Thursday, January 21, 2010

Oaklandish x Favianna Rodriguez



Favianna Rodriguez is an Oakland based artist-entrepreneur who has helped foster resurgence in political arts both locally and internationally. Named by UTNE Magazine as a "leading visionary artist and changemaker,” Rodriguez is renown for her cultural media projects dealing with social issues such as war, immigration, and globalization, as well as for her leadership in establishing innovative institutions that promote and engage new audiences in the arts.



The dress is a 4-color print on baby rib 100% cotton dress plus extra shoulder accent 2-color print. Form-fitting, raw edges with dangling threads, about 38 inches long, deep V (front and back), and comes in one size.



The shirt is a 4-color print on heathered kelly green tee. Slightly fitted through the body and it's longer length means it hits below the hips. Made out of super-soft 50/50 cotton/poly.

Both are made in the US and hand-printed, by us, in Oakland. Available at our weekend farmers' markets as well as online at

Oaklandish Shop

Throughout the year Oaklandish will be collaborating with Oakland's local art talent to bring you a variety of limited edition items.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Oaklandish x Swarm Gallery



SHOP/SHOW is the title of latest exhibition at Swarm Gallery in Oakland's growing Jack London District. Featuring a long list of local artists, SHOP/SHOW is a curated "pop-up shop" as well as a gallery showing. Inspired by old photos of outdoor fruit markets, we screen-printed, by hand, wood grain and brick patterns on sheets of cardboard to create a truly unique satellite store. Available for sale are many of our popular shirt designs and hoodies.



Along with our own Oaklandish designs we collaborated with some artists from the show to create a series of limited edition "art t's".

Jake Watling



John Casey



Terry Furry



Sarah Smith



Many of these one of a kind shirts were sold at the opening reception Dec. 11th, but don't fret, The show will remain open until Jan. 24th giving you plenty of time to secure yourself one (or two, or three) of these pieces.

Head down to the gallery and take a moment to enjoy some of the fabulous artwork, locally published zines and prints, and get to know some of the super-talented local artists that make Oakland a great place for art and creativity.

Thursday, January 7, 2010

2009 Recap, Hello New Decade

2009 was an exciting year to live in Oakland. From political drama to fried-chicken sandwiches, theater closings to theater openings, bridge trouble to pot clubs, anything and everything seemed to be happening in our city. It was also an exciting year for us at Oaklandish.

We expanded our Oakland warehouse enough to allow us to open our own screen printing shop, Corsair Press. Now we can experiment with advanced techniques, placements, and inks and then channel everything we've learned into bringing you new Oaklandish designs, plus help other groups with their shirts and posters. (Email info@corsairpress.com if you need anything printed.)



Our grant program, the Oakland Innovators Award, saw the most money distributed among recipients in the program's history. For 2009, we were lucky enough to be able to give away $30,000 in grants and thousands more in free design work, screen printing, and Oaklandish auction donations. In the spring we teamed up with the always-inspiring Oakland Museum to create an installation at the Oakland Airport highlighting the Innovators Award winners, including Town Park at DeFremery Park and Original Scraper Bikes.



As the year rolled on into summer, people filled the streets, and the sun beat down on Lake Merritt. Thus, the stage was set for the second annual Salsa By The Lake. An event so successful we did it twice in one summer. Hundreds from all over the Bay Area came to Splash Pad Park to dance to live salsa bands Pasion Habanera and Rumbache. The Grand Lake neighborhood came alive and enjoyed two days of music, dancing, vibrancy, and culture.



Two Salsa By The Lake events, plus street festivals like Lakefest, Laurel, and Uptown Unveiled, and then our biggest party of the year: Oaklandish's Lake Merritt Radio Regatta. We saw over a thousand of you take to the lake in nautical hats, play 4-square games lakeside, bid at the Youth Spirit Artworks silent auction, and dance it up at the boathouse with your favorite Linden Street brews.



