Kalapana Collabrative Merch
Creative Direction | Design | Illustration | Apparel Production | Photo + Video Production

To coincide with the release of the Kalapana 7” box set- I wanted to focus more on making collectable items. I initiated collaborations with three Hawaiʻi institutions. The result was a line down the street that last for hours- attracting fans, press, and the police.

APB Skateboard

Portraits of the 4 original members screen printed on a Black bottom veneer. I wanted the board to look and feel like a collectors item, and to me “Autographs” seemed like a way to convey that. Signatures of the band members were pulled from a rare copy of the record that AGS has displayed in the store. I had owners from both APB and AGS “sign” their respective shop’s names in their own handwriting as a nod to the signatures on the bottom.

The plumeria lei top graphic was derived from APB’s previous use of lei around the board. I enlisted the help of my friend Alec, who created the lei series for APB, to help me with this one. I chose Plumeria because in the early days of Kalapana the band would string long plumeria lei from their mic stands during performances. Hawai’i Lei Stand strung us together a custom 4 ft Plumeria lei to photograph for the top veneer.

 
 
 

Sig On Smith Aloha Shirt

Making an aloha shirt based on Kalapana’s song “Black Sand” seemed like an obvious direction to go towards. I wanted to create something that was subtle, abstract, and that could stand on it’s own even without much of the bands imagery.

To showcase the collaboration between the three entities I had satin woven patches and attached to the bottom left of the shirt, utilizing lyrics and a tagline I wrote that summed up the spirit of the collaboration.

Toyota Hawaiʻi

Toyota wanted to produce some collaboration items for the weekend, specifically a t-shirt. At this point, AGS had produced 10 different Kalapana shirts in a 9 month span- so I knew whatever I came up with had to stand out from the others in a loud way. What better way to do that than in Hi- Vis Yellow? It was a risky move, but in the end was our best performing shirt to date.

Over the course of the weekend, Plumeria scented air fresheners were distributed as a promo item for Toyota drivers. My first car was a Toyota, and it was in that car where I came up with the “Slow down...” phrase that was used for the bumper sticker years later. It only seemed natural to bring it back full circle for this project.