Overall Murals Summer 2023 Swag Box is here!
Our deep love for art of every genre and our admiration and fondness for the work of a great many artists is what keeps us excited and inspired. We love the work we do, but we also love the work a lot of other artists do, whether it’s street art or handmade furniture, a vintage surfboard or a one-of-a-kind t-shirt, the perfect tattoo – we’re as at home in the European Galleries at the Brooklyn Museum as we are at any Williamsburg skate shop. As famed Brooklyn resident Walt Whitman once put it, we contain multitudes.
One of our multitudes is our annual collaboration with artists worldwide to create hand crafted quality designs for Limited Edition OM merch to gift to our clients and painters. Once each year, our creative team researches and selects artists who understand and connect with our creative interests and company culture (artists with a similar “vibe,” if you will).
We vote on a final artist, then hold a few meetings to discuss some merchandise concepts, but we give each artist creative liberty and let them run with their ideas. Once submitted to OM, we offer the artist feedback, contribute a few adjustments, finalize everything, and then our in-house creative crew will “swag it up!”
"We love supporting artists, and of course, we love swag. It allows us to have fun with our brand, work with various talents from different backgrounds, and hold new perspectives and styles. " Co-founders Angel and Dmitry explain.
In 2016-2017, Barcelona-based typography artist Wete created illustrated typography for OM used on our winter swag hoodies, totes, and even a promotional mural in Bushwick. In 2018-2020, Spanish artist Pedro Oyarbide, who lives and works in Madrid, created graphics for OM bandanas, sticker sheets, and long-sleeve shirts, and our Do the Right Thing mural. In 2021-2022, artist Blaze Brooks collaborated with us for long- and short-sleeve t-shirts, hoodies, tote bags, mugs, and more.
This year, we are thrilled to partner with Swedish artist Martin ”Mander” Ander (b. 1976), a graphic designer and illustrator based in Stockholm. During Mander's 25+ years-long career, he has designed hundreds of graphics for the skateboard industry and worked with artists such as KRS-ONE, Pearl Jam, Pixies, and Blink-182 and for brands like RVCA, Fjällräven, Vans, New Balance, and Reebok. Mander is the latest global star in the constellation of artists we’ve been developing swag with over the past few years.
Mander provided designs for our signature summer inspired merch and swag that we applied to JBL Bluetooth speakers, tank tops, stamps, and a sticker sheet. We found him thanks to a graphic t-shirt he designed for Southern California clothing designer RVCA and worn around the office by one of our co-founders. Mander’s cool, detailed style and his skate-and-graffiti background are a perfect fit for us – we also love the posters he’s done for bands performing in Sweden (The National, The Strokes) and for skateboard brands. Mander’s aesthetic and branding dovetail with our culture; his designs for bands reference the posters for rock bands and music festivals in the 1960s and 1970s when it was all about peace, love, and music.
Screen printed tank tops by Silky's, using signature fluorescent orange color ONLY achievable with inks using similar paint properties. The shirts work well as work wear, office wear and party wear.
Mander explains, “I was tasked with creating illustrations for Overall Murals' summer swag box. The concept in the brief was "Paint Not War," which aligned with my values as a pacifist and visual artist. I searched for inspiration by looking at vintage skate and surf stickers, silver-age war comics, and old war movie posters to set the tone. I tried to find different scenarios where I could combine my two sources of inspiration, give them my twist, and incorporate my signature style of lettering. I decided to work with camouflage colors for the color scheme, which works well with Overall Murals signature orange. As a big fan of old American posters, t-shirts, and sticker designs, this project was a fun opportunity to explore.”
Whether enjoying a weekend at the park or rigging yourself up a 10-story building to hand paint a mural, our custom JBL's are durable field-friendly speakers.
We're thrilled about this exciting collaboration and the thought-provoking concept it brings. To help us explain it better, we enlisted the help of long-time collaborator and friend, digital artist Andrey Smirny from Computer Craphics, based in Brooklyn. The OM creative team worked with Andrey to create a design for our latest release of Painters Essentials newspaper and pins or, as we like to call them, "Medal of Honor.” This newspaper is the first of many showcasing our capabilities and summarizing the idea behind this summer's swag box.
So what’s the concept, you ask?
“At OM, we are on the frontlines of a battle to save the people of Earth from vinyl billboards, wild postings, and digital screens by creating exquisite, impeccable, innovative hand painted murals. By taking over more locations and with clients who choose hand-painted wallscapes for unforgettable out-of-home advertising, we can improve upon and preserve a timeless tradition and delight passersby wherever we paint a wall.”
In other words, we want to kill the pixel and prove the power of paint.
We’ll see you at the merch table later this summer. When it’s free, take three!