#003 ⤑ Fix Up...Relaunching Our Brand
Stickerbomb Press - A New Chapter Of Book Publishing Begins.
I’m finding it difficult to believe it’s nearly August.
This time last year (July 2020) I was heading back to the UK from Jakarta, Indonesia and a year later it’s all gone groundhog day as I’m about to head back to the UK again - this time from Cambodia.
As life winds down in the tropics, I’ve been prepping what’s next and a project that needs dealing with is our book series and brand, Stickerbomb.
For those that don’t know, Stickerbomb is a sticker book series by my creative partner, Ryo Sanada and myself. We’ve been authoring books and producing spin off products since 2008 and we’ve had a great run.
But in an attempt to diversify the business we’ve tried everything to either no success or mediocre ‘meh’ success.
‘Meh’
expressing a lack of interest or enthusiasm.
uninspiring; unexceptional.
We were an illustration agency in London and a content events agency in Asia. We manufactured t-shirts and merchandise in Thailand and dabbled with image licensing in North America. We had a gallery in Bangkok and an office in Singapore.
All of it did ok, with varying degrees of mediocre success and failure.
Maybe at times we lacked focus and maybe our heart wasn’t in it and because we never really smashed it, we’ve felt a bit of disappointment about what the brand and business could have been.
So after a lot of reflection and time away to digest we have a new found focus which has brought a wave of energy which has helped us realize something very simple.
We didn’t focus on the success we had - which was in making books and films.
Which meant we never needed to ‘diversify’ the business - we just needed to double down on the stuff we loved. Sounds silly but when you chase the ££s, €€’s, $$’s & ¥¥’s, one can lose sight of things and can be easily distracted.
With that in mind, we’re proud to announce that we’re fixing up all this mediocrity crap and launching Stickerbomb Press aka SBPress.
An indie book label based around collaboration with all the artists we know and love.
We’re currently curating work with some of our favourite artists, including Tania Brun from Peru, Xeme from Hong Kong, Tom Blackford from London, Washio Tomoyuki and Suiko from Japan and Chip7 from Bangkok amongst others.
We will be publishing books that are personal, focusing on place and process.
The concept we are working with is an annotated monograph. Monograph meaning a focused look on the artist work and their world. Annotated meaning the books will have some personal illustrative or graphical touches.
We’re already in the midst of compiling the first round of books to go to print around and it’s a massively enjoyable experience. For me it’s a break from writing and taking pics, allowing me to hone my curatorial and picture editing skills which feeds back to being on location.
It’s also been fun collaborating again as well as working more consistently with Ryo who is based now in Brussels. We’re making work that feels more relevant to us and others and not just the competent mediocre commercial work. The point now is to produce more books and films we are proud of and not just chase the money. Instead, chase the art and the creativity that got us going in the first place.
In Other News…
Please head over and get yourself a Chenla Children’s Healthcare limited edition print which I’m selling on my site at £100 per print.
I’m happy to say they are selling well and will be gone soon and by purchasing one (all proceeds go directly to Chenla Children’s of course) you are directly contributing to the building of a sustainable healthcare system in eastern Cambodia - no messin’ about.
Also…
This track has been doing the rounds over here for the last few months so it’s definitely worth a share. VannDa, Time To Rise featuring the Cambodian living legend himself Kong Nay.
That’s it for me again - if you haven’t subscribed already - please do and check you all from Phnom Penh next week.