The summer weather stuck around right up until winter declared itself. The holidays were upon us, our busiest time of year. We shipped out a record number of online orders, set up booths at various Bay Area holiday fairs, and returned to our well-known spot on the corner of Piedmont and Pleasant Valley.



Despite all the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, we somehow found the time to participate in our first gallery show in years, our installation at Swarm Gallery (which runs until the 24th of this month). Made almost entirely of cardboard, our little old-timey shop offers Oaklandish classics for sale as well as limited-edition shirts designed by Terry Furry, Sarah Smith, John Casey, and Jake Watling.



2009 was also a year of history repeating. For the 13th time you voted us "Best of the East Bay" (best East Bay product and best place to buy a t-shirt) for the Express' annual awards. As much as we love hearing positive words from people out there, it's always nice to see it in print. The Oakland Museum hosted an amazing party celebrating the awards. We set up a booth and showcased our new screen print shop with a live printing demonstration of our new Bay Bridge design.



Another constant for us are our year-round farmers' market weekends. Saturdays we pull up our converted '66 Cortez campervan/mobile store under the palms of the Grand Lake farmers' market and Sundays we set up a simple booth under the towering, creekside eucalyptus trees at Temescal. Fresh local produce, live music, local artisans, and happy Oaklanders are what make Oakland's various farmers' markets a staple of East Bay living.

All in all, it was a great year to live and work in Oakland, California. Spending time with people in our daily lives, at festivals, markets, and parties reminds us of how proud we are to call this city home. A city as diverse as it is complicated, as troubled as it is blessed. It's the opportunity to give back and really be a part of our community that drives us into the New Year. A sincere and heartfelt "thank you" from everyone here at Oaklandish for your continued support as we enter our second decade.

Local Love & Original Oakland Charm,
The Oaklandish Crew

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

This coming Saturday, January 9, the City of Oakland Public Works Agency is sponsoring the annual rose pruning demonstration at the historic Morcom Rose Garden at 700 Jean Street from 9:00am to 1:00pm. The garden is home to over 5,000 roses and over 900 rose varieties as well as many fountains and waterways. Bring your pruners and gloves and learn professional rose pruning techniques from Master Rosarians. Learn how to make rose hips into salve, tea, and jelly. Identify insects in a workshop sponsored by the Insect Sciences Museum of California (http://www.bugpeople.org). Rain or shine this event is a great way to get to know an Oakland resource a lot of people don't know about.

“Friends of the Oakland Rose Garden” is an Oakland based grassroots group of volunteers committed to making it easy and fun for people to connect with the Morcom Rose Garden. Their goal is to help care for the Garden while building the community around the Garden.

The Morcom Rose garden was originally called the Morcom Amphitheater of Roses, reflecting one of the key design elements conceived by Arthur Cobbledick, the Landscape Architect who created the garden plan in the 1930’s. Fortunately Arthur’s son Bruce Cobbledick, a garden activist in Oakland, donated the original garden drawings and his knowledge of the garden to fill out the garden’s history. Beginning in 1932, as an inspiration of the Businessmen’s Garden Club, Oakland’s Morcom Rose Garden has a history of cooperation and partnership. In response to a culture shaped by The Depression, the garden was designed to highlight the extravagant rose in formal gardens surrounded by a rugged natural setting. It was a WPA project, Mayor Frank Morcom planted the first rose in 1933, and for nearly eight decades the Morcom Rose Garden has offered Oakland a stimulating and restful place to go.

The "Dedicated Deadheaders" is the Master Volunteer program started by Tora Rocha in response to the City's budget cuts. These volunteers go through a training program, and when completed they earn the "Now Famous" tie-dyed vest, then they are able to work in the garden on there own. This core group of people have been very instrumental in keeping Morcom and the neighborhood thriving this year.

Their volunteer schedule is on their website http://friendsofoaklandrose.org

In addition to printing volunteer vests, we printed the "Friends of Morcom Park Rose Garden" shirt using a vintage photo brought to us by the Deadheaders.



Available in our limited edition section at
http://www.oaklandish.com/shop/morcom-rose-garden-p-570.html