Oct 31, 2012
Sorry for the little break, been super busy trying to hammer out some cool stuff for you guys and been ignoring my blog posts!
For those not in the loop, I'm headed to Detroit in the next few days Youmacon Battle Opera.I haven't been to a tournament in a good while and it seemed like a fun idea to go see what this tournament has to offer considering it's at an anime convention (I've never really been to one, especially a BIG one).So, even if I lose right away, I can probably find some really cool Japanese candy and pictures of ill costumes to take.I'll probably bring a few shirts too since the fans are always asking me to have a table at events.So maybe we can make some magic happen there too.
Anyways, since the event is in Detroit and I just ran out of stickers, I figured I would mix it up and make some blue and white ones to give out at the event.So, if you see me there, make sure to say hi and grab a sticker! .I'll also stuff some in the next orders as well while they're around so the other fans can get in on the fun too.I'll even post them in the shop so you guys that are sticker heads can order them separate too, how's that for awesome?
STICKERS! In my favorite color too! Sweet!
Either way, make sure to check out the event if you're in the area or tune into the streams online if you're at home this weekend.It's a 24/7 gaming event with 4 streams and thousands of attendants,it should be pretty darn good.Also,if you see me actin' crazy, it means I found candy by the way.So pray that doesn't happen (or does if you like entertainment).
EDIT: The funny thing is I don't follow baseball much, but I guess Detroit just lost the World Series to the San Francisco Giants and that's their baseball team's color!!!!Go figure! You can't make this stuff up! So we'll see what kind of faces I get. As for the San Francisco fans, don't worry, I'll have something for you guys in the next few days too! ;3
Stay Hungry -h_h-
Oct 18, 2012
I had a super ill waterbased Sombrero Dude print made for the first Blind Man's Bluff preorders.It took a little longer than expected to get this out.But it turned out to make a super nice wallpaper for you guys to use and have fun remembering some goofy stuff that went down at EVO.
Since there are some difficulties in getting the piece out electronically.I figured it'd be easiest to post it for all the fans(especially considering some of you guys that bought pieces off of me in person and I don't have your email!)
There are two versions for you to rock out and enjoy.So, go head and live it up!-h_h-
Oct 17, 2012
Just read my old blog and realized , "Man, I've been doing this for a long time!".Back in the day, I didn't really know what the heck I was doing, but I was really super down to blog with all the down time I had.The funny thing is my stuff I wrote about then had to do a lot less with design and more about defining the brand.Now that I've defined the brand,it's been all about design.Nice switcha-rooney right? Thought you guys would laugh at that.
Anyways, if you want to check out some of the old posts and musings , go head and knock a few out on your iPad, just head to http://hungryhumanclothing.wordpress.com/ and scroll thru.Between the taco pictures and Juggalo Vimeos (18:27 is still one of the best moments in cinema history) there is a lot of pretty decent little rants that may or may not inspire you, but they're worth a read.Tell me what you think! -h_h-
Stay Hungry
Oct 11, 2012
By this point I was not happy.Realizing that you,Larry, the man who thinks everything is 'hot garbage' and take 6-8 months to make a friggin' tee-shirt,now have roughly a month to make something awesome that people have all paid for is beyond stressful.
So,we talked about what we could do and took a million ideas good and bad writing them down hoping desperately for something to stick.
The first idea was actually kind of ill, it was to do kind of cowboy themed deal and make a character.So, we were kind of going to make this goofy cartoon version of everything and have it be just kind of it's own thing.But that really didn't work out as it looked like someone took my head and put it on Woody from Toy Story.
Then the other idea was to do this kind of weirdish cool,hip,Sombrero Dude with some coolio font and some props.But I ended up looking like a crosseyed Heisenburg from Breaking Bad.It was REALLY bad.
I was actually in the hospital at this point and just going through a lot of stuff.I knew you guys really wanted that moment, but we needed something that looked good too.So I decided to kind of do a weird two for one there.Which I'll explain later.
