Check Your Six – Weapons of Mass Distraction

No order. No reason. No explanation. Just because.

The crew enjoyed some much needed relaxation time this Saturday at Red Bull’s Flugtag event. We ended up showing up a bit late, for obvious reasons that may or may not be legal.

We were a cop’s wet dream driving to Harriet Island. Young and reckless right?

It was crazy to see how many people showed up. They were expecting 40,000 attendees, eventually nearly 100,000 people showed up. Events like this are exactly what makes Red Bull such a brilliant company. Throw an event with free energy drinks that brings in 1/10 of a million people. Sure, why not?

Now it’s back to the lab…big things coming from the Check Your Six camp in the next few weeks. Pushing envelopes, starting some controversy, and maybe…just maybe…providing you with your next favorite tee shirt.

We’re more than happy to announce that we are now stocked by Brooklyn Projects, world-renowned heavy hitters in the streetwear industry. Without Brooklyn Projects, streetwear in Los Angeles isn’t the same. It’s like the Bulls without Mike, China without rice, crackheads without pipes, or hockey games without fights (Big L). I digress. Anyways, if you’re in the neighborhood of BP, stop by and show your Check Your Six love.

As designers, David Bowie is one of the many inspirations for us. While his lyrics may not directly lead to the inspiration behind our designs, his music is indeed creative, original, and inspiring. Recently, I ran across an old book from 1977 entitled ‘David Bowie!’.

“I want to be a Superman, I realized very early that man isn’t necessarily a very clever mechanism, and I wanted to make myself better.” I know…crazy.

But a lot of times…crazy is genius. Or maybe just crazy. You be the judge.

Sorry we disappeared for a few days. Don’t fret though, we’re back! Here’s a few shots of what I thought was pretty interesting (I found these in a box called ‘Memories’). Back soon once we get our bearings.

Today I went around the area and did our annual store visitations. Luckily, I forgot my camera!! It’s been like three days of coffee and no sleep, these things happen. Anyways, our good friend Vince, owner of VS Social Standard, tossed me a few copies of the new Frank 151 book. And low and behold…a nice feature of Vince’s shop! He was included as part of a section dedicated to the best shops in the entire United States. Yee-hah!

It starts with an idea. Sparked by a conversation, an image, a song, maybe even a dream. It ends on a tee-shirt, in stores, and on the backs of our followers. Of course, there’s a process that takes our designs from A to Z. Each design unfolds in its’ own unique way, some take several hours of work, most never even make it to a shirt. Today, we’re going to go step by step (more or less) through the creation of our popular ‘Deadly Sins’ shirt from Spring 2010.

Step 1: Move to China and sketch a rough mock-up of the design. Well…the move isn’t completely necessary, maybe just adds a bit more fun.

Step 2: Scan the image into your computer, and let the fun begin. Upon scanning in your image, open up Adobe Illustrator and crack the knuckles; you might be a while. Give the image a general trace using the ‘Pen tool’.

Step 3: Now comes the fun. Color.

Step 4: Almost there…just gotta add the arms, touch things up a bit, and you’ve almost got yourself Weed Man!

Step 5: Add some logos, and take a look at what it looks like on various colorways…sometimes the most critical part of the whole operation.

Step 6: Get the file to the size you need, and you’re in business!

Sometimes it’s hard to stay motivated, dedicated, and inspired by the right things. For everybody. Even the best writers, artists, and directors hit the wall sometimes. Hell, even athletes. We, like everybody else, are frequently plagued by the annoying “design block”. It happens, and there really is no way to completely prevent it. You can, however, surround yourself as best as possible with inspiring artwork, quotes, music, and anything that gets the creative juices flowing. Here’s a look around the Check Your Six base camp, the lab where all of our craziness and ridiculousness is developed. From frost-bitten photoshoots to best-selling designs, this is where it all goes down.

From Lance Armstrong to David Bowie, the Wizard of Oz to chocolate ammo, there really is no method to our madness. At the end of the day, the most important thing is to surround yourself with whatever motivates you. And hopefully, soon enough you’ll be taking over the world, just like we pretend to be doing.

Saturday afternoons are for napping, reading, partying, boating, going to flea markets. And for the Check Your Six team, not just any flea market…a weird, rather disturbing flea market (at least the selection of goodies, the flea market go-er’s were actually quite enjoyable). I may have even met my future wife…if only we exchanged numbers…

The reason for us making an appearance at the market quickly changed from creative inspiration to shopping for our grandmother. Oh well, I guess we always have Wu-Tang for design inspiration. And we did get to see a perfect card for somebody…what…insane?? Also picked up a new bicycle in mint condition…so I guess the day can’t be considered a complete waste. Hell, let’s even call it a success!

Last night was spent chopping it up in the studio again, this time with some great guys over at Homegrown, who were busy recording a full 16 track LP.

I’ve started to really take a liking to the picture I snapped above. That sounded really conceited. Alright…it’s modestly decent at best. Anyways, I think the array of electronics and cameras above the (driver’s??) head is a great contrast to the horse and (chariot??). Also, I love how the color turned out on the fabric of the seat. Man I need a brush up on my horse terminology…Back to the madness.

Up in the lab. Enjoying our stay, hopefully not wearing our welcome out too quickly, with Eli, Beau, and our boy DJ Skrilla.