Aberdeenshire

2021 Review Part 1 January - March

Much like 2020, 2021 has been an odd year to say the least.

I’m still working from home, at the time of writing another lockdown seems imminent and nothing seems certain. However, with vaccines being rolled out 2021 gave us safer options for getting out and about, which was great for us!

 So here’s a rundown of the highlights of our year. It was a busy one so I’ve split this into 4 parts.

Part 1 Jan – March

I kicked the year off by sharing some of what I’ve learned into 6 Parts. You can read them on our blog by starting HERE. I tend to this sort of thing from time to time – it helps me to retain things I’ve learned and appreciate how far I’ve come, and if it helps anyone else then that’s great.!

Mid January we kicked off a fundraiser for C-Fine. They are a cracking organisation, here’s their mission statement:

“CFINE improves health and wellbeing and the environment, tackles poverty and builds resilience through a range of support and services for and with disadvantaged, vulnerable, low-income individuals, families and communities in North East Scotland.”

Its easy for business’s to give other peoples money away. But we put our money where our mouth is and donated £500 of our own. You guys more than matched that and I think the total was nearly £1300 altogether.

Its sickening to see society return to some kind of Victorian era values – the poor and needy aren’t treated well by our Governments and instead are left to charities to assist. Not good enough. But right now all we can do is try to help. We’ll be doing something similar again this year.

February saw us kick off our Deck Design competition in collaboration with Your Custom Skateboard. It’s the second year we’ve done it and the standard was just as good. You can see the winners here and the accompanying blog post. This took us through to Mid March.

In March I was lucky enough to be asked to speak some young folk via the Foyer / Prince’s Trust. I don’t think for a minute that I do anything special but I do remember being young and am acutely aware of the mistakes I made back then. So if I can help nudge someone onto the right tracks – great. I’ll be doing something similar again in 2022.

The end of March brought us an amazing photo shoot with Katy Shewan. Models Davie and Mya did a great job and it’s worthwhile for anyone looking to sell anything that using professionals makes a difference! This also coincided with our 4th Birthday – we wrote about all of that here. Very keen to do more pics this year.

And so the first quarter of the year was busy – we were also working on new designs that were yet to launch! More of that in Part 2, 3 and 4.

Mental Health

I posted the below on social media the other day. It was great to see some discussions/comments going on and greatly appreciated.

Hopefully it helps trigger something in someone to either reach out for help or to reach out with an offer of help. What I find frustrating is knowing exactly what would help - exercise, eating well, reading, relaxation etc but having absolutely no concentration or drive to achieve it. But I’ll keep chipping away and hopefully feel a lot better soon. But also aware that quite often these things never fully go away - only becoming manageable peaks and troughs.!

Also hope to god no one thinks this is for “likes” or “content”.

Thanks again.

I’ve not been myself lately.

I’m sure it’s not just me, the world has been turned on it’s head this last year and I’m more confident that I’ll kick flip than the current UK Govt leading us anywhere positive.

I’ve given up a few responsibilities in my day job including being a Mental Health First Aider. It wouldn’t do someone any good to have called me lately. And I’ve missed some of the rare social occasions that have popped up too. Just not in the right frame of mind.

My mental health is poor at the moment - that’s the truth. I’m not just miserable - I’ve always been like that….ask anyone that knows me.

It’s something deeper but I know I’m going to be ok. I think saying this out loud is healthy. And if yer reading this and perhaps feeling similar then I hope your ok and I hope you’re getting help and or surrounded by good people. I’m lucky.

If yer pals or family members have gone quiet or seem out of sorts have some patience and reach out. And then reach out again.

#mentalhealthawareness #mentalhealth #mentalhealthmatters #mha #mentalhealthaberdeen #wellbeing #wellness #aberdeen #aberdeenshire #mentalhealthsupport

Fit Like? Nae bad, yersel?