The end result was something classic and wearable that symbolized the moment in an abstract way.We went with a geometric shaped mascot looking logo that has a gradient to represent the transition from having no energy to an abundance of it after downing that whole friggin' Redbull.It's kind of in line with what I think caffeine feels like when it hits me.So the blue to yellow like that in the piece is just a little Nod to that.
The ring in the piece represents the proposal/wedding nod.But also the value that each fan brings to the brand with their support and loyalty,it's the most valuable thing I have.The fans and their support.
Now we thought it still looked a little bland, so we decided to play off this tagline included on the back print.It says crazy moments and awkward engagements,which pretty much describes the whole EVO event but the wording is primarily a Nod to the moment on the surface.
The ill thing is I kept saying the piece needed something extra.I kept telling my dude I was going to go eat some tacos.And he just put some tacos in there.If that ain't an awkward engagement, I don't know what is! It's so crazy and silly it actually worked to put that finishing little bit of polish into the piece.
I wanted to do a little Nod to that Redbull and caffeine in there.So amongst the tacos, if you look in the bottom right corner by my mouth, there is a little gently placed Redbull can there.That's me just giving a Nod to the fact that none of that would've happened without that Redbull and the same goes for you guys, if you guys hadn't supported me or believed in me to this point or given me your money blindly,the shirt wouldn't have happened, so there's your 1/100 right there.
Last but not least, we got the HH guy wearing a Sombrero just because it looks dope and goes with the theme.Too.
I mentioned there is one other little thing we did on top.If you guys that bought the shirt check your inboxes Friday, you'll get to see a special gift I had made just to thank you for believing in the brand and supporting me in some of my weakest moments.I can't give any spoilers, but you guys should enjoy it.Thanks and rock on dudes! -h_h-
Oct 11, 2012
Part 2 of the story.
EVO ended, I passed out one more time and had to call it quits.I had a room full of shirts and no energy.I slept for a day and a half and cried the other half.I really felt down.I don't think I had factored in the notion of failure much because I was so focused on doing this for the fans.It's one thing to lose out on something that I wanted for myself, but when it's people that believe in you.It hurts so much more.
I rambled on Twitter and just really barely made it back home to California in one piece.I was a wreck both physically and mentally.My heart had been beat down,and my ego stomped out.It was all bad.
I felt so guilty not being able to do what I wanted.I think I might have made a video about it, but I couldn't really muster up more than more tears at time, it was a lot to deal with.I still wanted to do something for the fans and they were still talking about that Sombrero thing like it was the next coming.
People had memes, gifs, it even made it on some big site called Kotaku.So, I guess it was a big deal to a few people, and that little piece of knowing I entertained some people made me happy.
All of these fans kept asking about making a shirt, but fans always talk about stuff.So, I didn't really think much of it.Just to weed out the talkers, I made this little dare that if 13 of these guys ordered a shirt blind, I would make a shirt out of the event just for them.I didn't believe it to be possible and considering my stance on humanity at the time, I figured the chances were just about as random as me having gotten that Redbull at that moment and making that happen again.
Roughly 7 hours later.I was proven wrong.People bought shirts in doubles,made friends buy shirts,all sorts of stuff to make it happen.I was extremely touched by this because considering my lack of belief in my own community at the time (long story,but it had been a rough month or two).I just was really humbled that these people were willing to trust me enough to give me money BLIND to make something for them.It was the most preorders I had and I was just SHOCKED that it all came together.So, now I had to make a shirt.That's about the point I realized,"Dude, you know you're gonna have to be on a shirt....".Holiest of craps Batman, I was going to have to be part of a shirt.... Wow. How the heck am I going to do this? This is going to be a challenge....
Oct 11, 2012
This shirt....oh lord...THIS SHIRT. The Sombrero Dude or Blind Man's Bluff as many of you call it came from a series of random occurences strung together to make the perfect moment.
You see, I always had this dream of selling my gear at the EVO tournament,and unfortunately, due to spacing concerns,timing,and a few other choice reasons (see: not really sure). I wasn't able to secure a booth of table to do that this year.
