#1 - Norse Design Brief

1.0 – Concept

ETC. is an Sydney-based fashion label that is looking to go in several directions under the leadership of designer Amon Ziel. One of these explorative projects is Swami Safari; a monthly tee design that explores events and characters from different mythology.

The idea is to work with exceptional artists in 12 month blocks and explore a set number of mythologies in that time. At the end of one 12 month cycle a new artist will be commissioned for the next year who will then be allowed to explore their interpretation of the same mythology or mythological elements.

The in-character story is that a Swami (a Hindu spiritual “master” i.e. a yogi) is on holiday (safari) in an unbreakable meditative trance and is going back in time and experiencing past mythological events and characters himself. The customer thus gets to experience what the Swami experiences in his mind.

2.0 – Illustrative Direction

We really like the direction you’ve taken with your Anatomy and Indonesian residency series of illustrations. The notion of exploring the intricacies of the body and soul via non-uniform parts is very cool and is an intriguing comment on how our bodies are made and operate. We would want to run with the same style or an evolution of that style over the 12 month period.

3.0 – Mythologies

One thing is for sure – there’s a lot of mythology out there! To choose from we have:

3.1 Norse

3.2 Greek

3.3 Roman

3.4 (ancient) Egyptian

3.5 African (many different ones here)

3.6 Haitian

3.7 Galic

3.8 Germanic

3.9 Carthaginian

3.10 Celtic

3.11 Aztec

3.12 Mayan

3.13 Incan

3.14 Chinese

3.15 Hindu

3.16 Japanese

3.17 Islamic

3.18 Judaic

I’m interested in exploring Norse for the first month and after that we can collaborate on the others we want to utilize.

The great thing about Norse mythology is that you have a lot to draw from and it’s very balanced. Everything has a counter balance and it’s a very masculine mythology/religion.

4.0 – Research & Resources

General research you can’t go past Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/) obviously and another great resource is http://www.pantheon.org

Specifically Norse related I recommend you read up on:

1.1 Odin

1.2 Thor

1.3 Yggdrasil

1.4 Jormungand

1.5 Fenrir

1.6 Ragnorok

1.7 Loki

1.8 Asgard

1.9 Midgard

1.10 Hel

1.11 Valhalla

There is PLENTY for us to work with and I’ll be happy to chat about what specific part of Norse mythology you want to explore (Ragnorok; the end of the world, Valhalla the land of the dead, the principle gods like Odin, Thor, Vidar etc. or the principle giants and monsters). At the end of the day this IS a collaborative effort.

5.0 – Terms / Payment / The Fun Stuff

Payment Terms & Permissions: We want to work out a suitable payment for your time on these prints that suits both parties – keeping in mind that we’re interested in using your services over a 12 month period. We also want to give you a few free samples of the product each month.

In return for any agreed upon compensation we would want to reserve the right to terminate this agreement after three months. All prints you produce will be the copyright of Pantheon Industries Pty. Ltd. You would still be able to use and distribute them for non-profit purposes (i.e. promotional and marketing) however.

We would collaborate together once a month on a new print, working together to produce something we’re both happy with. We will pay you the first month prior to beginning work as a sign of good faith and will then pay you the subsequent monthly installments after signing off on the proof.

The print will be applied to a custom tee block and sold online under ETC’s “Swami Safari” project/sub-brand. We will actively promote your involvement in the project through online channels.

Job Requirements: If you accept the job you will be expected to communicate with myself (Alex) and actively work together on choosing a mythology and the themes from that chosen mythology each month. Based on agreed upon direction I’ll ask you to produce a few concept sketches and then once a direction has been decided upon we would ask for a maximum 3 revisions. If more than 3 are required then further payment will be made as agreed upon should this arise.

Clothing: Our clothing is specifically mens street wear and we’ll be branching out into womens in the coming year. This particular project will be done on a custom produced mens tee block using high quality 180gsm combed cotton. The print will be 1 to 3 colours in the illustrative style detailed above. Embroidery is available as well if you wish to incorporate this into your designs.

So there you have it! The focus for us is on brevity, accuracy and information quality. Providing a concise amount of information, ideas and content for the artist to work with while trying to avoid writing an encyclopedia’s worth. As this was our first design brief it was the longest and subsequent ones have shorter still.