The most enjoyable thing has always been the references made behind clothing to me. Why did a certain clothing brand make this t-shirt, why does somebody wear something? Does it remind them of their childhood, does it make light of a certain insecurity that they have with themselves? You can either wear clothes to look cool, buy that Supreme drop, waltz around in limited edition shit that you don't even like the look of.. Or you can wear an article of clothing because something as simple as a t-shirt can give you an obscene amount of happiness. In most cases, nobody knows why you feel that way but yourself. It may feel stupid to try to articulate why that is. But, if you give a shit enough.. The thing that you wear is a true extension. I wanted the third release to incorporate elements from my childhood (it seems like every person on earth says that when describing their work) and now. I wanted an idea that meant a whole damn lot to me and I needed it to come from a genuine place instead of just designing clothes that I thought looked cool. Release 3 is an extension of myself through the actual t-shirt, design, packaging, and what is inside the box. It dives into what makes me the happiest, my loneliness, heartbreak, and everything in between. It is titled, THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME. Here is why and how I made it: THE T-SHIRT: I was sitting in high school English class (shouts to Mr. Lee) with my ADD ass zoning out until we started focusing on a short story unit. A particular one caught my attention titled, THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME by Richard Connell. It was about a person named Sanger Rainsford from New York City who fell off of a yacht, and was marooned on an island in the Caribbean. There, he was stalked by a Russian aristocrat named General Zaroff who had been known for his prestige in big game hunting. The aristocrat had grown bored with hunting animals, and began to hunt humans who were shipwrecked on the island. He would give them a three-hour head start to run through the jungle before he began the chase. Connell did a great job of detailing out the different settings in the story. Whether it was describing the hall in where the aristocrat had animal busts hanging, along with a large oak table.. To him walking through the jungle, stalking after Rainsford. Or, he described Zaroff's hunting excursions that painted a picture of movies like Tarzan, or Swiss Family Robinson that I saw when I was a kid. The best authors are able to describe situations in which a normal person thrust in them would not have been as aware of their surroundings, while caught in that moment. It is like the people in the story are completely aware at all times. Have you ever seen the movie, Limitless? Where he takes that pill that has his brain amped up to 100%? That's the shit a great author is able to do through words. It would be nice to live day-to-day with that kind of awareness.
I came up with the idea for the shirt based off of that. After designing my last range, I decided I wanted to do one item at a time so I could spaz out on one design. I wanted to take a more structured approach, because as you will see while reading this, I like to go off on tangents. I wanted to have a more focused approach, a design I could work months on. This shirt gave me that. Throughout the process of designing the MDG garment, the back graphic was drawn by myself. It took me 5 months of working on it for two hours a day, sometimes more than that, shit, I don't fucking know. I started on February 11th, and ended it on June 10th. In the design, I messed with the color schemes of the leaves individually. It probably took so long because I was completely anal with how the entire thing looked, I would zoom in and out of the image probably 30 times before deciding what to do next... There was also some time where I let that design marinate, and I think taking a step back from stuff like that can be the best thing for you. It lets you come up with new ideas, new things to draw into it. The concept behind the garment titled, THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME was the art direction of the 1800s-early 1900s. The hand-drawn scene depicts Zaroff hunting his prey through the jungle.
REFERENCE POINTS & CURIOSITY: It’s hard to contextualize what goes into a creative process without sounding like some pseudo-intellectual dickhead. For me, nothing really goes into it. I just think of something, and feel the desire to put it on paper. Then, the dots tend to connect later and I just wing it. People tend to romanticize something like a creative process, but it is one of the most organic things in the world. They use the term, "obsessed" every time they release a new product. They use the same vocabulary, and act like everything new has to be the second-coming of Christ. In college, I look at a paper that talks about Business Law for hours and not remember a single thing. However, I can remember the most minuscule detail about my childhood and pull it out of my ass when I need it the most. My mind is very selective in that, I think that’s everybody though. When you get around halfway through college, you wonder why you are taking classes that you have nothing invested into.. Your mind tends to wander, and you ask yourself why you are sitting, fucking around in accounting class while you could be out doing something you love. In your mind wandering, many times you come across something that is deemed as "creative." How something makes you feel. If I could source my own "creativity" it's looking at other people's work and being psyched the fuck out over how talented they are. Also, the type of emotional response that specific work evokes from me. For everything I do on an artistic level, I have reference points. Most of the time, it isn't through clothing itself.. But, other avenues. REF POINT #1: LIEBIG TRADING CARDS Lithographs from the 1800s have become a point of intrigue for me. This past year I bought a set of Liebig meat extract trading cards that were painted nature scenes, and featured animals like Lions, and Tigers. The scenes depicted on the cards seemed alot more interesting than the actual product to be honest. Meat extract is highly concentrated stock that was brewed in a lab by an organic chemist to feed the malnourished. For some reason, they decided to come out with this unbelievable card set as part of their marketing campaign.. That had absolutely nothing to do with their product.