The year prior, I had a really rough EVO, and I really wanted to do something amazing and inspiring to show that anyone can come back from a bad moment and rise to the top.I thought my gear was hot enough to sell and something about doing it without the same tools or assistance of the other vendors just really worked for me.I had a bum hand anyway, so it would be a new challenge to keep myself occupied in a different way and connect with both fans of HH and the people that share the same love of the event and community that I do.
There's this saying,it goes something like "you make your own luck".So what did my crazy self decide to do? Buy 500 shirts and try to sell them there anyway.I literally trained for about a month and a half practicing being able to maintain a steady pace and be able to move long enough without any breaks for three days and sell a bunch of gear on foot.
I'm not motivated by money, so I needed to find something to keep me going throughout the event.I decided that if I was able to sell out of gear, I would do something REALLY AMAZING with the profits that the fans would love.I just kept my focus on being able to do that because it would just make me so happy I couldn't even think about how ridiculous my scheme even was.Without looking back,it was time to jump head first and commit to making my dream a reality now.So , I set out to make it happen.Anyways,cardio,cardio,shake,shake,lots of Journey on my Ipod....cut to the week before the event
You know how they say what can go wrong will? Yeah, that is an understatement.Shirts were lost, prints were late, some stuff didn't make it.Hotel security kept some of my stuff.It was wild.I hadn't really factored in human error or unforeseeables into my little equation,so it caused a CRAZY amount of stress.On top of that, doing everything to get ready,secure all of the gear,and get to Las Vegas...I didn't sleep for roughly 4-5 days. I didn't even realize it because I was so focused on getting this goal,nothing else really seemed to matter.I actually shipped and packed online orders from Las Vegas without any sleep and then set out to the event.I looked and felt crazy.
During the event,people were all sorts of nice.But, it seemed like despite being happy to see me,and sometimes copping a shirt or two, everyone was concerned for me.Almost every conversation was "Oh I like ______ you did and I'm gonna buy ____ if you have it on you right now ....*pause* hey man, you alright? You don't look so good.Normally when I don't sleep, I'm able to catch some Zzzz's later on or I wear my FocusFire glasses to cover up my face so I don't look crazy.But, in my restlessness, I left all three pairs in California with nothing to wear in Las Vegas.Also, I couldn't find any caffeine to save my life, so I had no crutches or distractions for people to not notice how run down I was trying to meet fans and get this goal done.I had passed out 2-3 times by then and it was really scary for me.I needed to take a break and gather myself.But I didn't want anyone to see how strung out and down I was trying to get back to even.How could I distract them and not leave the event completely?
During a search for a Redbull, I ran into Steven from Mexico.I had actually played Steven a year ago in Street Fighter.He was this quiet guy, really polite and super humble.He played a decent pad-Guile last year, but after playing Lamerboi for a year or two, no Guile really makes it far against my Rufus.So,we played some quick-matches made friends and called it quits for another day.
This year, Steven was with friends from Mexico.They were all wearing sombreros and were SUPER energetic, nothing like the Steven I met last year.He told me they were wearing the Sombreros earlier to support Team Mexico.What that told my brain is , "oh ,they must be pretty good at Marvel this year if they're all out here lookin' crazy and hype, I bet you one of them's got a shot if there's so many here".As you guys know now, that was Frutsy who tore it up for them later on.But lemme speed up the story,
Anyways, I saw Steven and I nabbed an extra Sombrero **RIGHT** after I found a Redbull for 5 dollars next door.I downed that puppy super fast and went to go sit down and gather myself.I figured the front would be a good place to sit because it was super chill before the big matches come up and if I passed out there I wouldn't do it on a person that would alert anyone.It's ALL FLOOR BABY! Haha.
So,I'm drinking this Redbull,and wearing this Sombrero....chillin'. I had security called on me maybe 4 times by then and I'm salty,but not in a really normal way, more like, PacMan trying to get the cherry and the ghosts keep chasing him sort of way.As I'm sitting here thinking about everything, this dude pops up.
