This one developed over the course of 7 years through a series of short conversations with three specific people. None of them, if asked, would identify as a designer, except maybe me. But all I did was realize that their ideas were great and steal them.

The "pattren" came first. As I've mentioned, my kids were deep into action sports. A lot of my early inspiration came from brands in that world. Vans is the OG and their checkerboard is iconic. So I made a laug auf version: alternating triangles, black, white, black, white with our iconic logo flipped inside each one. Flat. Two-dimensional. I thought it was cool, so I showed it to my friend Albie. He's a finance guy who will tell you straight-up that he's not artistically creative. The thing was, I wasn't even looking for feedback. It was more just like, "Check it out." So, there was no pressure on him; he just said what came popped into his mind: "Q*bert would be cooler." Q*bert was an eighties video game: a little creature hopping around a triangular stack of cubes. The 3-D effect was revolutionary for the time.

Immediately, I agreed with Albie and was so excited to explore the idea. That night, I redrew the whole thing as an isometric cubic field and the flat thing that I made was suddenly alive.

Sidenote: I didn't have design software then, but an apparel producer from Pakistan found me through LinkedIn and offered to provide samples of any pattern printed directly onto fabric. So I sent my pencil sketch and asked them to tighten it up and use this new idea. First, they had to digitize my sketch and send it to me for approval. The file came back named: pattrEn; they'd swapped the E and the R in "pattern." I got a kick out of it and decided to keep the name. Then I spent a lot of time drawing detailed sketches of all sorts of garments, with sizing dimensions. The thing was, I had no experience with clothing pattern-making. It was pretty funny getting that first delivery from overseas: nothing fit quite right. We have a little video of GG opening up the boxes. The garments will definitely be in the laug auf museum someday.

Flash forward 6 years: Eamonn, my business partner, and I were discussing how we needed to fill out our AUn LALOcashAUn collection. Like Albie, Eamonn will tell you that he's not creative, in a fine arts way. He's wrong. He has a unique skillset that allows him to understand what this brand is actually about, all the way down to its core identity, while also having the insight for how our messaging touches people and how to position styles that will most resonate with our target market.

This was captured in his idea for the first iteration of this graphic. Realizing how where we're from is such a huge part of our identity, he suggested that we make a Long Island graphic with the entire field in pattren. I loved his idea and made it right away! It became a very popular graphic. But...

Here's what happens when someone new joins our team: we chat for about fifteen minutes about what the brand really is, ask if the interviewee wants to join us (always a yes!) and, then, they get to work. They compose their own merch (with our graphics): four tees, a hoodie and a crew. Why? 1. Everyone has to wear lAUg AUf while working (so everyone will be wearing exactly what they like and take pride in the fact that they made it), 2. everyone has to learn to use the equipment, because everyone here does everything, and 3. I want to see what kids make before anyone's told them the "design rules." I'm watching for what they do when nobody's asked them for anything. Because I know they'll create something that I haven't thought of.

Mia went through this process. After she made her garments, I asked her to show me. She pulled out a tee with Eamonn's graphic on it, but she added a small version of hEyE.wEyEr under the South Fork saying, "I just felt like it needed something down there."

Instantly, I turned to Maria, who runs our production and trains all the new kids, and said, "Pull every Long Island tee and hoodie off the display and add the script like Mia did."

Mia couldn't believe it. She was kinda stunned that a brand would use something she'd made an hour into the job and make it a product. I told her that what we'd been selling was incomplete and that she finished it.

A few months later, I met Mia's mom at the elementary school where she's the principal. She told me that Mia came home that night so excited and so proud and that she was seriously thinking about changing her major from education to marketing.

Here's the paradox: in design, we have to be free; no plan, no rules, just our child's mind wandering with no rules. But freedom by itself doesn't find the brilliant idea. The discovery comes from facing the obstacle. Mia was completely free, and what she found was a gap. The constraint is what produced the design.

One more thing: seeing laug auf next to this island, many people read "long": four letters, an L to start and a G at the end. Our mind fills in what it expects before the eye finishes reading. We complete the picture.
The trick is to allow our mind to see what's not there, yet.