The tiger sleeve graphic is taken from an 1800s Liebig trading card that I licensed the image from. That card is pictured in the middle of the picture above. In high school, I began to look at travel photography.. Not grids on Instagram of goofy selfies, and shit slapped in VSCO Cam.. But, those from the 1800s, most notably: a British photographer named, Linnaeus Tripe who took these insane photographs of India and Burma. While there is probably a less than innocent story behind all of this, he was commissioned by the British monarchy to create a photoseries. I spent a few nights obsessing over these photographs.
REF POINT #2: MARINE SPECIALTIES. PROVINCETOWN, MASSACHUSETTS. My family and I have vacationed to Provincetown, Massachusetts on the Cape almost every year of my life. My dad would take me to an Army Surplus store in P'Town. Hanging down from the ceilings would be gas masks, and life preservers. Stuffed in bins, and nailed on walls would be pilot uniforms, license plates from different states, and old style tin advertisements. A total fucking tourist trap, but a cool place nonetheless.
I bought two things that I still have, a grenade shell, and a Coca-Cola sign. This seeded my love for the style of the army, the surplus format, and how everything had a specific item number. This was the idea behind adding the “World’s Fair Supply” onto Bombed at Apollo. I now buy items fairly frequently from previous World's Fair expositions like pennants, guidebooks, and postcards. I also bought a watch cap from the 1950s military, and the tag sewn onto the items intrigued me, that is where the sew-in tag is sprouted from.
Being brought to the military surplus probably indirectly blossomed my love for old things. Two of my favorite movies are Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove, and Full Metal Jacket. The arm and tag print of the MDG garment are a nod to the surplus.
Along with the surplus store, my family would also take me to Cabot's Candy in Provincetown to buy salt water taffee. There is nothing better than salt water taffee, and a Coke on a summer night by the water when you are a kid i'm going to tell you that shit right now oh my god. (My dad told me a story that when his friend worked for an orchestra, the marketing director would always come in and ask, "does everyone have a good feeling?" While flipping her hair. Probably the goofiest thing I have ever heard in my life.. If you say something like that out loud to people, you need to re-evaluate some things. However, when put under different vocabulary, it kind of makes sense. Everybody wants to feel good during their jobs, when they use their products.. But, there are other ways to better articulate that. Never say something like that to a bunch of creative people like musicians, or anybody for that matter.. They will not take you seriously whatsoever.) But, going along with what that marketing director said.. That salt water taffee? Yo, that shit gave me a good feeling right there when I was a kid. In the t-shirt box, there are flavors of salt water taffee from Cabot's Candy, flown in after paying for it with my college kid struggle budget debit card. Cabot's Candy is the exact place my parents have taken me to for years. Let's get it.
REF POINT #3: MY DAD'S COLORADO MUSIC FESTIVAL POSTER The most important reference point comes from my dad. When he was my age, he was a member of a print club and would order different prints from a catalog he got on a monthly basis through the mail. I have a Marc Chagall first edition print hanging in my room. In my basement, he has a poster from a Colorado Classical Music Festival that he played in during college. There is a mountain range in the background. A few years ago while a freshman in college, I realized that I loved exhibition posters just like my dad. The design direction of the back is directly inspired by the exhibition poster from the Colorado Music Festival. It is where the art direction of Bombed at Apollo began, and where Case Study 03 has developed from.
ADDITIONAL REF POINTS: ASSORTED PATCHES AND PENNANTS Pictured below are patches from a local high school letterman from 1960, along with old camp patches. The pennant is from World's Fair Expo 1967 in Montreal, Quebec. What I love about the pennant specifically is that it is able to incorporate a hand-drawn design with an already established font displayed as, "Terre Des Hommes, Man And His World." It is something that at times that can be extremely difficult to intermingle the raw nature of the illustration, with the font without looking totally shitty. If you aren't a design nerd you probably are reading this like: Yeah, what the FUCK ever. All the items in this picture are currently hanging above my desk at school.
