The Dazed and Amused Pop Up Event was an exhibition I put together to show off my brand, Long Story Studios, and complete my senior year thesis project. Taking place at Tyler School of Art on February 25th, the event combined graphic design, screen printing, animation, video editing, and spatial design. These elements all came together to create a very memorable night, to say the least.

I am extremely proud to announce that the event was a success on all fronts: artistically, socially, and financially. 

HOWEVER, it was quite the process to get there, and not to be dramatic, but I think this project almost killed me. For those interested in the process of bringing the event to life, I am going to break it down for you step by step. Buckle up; it's a long story.

Long Story Studios is a freelance graphic design company founded by Ryan Bennett (pictured above with the long brown hair) and me. With me being an illustrator and him doing photo manipulation and video editing, we make quite the team. We both like doing freelance work, but we like combining our skills to work on personal projects even more. For this reason, we knew from the beginning that we wanted to have our own merchandise line.

in February of 2021, we launched our first t-shirt run. We had the shirts printed at a local shop in Philly, and sold them exclusively through our online store. With only 25 shirts and a few stickers, the drop was small in scale compared to the pop-up event, but it laid the foundation for what was to come

In the fall of 2021, Me and Ryan decided it was time to do our second merch drop. The biggest difference between this drop and the first one, is that we were going to do the screen printing ourselves to save money. The plan was to have my girlfriend Mara Elliott show us how to screenprint and then let us take over. We also planned on selling the new collection in person and getting a booth at an art festival somewhere in Philly. Unfortunately, the project faced several months of setbacks.

The biggest issue was that I could not spend much time on the project since school kept getting in the way. The merch started off being Halloween-themed, then autumn-themed, then winter-themed as time kept passing. Even after the design was finalized I couldn't get all the materials we needed until late December. By the time the new year rolled around all we had been able to create were the tote bags and a few questionable shirts. On top of that I had not been able to find a venue to sell the merch. As the new semester began I realized we had bitten off far more than we could chew. 

Part of being a senior year art student is completing a senior thesis project. These projects are a hands-off, semester-long opportunity for students to show off their skills. Students can choose if they would like to display their work in person, and shows happen every week starting in January. As luck would have it, I got stuck with one of the biggest spaces available, and my show was scheduled to happen halfway through the semester. This meant my show had to be physically bigger than most, and I only had half the normal time to complete it.

With the beginnings of a mediocre merch drop on one hand, and a thesis project that had to be complete in six weeks in the other, I saw an opportunity; use class time to finish the clothing and set up a pop-up shop in the thesis space. This was perfect because 

1. The merch was already started and could be finished in a couple of weeks

2. A pop up shop takes up a lot of space for my exhibition

3. We could draw a lot of attention to Long Story Studios and promote our business.

After two weeks this is the rough plan I got approved by my professor:

This rough outline for the shop included a floorplan, thematic direction (clouds and plants), and a mockup/moodboard of how I wanted the shop to feel. I was able to use a floorplan of the lobby that included measurements, to make a scale mockup of the shop. To my surprise, this mockup ended up being spot on in terms of the size and scale of the space. 

I knew from the very beginning this project was going to require a team. Ryan was already on board since he co-founded Long Story Studios and we make our decisions together, but we needed help printing the clothing and setting up the shop.

Colin McCarthy (Me): Design the clothing and brand identity of Long Story Studios, organize and keep project on track.

Ryan Bennett: In charge of all of the photo and video content needed to promote and advertise the shop.

Mara Elliott: In charge of screen printing hoodies, shirts, and tote bags.

Jari Neuman: In charge of creating props needed for the shop, and setting up the show

Troy Wonder: Created the music for the commercial and helped set up the show

After the plan got approved, we only had about 4 weeks to make it happen. 

Going into the project there was two designs for the merch.

The left design worked perfectly and looked great. The right design looked good on tote bags but I realized it was not big enough or complex enough for the back of shirts and hoodies. For this reason I redesigned it. 

I ended up using this design as the foundation for the rest of the project. We also decided on the name "Dazed and Amused" for the pop up. I think that name reflects the project perfectly.

After completing the designs, I realized I had no idea how many blank shirts and hoodies to order. I wanted to make sure that everyone who wanted merch could get it, but I also wanted to make sure I didn't order too much and waste money. To solve this problem, I announced pre-orders before buying any blank clothing, or doing any printing. 

Me and Ryan also made this animation to promote pre-orders

We received pre-orders for 14 shirts, and 14 hoodies. This was a major confidence boost seeing how well the pre-orders were received. In addition to the pre-orders, I ordered 30 more shirts for the shop, and 7 more hoodies. 

Easily the hardest part of the project. The original plan was to have Mara show me how to screen print, and then let me take over. However, after our first printing session it was clear I lacked the skills to print on my own. Me and Mara both have very high standards for quality, and we agreed that she would have to be the one in charge of printing, and I would be her assistant. 

It's important to keep in mind that Mara was printing my clothing in her free time, and spent time she could have been working on her own projects to help me. On top of that, she got very sick halfway through the project after complications from a root canal, but pushed on anyway. All of this to say, holy sh*t thank you so much Mara, without you this project would not have been possible. 

In the end, the clothes came out pretty much perfectly. In fact, the quality of the merch is what gave me the confidence to work so hard promoting it.

In addition to screen printing, I had stickers, business cards, illustrations, and a poster digitally printed. My friend Claudia also helped me print out cardboard hands and feet to decorate the shop.

With enough of the merch complete to show off, I drove to Baltimore to help Ryan and Jari shoot the promotional content. The main event was our Episode Two Commercial. 

We also shot some promo images that I drew on.

This was Jari's moment to shine, and ... wow. The shop ended up looking better than I had even imagined and seeing everything come together was so rewarding. From the animation and commerical on the tv, to the clouds Jari made, to seeing the poster and merch on display, it was just perfect.

After the shop was set up, it was showtime.

The amount of people who came out to support the pop up was incredible. Friends, family, strangers, professors, the dean of the school, even a cat was there. 

Almost everything sold out in two hours and we could hardly keep up with purchases. 

It was overwhelming in the best way.

Genuinely one of the best nights of my life.

This project means a lot to me, first and foremost because of the people I worked with. Once I confirmed that Ryan, Mara, Jari, and Troy were on board, I designed the event to play to all of our strengths. Working as part of a team meant I didn't have to worry about each piece of the project and could focus on the bigger picture of organizing the event. I learned a lot about leading a team; how to plan around others' work styles, how much I can expect from each person, and most importantly, how to shut up and let others take the lead when needed. 

My next main takeaway from this experience is learning how to break large projects into manageable pieces.  There were a lot of moving parts to this project and very specific order things had to happen in order for everything to succeed. Strangely, the time constraint of six weeks helped me out a lot as there was simply no time to second guess my decisions. Sticking to a tight schedule and focusing on one step at a time were key in getting everything finished in time.

Finally, I learned a lot about myself and how I deal with stress. To be honest this project completely consumed my life and showed me levels of stress I didn't know existed. I ended up disappearing from my classes for a few weeks, and accidentally pushed a lot of stress onto my friends. Luckily, now that this project is done I know how to avoid making the same mistakes in the future. Thank goodness.

Despite all the stress, spreadsheets, sleepless nights, and risky financial decisions, I wouldn't change this experience for the world. This project has been a celebration of what Long Story Studios has been built over the last two years, and made me realize what we're capable of when we stick together. Something tells me this is just the beginning of a very, very long story ...

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@_longstorystudios_

www.longstoryonline.com

longstorystudios1@gmail.com