The idea to start my own T-shirt brand was a long slow burner. I mention elsewhere that I had been designing Motherwell related t-shirts since 1989 on and off. The No Barrier design was the last one I did before starting out as Daft Laddie. This came about following the release of the Dressers book, which I did a lot of the writing for. There were meetings after the release where I suggested T-shirts were a natural follow on but which attracted loads input from various parties. The whole project had been a collective effort and it was difficult to agree on things with so many opinions. I didn’t need that so decided to keep to my own counsel. I had ideas from artwork included in the book forming in my head so I left the collective to their devices and struck out on my own, using the No Barrier design as my catalyst. Some of the artwork from Dressers can be viewed on those early designs, particularly the Ravenscraig and Dressers logo designed by the sadly departed Martin Faloon. Martin’s influence on me had been huge, he had a brilliant eye for detail and encouraged me to be as creative as I could.
The name Daft Laddie came from the book as well, there’s a bit where I described the activities of our youth as ‘daft laddie nonsense’ and it fitted exactly the ethos I wanted to create for my label. Against advice to the contrary I stuck to my guns. I found the drawing by my big mate Sid, although I didn’t find out til much later he had drawn it initially in a Tufty Times leaflet, also featured in the book.