PACKAGE DESIGN:
The packaging is based off of a military field pack as featured in Dr. Strangelove that has gained a cult following for its functionality. The packaging features several photos collaged together that I took in a National Park as well as a tiger, and a hunter from a 1800s Liebig trading card with a blue jay.
PACKAGE CONTENTS: - The 5 print 100% cotton longsleeve t-shirt with a hangtag, and sewn-in SUPPLY tag on the lower right side. - Salt Water Taffee from Provincetown, Massachusetts - A custom insert - Two stickers - A handwritten note from me personally addressed to you
TO BE WORN IN MOST CONDITIONS. WE ARE NOT TO BE HELD LIABLE FOR INJURIES SUSTAINED WHILE WEARING THIS GARMENT.
249-048-SW3
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Through the photography of Linnaeus Tripe, the packaging of Major Kong’s Survival Kit while watching Dr. Strangelove: How I Learned to Love the Bomb, going to Provincetown as a kid, and my family came the idea for this garment for Case Study 3 based on the Richard Connell short story. Here are things that I love that helped me along the way. None of this had a recipe, but something came out of the oven.
T-Shirt Release Date: 12:00AM EST, November 15th, 2017.
Everything is Everything: Bombed at Apollo takes its name from Amateur Night at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, New York. Bombing at the Apollo means to be booed off-stage by the crowd. In a moment like that, it is where somebody feels the most alone with themselves. Many people take solace in something to escape their reality. Something they get lost in, whether it is reading comic books, listening to music, skateboarding, among other things. For some, that escape is clothing. It is a way for somebody to look in the mirror and feel confident and good about themselves. People have reached out to me through email, and have told me about their lives. A few of them have told me how clothing serves as an outlet for depression. When people are willing to confide in me, just some random college kid behind a computer that designs a few t-shirts every year about their vulnerabilities, it is unbelievable to me. On New Years Day this past year, I found my best friend, Zach in his car after he took his own life. I was the one who told his family what happened. To something like that, you just don't know what to say. Seeing his mom break into hysterics will haunt me for the rest of my life. A few days before on Christmas Eve, our other friend was alone in his apartment and was going through a rough patch; asking if one of us could be with him. I left dinner with my family, and joined him. Zach stopped by my house in his car a few days later, and asked what had happened. I got in, just us two and went into detail. While explaining the situation, I told Zach that if anything ever happened to any of us, I would be there. It was a 15 minute conversation that seemed so minor at the time. Two days later, it was all over. For some reason everything fell into place like the ending of a horrible movie.. I hope in his final hours, he remembered I said that to him.. Whether it was me saying it or someone else in his life. I didn't cry until I got home. I burst into tears in my dad's arms and said, "i'm glad we found him." I am still glad I did. In a harrowing situation like that, I was happy that if anybody had to find him, it was someone who loved him. I am glad I told him that I loved him to his face when he was alive. Zach and I had something big in common in that we were both introverted. We didn't need to be around people to do our thing, we both did not date very often.. We didn't party alot, we just quietly got to work. I thought that because of him, being like that was okay. Then after he died, I realized how sad he was being alone. In his final note, he said he had been dealing with depression for a long time and he didn't feel like he could tell anybody. The most fucked up part is that like Zach, I suffer from depression. Sometimes, I don't want to get out of bed, and I constantly feel like i'm alone in a crowded room.. I feel like it is hard for me to have meaningful conversations with alot of people. I confided with him about it as well in private, seeking advice. Not once did he feel the need to tell me that he felt the way he did. He just listened. When I think about that almost a year later, I fall apart. People have told me that it isn't my fault, that I couldn't do anything.. But, sometimes I feel like I failed him. I was too busy stuck up my own ass to see what was in front of me. The thing about life is that while you may walk around day-to-day caring about what people think of you, ultimately it is your life.. It is your decision to work a secure 9-5 office job, start a family. You can go out and live on your own, but travel the world by yourself. Or, you can do anything. It is what you are the happiest doing. Everyone has different tastes.. People have different paths, different aspirations.. I will never call a person doing what they love doing, a "bum." If a person smokes weed all day living in the forest and if they are happy.. They can do whatever they want. I don't know why people get so wrapped up in the fact that people live differently than them. Happiness depends on the person. In the