Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Crown Dozen




Boy have I been neglectful! I have been trying to post stuff here for what seems like forever and it just never seems to happen. So if anybody is still reading this or cares I am sorry I have not been good at getting my act together and trying to make the blog better.


Anyhow- enough of my whinning. I got my ass out of bed early this AM and when I got to the studio the first thing I did was take a spin around the web to see if I could find anything of interest to post before I dug into a day of work. I went over to Beautiful Decay because I always seem to find neat things over there and sure enough I found a link to a site called Crown Dozen. The site is very similar to Beautiful Decay so for all I know it might just be an extension of it.

Once there I found a treasure trove of interesting things. Admittedly the site is where a bunch of opinionated writers tell you what's hot and what isn't worth a crap. Fortunately for me a lot of the stuff I saw on the site I like, and I know it's hot. I found a really good article on Sun-Min Kim and David Horvath, founders of Ugly Doll, and another on genius illustrator, painter,artist Gary Baseman.


I love Ugly Doll, think its not only a great idea but proof that there's always room in the marketplace for the weird and offbeat, you don't have to be like everyone else to find success. in fact it appears its more often reached when you don't follow anyone else's idea but rather you strike out with your own thing and live or die by it. If your lucky and luck does play a big part in it you get to live really, really well.








I know some might wonder why would I want to put stuff like this on Naked Motel. Don't we just sell clothes? Well no, not really, we're into a lot more than that. I put this stuff here because it fits so well with who Naked Motel is. Everything I saw on the site is by indie-non main stream designers and artist, just like us. Some of them have got their break others like us are still slugging in out in the trenches.


I used to think when somebody would say something like I don't do it for the money it was a bunch of crap. Personally I have to say yeah, the money is part of it for sure, we all need it or life sucks, but truthfully most of the real creative people I know, myself included do it because we have to. We have to design, paint, draw, create whatever because its who we are, it's what we do. I think if they were to cut a bunch of us open you would find we all have some kind of the same weird mutant DNA genome. It's very much a curse in some ways. Often times I think "god it would be so much easier to just punch a clock for someone else", but I like many others I know can't do that, not that there is anything wrong with it.



I put Crown Dozen here because they are helping to advance what are often the misfits of the world, which I count Naked Motel to be one. It's here because like Naked Motel it's different. I am so glad I found it. Crown Dozen reconfirms what I as a designer and Naked Motel are striving to do. It reaffirms my belief to be different. It shows me there is room for those of us that are, the ones that don't fit into the cookie cutter mainstream of Target stores and strip malls. Naked Motel is on the same bus as many of the other artist and designers you see posted on sites like Crown Dozen we just haven't been found yet, or reached our stop. If we stay on the bus long enough though eventually we will where we are suppose to be.

We have never been profiled or posted on the Crown Dozen site, and we don't owe them anything. I just like the site and what they do a lot. While they certainly don't need a plug from us, if you haven't done it already go check them out now at www.crowndozen.com. I hope they have the good luck and good fortune to continue doing what they do for a really longtime. The web is a better place with sites like their's. They oooze cool!

I guess I should stop here now. Looking at this I probably sound like the crazy guy down the street talking to myself pushing a three wheeled shopping cart into incoming traffic. Hopefully I will get back in the swing of things soon and start posting on a more regular basis. Hope anyone who stops to look enjoyed the rant till next time.

One last thing. While your at Crown Dozen make sure you check out the winter photos by Martin Wolf Wagner. Hauntingly beautiful.




All for now

Naked Motel

1 comment:

GSB said...

Hey Dude, Thanks for the super-kind words about CrownDozen.com! I started it years ago and it still warms me up to read that people appreciate it... Sometimes I think it's not too worth it anymore, but then I read something like your post... Thanks!