Hi all. My name is Melvin Todd... and I got dumped. This brand is what resulted and it ended up changing my life as well as others in ways that I never even intended. 

Over the next few weeks I will try to show how a heartbroken artist turned a low point into something great, as well as what it means and how it relates to me now that it has evolved.

I will then tie that into business rules with a mnemonic device from a source that actually was the very beginning of what has led me to the path of forming this brand (it's...ummm...pretty out there to say the least, but I'm not one to play it safe. Gotta break a few rules to stand out right. C'mon, follow along). 

Welcome to my brand Loveless Society. 

I probably should explain what Loveless Society is right? Okay you win, here it is in a nutshell.

Here goes my mnemonic device in video form. The first two minutes or so summarize my Guts to Skin (which can be read below in detail). The device I'm using is a movie that changed who I was as a person at one point. Considering it is pretty shocking, I think I do a good job of explaining why I chose it. To go straight to said device, just jump to (2:25) of the video. I hope nobody is too put off by my choice. It's just entertainment and I've learned the hard way that living this life will catch up with you. Enjoy :-)

My two favorite commandments from the video are as follows (click the times to go straight to that part of the video and also see my interpretation):

• "A pimp is someone who solicits clients for prostitutes, for the interest of money. Yo, I'm just checking to get my grove on." (8:16)
• "I'm just a man that lives in the moment. From moment to moment... I trust my instincts." (9:41)

I will be making a part two just for the love of it, but for class purposes, this video is okay to stand alone. I'll have it before the end of November for anyone wanting more. (No professional crews here either. I learned to edit video just for this class. I will be hiring someone in the future, lol).

So as you guys saw earlier in this project, my ass got dumped. I’m not mad if you’re sitting there saying to yourself “Maybe the guy just takes breakups hard. He should just get over it and he’ll feel better.” Well I’d agree, but that would really be digging surface level, when there is buried treasure just 5 feet below you. Let’s take a trip into my past in order to find out why this particular breakup led to me making a whole brand about love, or better yet the lack thereof *dims lights down to very low to set the mood*. 

--Lovebomb...Only for Lovebombers. Launching Nov 9, 2013--

My life has revolved around my relationships. It’s not the coolest thing to admit, but it is the truth. Ever since I mustered up the courage to talk to my first crush in middle school (And it was tough. I was a naturally shy kid when it came to girls) my different paths in life were highly influenced by the person I was dating at the time. You see… I have this chronic diagnosis that I must confess.

My name is Melvin Todd…and I am a “Loverboy”.

--Okay…Not quite like the movie, but it had its moments. Follow along--

The big problem with my loverboy ways was that I fell for these girls too quickly. Every girl I’ve dated since I was seventeen, I just knew she was the one (classic signs of a hopeless romantic. Yeah I’m that artist). This thinking has led to some of the most hilarious and tragic dating stories you could ever hear from one guy (some girl even kidnapped, tied me up and tortured me… I wish I was lying). I want to say that I was always the victim, but indeed I was unfortunately the heartbreaker in most of these occasions.

The thing was I wasn’t the cool super pimp lover boy. I was the hopeless romantic version that went through a sort of dating dyslexia. Here is the skewed chronological order I had.

--Perfect Pair -Digital Media--

This method continued for years, and before I’m labeled a bad guy, I’m all about love. I’ve been searching for it my whole life, maybe to hard even. My infatuation and misunderstanding of love has always been something that has weighed on my mind and just been a part of my biological makeup. But everything would change when I met her. I met “The One”.

--The Knowing -Charcoal on medium value paper --

You ever met someone that was everything you thought you wanted and you would do whatever it took to get them? Well that’s what happened with this one. After the longest process of proving that I was not the type of guy she thought I was (…read the guy that I was) we were officially an item. Naturally I fell in love pretty quick, but this time was different. The feeling didn’t just go away. Soon enough, she moved in and we’d talk like high school students about our future…a future that I actually seemed to want.

Our one year anniversary was nearing and she decided to spill the beans and let me know that she put down a deposit for a tattoo for me. This led me to my tattoo artist so that he could have it drawn up by the time I would receive it on the day of our anniversary.

I wanted to get a tattoo that symbolized us. I told my artist that I wanted a Cupid that was rough around the edges, still stylized and cute, but with facial stubble maybe and drinking. I wanted it to symbolize a bad Cupid, one that was just not good at his job. I wanted him sharply contrasted with a beautiful woman beside him. In essence it kind of symbolized that even though my personal Cupid was kind of fucked up and bad at his job, he had finally gotten it right…because of her.

One month later and out of the blue, our relationship was over a few days shy of a year *plays violin...badly*

--Street Art - graphite and digital media--

I was a wreck. But we’ve all been there. No one is immune to this feeling if it’s from a certain person. I just assumed it was all of the hearts I had broken coming full circle. This is what I had been doing. My confusion with love had cultivated into this. It was vengeance full circle it seemed. Through that, I told my tattoo artist that I wouldn’t be able to get the tattoo since I didn’t want her paying for it. I mean hell; it kind of lost its meaning.