aftermath of Zach's death, people have come up to me to say that they are mad. Why are you mad? If you are mad, you didn't appreciate the beauty of life. It is always the people who didn't know him that say that.. Don't look back in anger. People say suicide is a selfish way to go out because you are affecting other people. Look at this this way.. You'll have people making you feel all alone for your entire life. You feel like you cannot talk to anybody about how you truly feel.. You are expected to get a good job, get married, start a family.. Everything is expected of you from other people. Then once you are gone, people wonder why you did it. Sometimes, it is the one time through all the sadness that someone is able to take control of their own life. You can never go into somebody else's mind to see what they truly feel. You may wear the same clothes, have the same hobbies, but ultimately there will always be something unique that you have experienced as opposed to the person next to you. For me, having gone to a conservative Catholic high school and college for the past 8 years, at times I feel like I cannot have meaningful conversations with my friends about things that I am truly interested in whether it is clothing, art, music. I am hard-pressed to find people who I share anything in common with. It seems like socially, I restrict a huge part of my personality. I remember in class, I centered a project around a scene in "Kids" by Larry Clark in which Chloe Sevigny is on a taxi ride home after being diagnosed with HIV. The scene deeply intrigued me, and I ended up having to present it on the due date. I had no idea I needed to show the actual class, I just thought I had to turn it in. The people in my class looked at me like I was a fucking alien being warped down from a UFO as I explained the scene. People tend to gravitate towards familiarity. With me, I can tell they don't know how to read me. Oftentimes, I deliberately act more idiotic than I am, and use humor as a compensation mechanism because I feel like I cannot articulate my interests to other people. As a result, I just bullshit around. If I didn't have to, I wouldn't talk to anybody and I would just listen. There are only a few people in my life who I am completely silent with, and they are my favorite people. They will be able to go on and on about their interests and it is something that gives me happiness. I love their passion and I love learning from them. Because of the incident with Zach, I developed a thousand-yard stare due to PTSD. I do my best to conceal it while in public, or when I am working. But, sometimes it comes out and I have seen the way people react to it. I think they see all the light leave my eyes, and they don't know what to do. I don't blame them. When i'm in class, I dress a bit differently. If I sit alone on the side and there is an open seat next to it, a person's first instinct will not be to sit next to the quiet kid in upper-level business classes wearing the sweatpants and mohawk. With that said, it doesn't make me feel the need to be anything different. I have been around so many different types of people, that I understand where they are coming from, but i'm me.. I like this weird shit, and that's alright even if it makes me feel alone. I am pretty fucking confident in myself. I have learned to do things that I am interested by myself whether it is going to record stores, out to eat at a restaurant that I would like to try. I think my largest insecurity is that I will never find love. I'm not talking about finding someone who I can spend the rest of my life with, i'm referring to it at the most simple level. The big touchpoint in jest with my friends is that I do not have much of a personal life. I don't really go to the bars, I don't have fun at keggers.. I don't like just standing around with a Natty Light in my hand which in college, equates to having a personal life. I like going somewhere whether it is a concert, a restaurant, or a movie. Once again, there is nothing wrong with the college shit, it just isn't for me. Some people have the time of their lives doing that and it's totally alright. When I do look for a girl, we need to have major things in common, which has been something extremely difficult for me given my environment. The hardest experience for me is to even ask a girl on a date. I am able to throw myself into so much shit with reckless abandon, but it is that one thing that provides me quite a bit of inner turmoil. It's so rare for me to find someone that I actually want to be romantically involved with. I'm in no rush either. Usually, i'm the one being pursued, in which I will just say fuck it and give it a whirl.. And in those experiences I have felt completely alone in the relationship, and better when I am out of it. Halfway through I kind of realize I have nothing in common with the person... And I just feel better when it's over. In the long run, something like that is so insignificant towards living a great life. But, for some reason, it gets to me. When referring to my personal life, nothing has ever been straight forward.. It always seems like a game. I don't think that's how it is supposed to work. I touched upon the aspect of familiarity, loneliness is that for me.. As difficult as that is