I remember Worf vaguely from trying to play Marvel when it first came out.All I remember is Dormamnu.I see him standing up talking about something, but I don't hear words.All I can think about is if I nabbed his hat and danced with it, it'd look like the Moonwalker video game because that's what Michael Jackson does as his special move and Worf wears that kind of hat,so it might work (keep in mind....no sleep...I'm crazy regularly,but it gets worse as I don't have any recharge time).All of a sudden, he starts talking and I hear what he's really saying....
You see, I grew up around all women...I have a good grasp on what chicks think, my family owns a women's boutique,that's ALL I EVER GOT TO HEAR until I was like 11 (when I could be dropped off at the arcade alone) is women's opinions.Girls always fantasize about being proposed to, they wait for that moment and they can't really do it themselves, so even as they know they want to marry a dude, they have to wait for it.
So, as I hear what's going on in this dude's words.I'm laughing.I'm not laughing at him, I'm thinking about how his girl feels and how long she has probably waited for this moment.Her surprise,excitement,all the chemicals...it's a wonderful thing.And for some reason, I'm really into the moment.You see, I have this habit of being really animated and acting out stuff.But without sleep,and with that Redbull hitting me at the same time, my body is reacting to this moment and I'm acting it out without even knowing it.
I didn't know I was doing it until Worf looked me in the eyes.And I stopped, but as my body has awakened and electrified, Tony Chung, the guy that ALWAYS gets me on camera during the most awkward moments had already caught it.So, as I'm going crazy and being all caught up on the side.This guy framed it like I'm getting married.I'm sitting here thinking NO ONE caught it except Damien the MadCatz' mascot and I walk away.Then it happened.
Everybody ran up to me and I got like a million awkward stares like I did something.No one said anything to me ,but, 'that was awesome, for maybe 20 minutes.I didn't really get what was going on.I go to the bathroom, all sorts of Nods...I just think everybody is weird and just liked the White Footsies shirt.
As I'm on the toilet, I have roughly 25 texts from people saying they saw what happened and that everyone is talking about it online.I felt really embarassed,but most of all, I felt like going to sleep.This was going to be a rough EVO....
I'll end the rest story and explain part 2 about the actual piece in part 2. -h_h-
Oct 9, 2012
I put up this weirdo blog post to avoid looking crazy on video for the millionth time explaining where I come from with the brand.And...it ended up deleting itself after 2 hours of editing...so you guys still get to see me act a fool and cry on camera talking about the fans and spirit of HH.Enjoy. -h_h-
Oct 7, 2012
I've never really explained the "-h_h-" signature before this.I was so busy the last few years working on HH, it didn't really occur to me to share something so simple that I do everyday by ending a majority of my statements with HH.Plus...I'll be honest, I'm a bit shy and/or selfish about sharing everything about HH all at once...but as you guys are starting to see, I'm getting better about that.So here goes:
The saying we use most often to describe the story of Hungry Human is that "it's the story of your life, the highs,the lows,and everything in between" .. the signature you catch me typing oh so often is a Nod to that. If you look closely at the dashes, there is one high one... a low one,and then a high one again, with 'h's in between.I've always used that to illustrate the struggle that goes with not only receiving what you desire or strive for , but the other parts of that journey.....And you guys thought that was just a smiley face!
My super lovely illustration ....
If you like that, go ahead and use it every once in a while or even all the time when you're typing something, whether it's a letter, a chatroom, an Internet post,or whatever else you can dream up...you have my full permission to do so ON ONE CONDITION :When someone asks you what the "-h_h-" means, make sure to share this story with them so maybe one day they can do the same. -h_h-
Oct 4, 2012
I've been talking about this thing called NTA for the longest time.I never really explained what it was, I would just go on about it via Twitter and go back to ranting about Chipotle or how terrible I think Swagyolo shirts are or something silly.But now it's about time to talk about it.
It's been a real struggle trying to own a brand and not emote that you're upset or that you don't like having to deal with certain aspect of this business/parts of the industry you're in.You just want to have this sense of fun and wonder translate over to the fans and leave it at that.But that's not fair to you.
