Overview
If you're familiar with sunglasses brand Colab, then you know they put out some pretty amazing designs. As suggested by its name, the company collaborates with independent artists, musicians, filmmakers and designers to create limited edition lines. In the past they've created killer shades with the likes of Toro Y Moi, Elke Kramer, and Kill Pixie. Their latest project with Sydney-based artist, Beastman is no exception.
Beastman, personally known as Brad Eastman, is best known for his amazing street art murals in Australia and around the world. Eastman has since expanded to include gallery work, apparel design and skateboard graphics. His partnership with Colab was not his first artistic merger, but certainly proved to be new challenge.
When Eastman was approached by Colab to do the collection two years back, he admits that he "didn't know anything about making sunglasses". But with a background in graphic design and a fully capable team of Colab engineers, Beastman set about bringing his vision from paper to plastic. "I drew everything," said Eastman. "I redesigned [the shape] and Colab helped with the whole process."
Working closely with the Colab's (now ex) creative director, Carl Tindall, Eastman went through an 18-month process of forwards and backwards steps. He described the process as, "do something, send it to Carl, and then hear nothing for three months. Then he'd ring me, show me some sample and I'd say 'no that's shit, let's try this' and then another six months would go by."
Seems like an exorbitant amount of time, but making the perfect frames proved to be quite challenging. "I gave him an idea and said 'I want get these three different colour waves of patterns,'" said Eastman. Carl would travel to factories in China, Italy and Japan searching for acetate colours that hadn't been used before. Then came the endless amounts of tweaking, shaving and adjusting to create the ideal shape.
If you're familiar with Beastman's art, then you know it's pretty loud. Intricate patterns, swirling lines, and bright colours make up his dreamlike designs of mythical gods and creatures. Now you're wondering 'how that could possibly translate onto a pair of plastic frames?' Beastman's trio of wayfarer-shaped sunnies are comfortably subdued. "I wanted to make something that was unisex and subtle," said Eastman- and he succeeded in accomplishing just that. Made in brown, blue, and green, the swirly-printed acetate frames show an organic side to Beastman's art. He explained, "all my work is about patterns in nature; and how different natural elements combine and work together." The symbols of these elements, which vary by frame colour, are slyly marked on the arms. Notice a tiny leaf on a green pair or dainty orange triangles on the brown.
Beastman's iconic prints weren't all lost in this project. His famous bright, geometric patterns were incorporated onto the sleeve and poster that come with every pair. Maintaining his signature style, Eastman said, "I wanted to include something for people to see the relation between the sunglasses and my work." Only 1000 people will be able to get their hands on this sweet deal. "I like doing limited edition things," said Eastman, "I don't like doing super mass-produced products."
Functional products seem to be the direction Beastman's art is moving towards. Prior to his project with Colab, he's done apparel design and skate deck graphics for labels like Element. Now, he and his wife are working on a limited-edition line of furniture and homewares. Designing for everyday products is important to Eastman because, "It's not something you hang on your wall and look at; It's something you can use and wear ... that's (the theme) of all of the stuff I'm doing." We can agree with that, because who wouldn't want a coffee table or a pair of sunnies designed by a baller artist?
The new Colab + Beastman sunglasses will be launched at the exhibition and end-of-year bash on Wednesday, December 11, from 6-8pm at Somedays store/gallery, 72B Fitzroy Street, Surry Hills, NSW. It will feature a limited edition print release. Join the party by RSVPing to media@somedays.com.au.
Thanks to Colab + Beastman, we have one pair of their new sunglasses to give away. To be in the running, subscribe to the Concrete Playground newsletter (if you haven't already), then email us with your name and address.
Sydney: win.sydney@concreteplayground.com.au
Melbourne: win.melbourne@concreteplayground.com.au
Brisbane: win.brisbane@concreteplayground.com.au
