes staying busy. On top of that his a really nice guy and made me feel right at home while we wandered into pubs and bumped into some interesting people including an old secret detective, thanks again dude!

This guy makes real good goat’s cheese i heard…

During the trip i also got to hang out with the Undefeated & Puma crew while they prepped for the release of there new collaboration Clyde shoe. I shot a quick interview which shall be worked in to a short movie. I’m working on and a video recap of the trip coming soon, on the last hours of my venture to Paris i headed over to the All Gone 2011 book launch over at Colette, to grab some last minute chats and meet some new people. I haven’t seen this digital Polaroid before, but i thought the idea is genies a great way to encourage people to use polaroid again, hopefully ill be able to get my hands on one soon.

I haven’t watched them all through yet, but these three really stuck out for me. Also as ever, Wikipedia came through with some interesting background on the whole British series “Read here“, otherwise have a little watch and let your mind wonder what you would of looked like in 1960.

Been working hard on some new interesting collectables, some of which shall see the day of light real soon, others are just in the sketch stages but never the less, I cannot wait to finalise them and introduce them to you all. Ive also started to sneak in some time drawing on random bits an bobs which shall be shall pop up on my Facebook , Twitter & Instagram ( Suffoca ).

One of my favourite things about Suffoca as a brand is being able to share some of the people in my life which are just awesome characters and some of the thing we get up to. This adventure was scoping out some new spots, for filming the upcoming release.

Edwick as you know has a real love for tea pots and wandering the woods, he often puts the two hand in hand, creating some of the most memorable tea parties with all sorts of strange tastes from bubble roast pop, to chocolate tangle which makes your tongue grow hair for a short period of time…

But now he has got the chance to wander with you, this collectable is one of my favourites to date as it represents a lot for the brand,the core being the characters themselves and their adventures which are then all wrapped up in a neat package for you to wear and collect.

Neat fact 

The inspiration behind Edwick becoming your torso, was sparked off from the old Goofy hats you used to get from Disney. When i was a kid it seemed like the best thing ever invented, “what my head can have Goofy’s face on it? when.” Apparently’ Goofy’s first name was Dippy Dawg.

For Christmas break I set off over to Italy to slide down mountains and make snow angels. Here is a little recap above and some of the sights I got to lay my eyes on.

Before the clock ticked over to make it 2012 on new year’s eve, I thought back to how far Suffoca has grown over the past year, it has made the biggest steps ever thanks to your growing support, thankyou! I continue to push Suffoca each year and next year will be no different, I cannot wait to share with you what 2012 holds for Suffoca and you’ll be seeing in to the new stories and collections sooner than you think…

Happy New Year from Suffoca

And for such an occasion we have just the thing, a note/story from blooms doodlings.

Bloom Diary Snippet -

Today was a day quite similar to the rest, it started off normal but got much much more complex, while sweeping a roof as all my storys start, this normal day gradually began to fall apart.

Some people walk dogs or feed fish in tanks but the fella hanging out the window opposite had much different plans, with a giant bag of moon shaped nuts he whistled through the gap of his teeth, looking over he said ” Im waiting for the coughing dull nose shaken not stirred (aka cockney rhyming slang for bird), i didn’t think to much of it maybe because he was fairly confident but soon to my surprise here arose a tiny black and white bird, with the dull shaped nose it swooped past and let out an almightily cough while the man ears turned marshmallow soft and dripped off his head but with the smile on his face this was just what he expect.

I was feeling pretty beaten at the time, with juggling more than a handful of life’s tests and it seemed to reflect in the characters too, so with the sketches of boxing gloves and socks violently flying in the air the idea for “Black n Blue”, as in beaten black and blue, got stuck in my head and later came to life.

Below shows a few snippets from a moodboard created for this piece.

I remember reading once in a Tim Burton interview that he always tries to wear stripey socks as they used to make him feel that his feet were firmly connected to the ground. I always thought this was a strange concept but grew to love and agree with it. So with my fondness for stripes, and during this period of growth for the Suffoca brand, I thought it would be a great time to show you that we also have our feet firmly on the ground and are going strong. Using the Suffoca colours and with help from all the characters and doodles from my sketchbook the “Black n Blue” piece was born and finished off with an encouraging message to keep in your pocket.