to admit. With that said, I have just been around the wrong people. I know that there are people out there who will be able to give me whatever it is that I seem to be missing, I am just not in the right place. It seems like I am either fucking amazing at something, or absolutely suck. There is no in between. I am fine with trying out things that I suck at, and look like an idiot doing because it's fun and i'm cool with trying things that are unfamiliar to me. I make friends really easily, retain them for the rest of my life, but I can never seem to take it to the next step unless the other half does it for me if it's on a romantic level. I know professionally and socially that I am going to be successful, but from a romantic standpoint i'm not so sure. With alot of men, it is easy to become friends through small talk. Talk about the game, or something like that. Men are alot alike. With women, it is drastically different. Lacking the emotional connection, they can see right through you. I think that's one of the most beautiful, and honest things in world. This past summer I wasn't at home on the weekends for 2 and a half months. I took trips to Las Vegas, Maine, Chicago, West Virginia, and back home to Cleveland almost on a whim. I think the only reason I was even at home was because I worked at my internship from Monday-Friday. Last weekend I went white water rafting on a school sponsored trip while barely knowing anybody, paddling front row in the raft, hurling myself through tier 5 rapids for 6 hours. I slept in a tent alone, sat on a beer bus away from my group, and woke up at 5:00AM. At the end of the day, I was happy. While lacking emotional connection with people, I have realized that there is nothing wrong with my friends, there is nothing wrong with me, there is nothing wrong with people around me.. We just do not share the same interests. It is always good to have people in your life that give you an alternate perspective. However, it is sort of like living out of your comfort zone on a consistent basis. In my classes, it is interesting to me that my professors will talk about the comfortability that people possess within their own lives.. It is something I feel like I have never had. What I have found is that there is always somebody. Whether you do not know them personally, or whether they are on the other side of the world, there is somebody that will share something in common with you, that will be willing to talk to you. When somebody just nerds out over something that they love.. Who are willing to take that extra step and speak about themselves, what they believe in.. Those people are always the most interesting to me. If ever you need someone like that in your life to talk to, do not hesitate to reach out to me: Jake@BombedAtApollo.com. You are never truly alone. This shirt is dedicated to my best friend, Zach Franczek who helped me concept the first two Bombed releases, and the beginnings of this one. Rest in Peace. I love you, thank you for everything and more. He was one of the first people I met my freshman year of high school, and we were brothers ever since. Whether it was sleeping over at each other's house, going on 9 hour road trips by ourselves, fishing in his backyard, and being bus buddies / roommates for all four years of high school sports.. I won't forget any of it for the rest of my life. Our senior year of high school, we formulated a clothing line that was dubbed "Franchise," a play-on of his last name. It was the first time I seriously started to think about designing clothing. Our freshman year of college while being roommates, we would stay up until 3AM watching Cosmos, go to the library and study into the late hours of the night. He constantly asked questions that couldn't necessarily be answered. I hope now, some of them were. He is the person who taught me to observe my surroundings, take note of them, and apply a more cerebral approach towards my life. He single-handedly turned me into a movie buff, and made me appreciate the different intricacies of a certain director's style, photographs.. He taught me the true meaning of empathy, he made me understand people's emotions, and that sometimes.. The best thing to say to a person is to say nothing at all and just be there. Zach was the most curious person that I have ever met, and it rubbed off on me in an unbelievable way. I can genuinely say that because of him, I am a different person. I think the most important lesson he taught me was in passing: Life is too fucking short to not go full throttle towards something you wake up thinking about.
THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME GARMENT WAS CONCEPTED, DESIGNED, WRITTEN, AND ILLUSTRATED BY JAKE W. GOLDEN WITH SOME HELP FROM FRIENDS ALONG THE WAY FROM SEPTEMBER 2016 - AUGUST 2017. THE ART DIRECTION WAS CONCOCTED BY JAKE GOLDEN. THE LOOKBOOK WAS TAKEN ON A JAPANESE NIKON 28TI POINT & SHOOT CAMERA.
BOMBED AT APOLLO.
CASE STUDY EXPOSITION ISSUE 3
THE WORLD'S FAIR SUPPLY
249-048-SW3
"I began to realize how important it was to be an enthusiast in life. If you are interested in something, no matter what it is.. Go at it full speed. Embrace it with both arms, hug it, love it and above all become passionate about it. Lukewarm is no good." - Roald Dahl
My sketch journal.