As promised in the last blog, this one will have a look at the most recent collaboration.!

This one is between myself and local street artist Fit Like Art.

Fit Like came up with a concept very early in the year but due to its subject nature we had to keep it until November 2nd!

Once this design was locked it was over to Fit Like to use stencils to throw up some graphics on the nose and tail of each deck. Screen printing on the nose and tail will require a bit more development in equipment for me but doing it this way made perfect sense. FL used a variety of stencils to recreate his collectives logo and his own logo along with liberal splatterings of ink.! This makes each deck unique.

It was then over to me to screen print the run. I’d already done a dry run of the main graphic and at the last minute decided on the green, white, red fade. Originally i had thought of just a white undercoat.

But first the topside logos needed done. They can be a right bugger to do - you are screening with the concave and need to be quick, firm and steady.! It can lead to mistakes….

Once done it was time for the main graphic. Using the 3 colour fade for the undercoat can be messy - you might need to clean out the screen every now and then. The wee detailing is done with a sliver and then the main black outline - its amazing how it all comes together.

I took the opportunity to produce the whole run of tees and totes for this collaboration. I had messed around with printing on other mediums but this was a whole new thing. Thankfully i got through it with minimum waste.! Its a different ball game doing it on clothing. Screening on a curved, shiny surface of a skateboard has its challenges but so does clothing.! Ink consumption being one - didn’t really factor just how much it would eat up!

Super stoked with the response to this one so far though. We have a planned launch night at Fierce Bar on Nov 1st. Hopefully we’ll still have something to sell! 😃 I’ll make sure we have a few extra tees.!

From this we jump on to the next event at Transition Extreme. Head over to the Facebook Page event for more info. Really looking forward to this one.!

To keep in touch with where we will be this year (Chr*stmas) check out the websites Whats Happening page.! I’ll hopefully be adding an event or two to that soon.! And maybe another collaboration to sneak in.! ??

Part 12 - Where was I? Oh aye!

When i started this blog it was supposed to follow the story roughly speaking of where we got where we are, and then very conveniently dovetail with now. Then i could keep it more relevant. 

But i've dipped in and out of a few things since the last part which was Part 9 - Whats a Bon Accord?

I'll nip away and re-read that to see where i was. 

Ok, read it. Sorted. Ready to go. 

So the design is locked down - kudos to Nicola, my pal Craig and my brother Mark for their input. Worth mentioning here that you very quickly have to accept criticism and suggestions. Sometimes its right! Even though i think its important to have the courage of your convictions - you need to be flexible and honest. If something works better another way - do it. 

Although the Annie Street Dreams deck had a few colours in it, there was a degree of flexibility with the design. A millimeter here or there didn't really effect the image. However with this one i had to line up 4 screens with 4 different colours to create one image. Easy eh? 

So some of the first things i discovered was that overlapping the images was the way forward. No overlap means you have to get it BANG on. i.e. line up the screen to the image each time and ensure that its millimeter perfect. Not easy. Especially when screening on a curved deck! 

Also needed to think about which direction to screen. You pull (or push if you like it that way) the ink through the screen and that deposits the ink onto your deck. A squeegee is used but they aren't really soft enough (that i've found) to take on the curve. So i screened width ways - this has its own issues. The contact between the deck and the screen can be an issue and the pressure you put on makes all the difference. Too much pressure on the part closest to the screen means you are going to make a mess - not enough pressure on the part furthest from the screen means you arent going to deposit enough ink.

So its a balance. 

Overlapping images for sure - i'm in the midst of re-doing some of the images so that i can get the next one bang on - Irn Bru colour fyi.

Then i thought - why can't my squeegee be curved? 

So i chopped one up and......it kind of worked a treat! 

Still some work to do to make one perfect but its the way forward for me. 

Whatever works eh?

Some images below of the process - this doesn't include the ones of me crying when i messed things up..look out for the one i did upside down. Ha! : )

 

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