HH is about the highs and the lows that go with living your life.It's an ever enduring struggle.It's not fair to show you guys just the highs and want to inspire you.I have to share these lows and in-betweens with what we do trying to come back from that to inspire YOU.So with that said, I've been thinking for the longest time, how do I do that?And that's where NTA comes in.
I've been having a lot of troubles both in and out of the brand.I haven't had the oppotunities to grow the brand the way I'd like to,as fast as I want to.I don't have a bunch of bloggers giving HH shine, I don't really sponsor anyone (see: broke),and the majority of what happens good or bad with HH comes from the fans.I just make good stuff and hope people buy it.That's it.
As for myself,I gave up a year just plotting up cool stuff with lots of caffeine and VERY LITTLE sleep......Doing so,I gained about 50 pounds,my right hand is badly injured to the point I will need a few surgeries in the next few years and I was hospitalized earlier this summer.My health was plummeting due to stress,strain,and God knows whatever else.It's still in progress.
Now normally when things are rough,I go into hiding for a few months, get myself right, and come back out a new man.But this time I want to share some of that process with YOU...that's right,I want to show you how to comeback.
People rarely understand that life doesn't always give you the tools you need to accomplish something.A lot of the time, you make that tool via invention.Can't afford something? You might trade or work for it.Car breaks, you walk or take the bus.There is more than one way to do one thing.There's a deep life lesson in that last sentence.So,I want you to write it down somewhere for me: THERE IS MORE THAN ONE WAY TO DO ONE THING.
The brand has taken off some, but there's been a lot of weird things going on with advertising,failed marketing and collaborations,even a few wonky copycats out there emulating our signature style like down to the burger!It's been nuts!So we're going to do some things completely different with the goal of still making awesome gear that you love while growing the brand and it's message.
As for me,I am not allowed to have caffeine really,so all the designs you see will be non-caffeinated.There will be some stuff you KNOW was from before that time, but you will definetly see the progress and feeling of a more centered me designing for you from here on out.And it will be fun to see your guy's response to that.
Also, I can't do the same workouts as before (meathead,kettlebells,push-ups,tons of protein,etc) anymore with my hand being as it is.So this is the first time IN A DECADE, that I will have to diet and excercise properly with cardio.I want to post about that a bit as we go so that maybe some of you guys that struggle with your weight and image can kind of see what it's like to work on that over time.
And this is the first time I'll also announce a return to competitive gaming.You guys didn't know this, but when I took a year off to do this.I also took a year off from playing games at the level I'm used to.With the messed up hand and the focus on the brand, it just didn't work.
There has been a lot of both physical and mental anguish that came about trying to make sense of the world without really being a part of one you hold dear.I discussed it with a professional and bottom line from her: "your hand will hurt like hell at the end of every match you play.but you can't do anymore damage than what has already been done.".
So, what that means for me is...lots of ice,aspirin, and moderation, but I'll be able to play.The catch is that even with that, my style in about every game relies heavily on reaction and in your face rushdown.Without being able to press the buttons as fast, I will have to depend on a more defensive "zoning" style that I'm not really used to anymore.I haven't played like that since junior year of high school (Spiral/Cable/Sentinel baby! ),so I will definetly be out of my comfort zone there too.
So now that I've shared all that.What does NTA stand for you say? It's non-tool assisted.What that means is,what we do isn't automatic,easy,or "free"...it's something that we struggle to make happen.It comes from deep inside us via inspiration,energy,and passion.And despite the tools that we do or don't have helping us along the way, we still find a way to do it. There is more than one way to do one thing.#NTA
Stay Hungry
Oct 4, 2012
Long time no post guys...there's been a lot happening on the HH front and it's just been extremely crazy to predict stuff.Now that things are getting back in line,looks like I owe you a post or two to catch you up to speed on the day-to-day HH happenings! Expect to hear (and see) more from Hungry Human on this site as the fall progresses.Get comfortable,....hope you're hungry!-h_h-