My Cupid still sucked.

A few months later, and the loverboy was back. Not necessarily better, but dating again. Eventually, I thought about the fact I had never even seen the drawing that my tattoo artist had prepared for me. I decided to draw it the way I would’ve done it if I had designed it myself. This is what I came up with:

--The original Cupid sketch that started everything. My true Guts to Skin. Graphite--

I decided to put it on twitter and something unpredictable happened. The drawing received hundreds of retweets and a plethora of comments. People wanted more.  I’m all about appeasing the people, so the next night I drew this girl version:

--Original Psyche. In greek mythology, Psyche is the woman of Cupid's affection. Graphite--

It got double the retweets of the first drawing. I couldn’t believe what was happening. These cherubs I created out of being sad were really hitting home with people and that emotion was felt in the art. So for the next week, I’d draw one and post it every night, and people just kept sharing and commenting on them. The funny thing about the comments was that it was not all about heartbreak. As with any art, people made their own interpretations. The cherubs represented something raw for them and they loved expressing these varying ideas to me.

--Lovebomb. This was the first drawing of it. Would become a staple of Loveless. Graphite and Digital Media--

I knew I had something special here and I was not about to let it rest. One morning I was listening to the song “Maybe” by my favorite group N.E.R.D., headed by Pharrell Williams of the Neptunes, and heard a lyric that went as follows:

“See, do you remember what it’s like to wake up in

her love nest

get it, love nest and now she's gone…”

I jumped up and wrote it down. LOVELESS (yeah, funny story. When he said “Wake up in her love nest” I thought he said (Wake up and her Love-less. Like I said, I’m bad with music, but what a great mistake. I’m going tell Pharrell this one day, promise).

Loveless Society was born. My brand was here to change my life and that of many forever.

--A mistaken lyric that created the name of Loveless. Listen here. (2:44)--

Well that was fun. Never explored my guts to skin all the way, but now that I have I see that this brand has been building way before my breakup. My general intrigue of love that started from a young age is actually when it started. Feels weird when I think about it, but it makes me feel even stronger about it. 

Oh and side note  Eventually I did go to see my tattoo artist and saw what he had drawn. I hated it! It looked like this weird Fred Flintstone midget with mom tattooed on his ass. Needless to say, that's when I saw that I had created something unique, walking the line of charming and edgy.

Since its inception in 2010, Loveless has maintained to stay relevant and continue to grow. Before I came up with this brand, I was nothing more than an artist (a tattoo artist if we want to go by my day job, MelvinTodd.com) who had no intentions of ever learning business or anything along that line. With that said, I’ve had some big victories and even huger fails. In the end, my brand being so authentic to who I am and the great people it attracts, continues to keep it as strong as ever. I’ll talk a bit about Loveless from its start to this very second.

 Now I’m sitting on this cool new brand. Well really, at that point, it was a cool name with a couple of drawings, but to me it was a brand nonetheless. I had people demanding more and more drawings on social media of Loveless, but I had no real clue on how I could monetize it nor was I truly even thinking about it. I was having fun and that seemed pretty rewarding to me.

Soon people started asking for me to do the characters on them as tattoos. I assumed that people just wanted them because they looked cool, but after further inspection, people would tell me that the images of the cherubs to them stood for fighting for love, theirs in particular. With this knowledge I took on the task, but put a spin on it. I had people tell me exactly what they loved in particular and I would draw them their own personal cherub that showed the world what they loved in such a way that the person wore it like a badge of honor.  I was giving my clients a personal protector of what they love in essence. Below is the first one I ever did (aptly on the girl I was dating at the time. Hey, I just can’t stop being me).

--The first ever Loveless tattoo--

The branding power of the cherubs was evident pretty quickly. After word spread from social media that I had taken the drawings and started applying them to skin, I was booked out with a new Loveless tattoo every day. After actually seeing a few people with Loveless tattoos all stand in a circle and discuss their cherubs to each other, I realized that I had created a tattoo where the person, through the simple act of describing, was telling everyone in proud fashion everything that they loved and hoped for. It was an amazing feeling. At that point I decided to highlight these people and show the world how amazing they were. That’s when I started calling them ‘The Society’. These people felt like they were a part of something big and I intended on making it big.

At this point, I knew I had to make Loveless real. Of course the normal person would be going after getting things incorporated and such, but not I. I was still just thinking like an artist. I needed a logo, and I knew just the guy to do it; the graphic designer at our shop.

Upon showing him the idea he was really taken back by it and told me he would give a quote later. This early in the game, I would’ve told you that a brand was just a logo…seriously. So knowing that we were about to have a cool logo I was too excited. What ended up happening is that the graphic artist said he’d do everything for free because he wanted to be a partner. He wanted to make sure visually we were polished. Not only that but in Atlanta he had quite the resume of working with big hip hop acts such as UGK, Lloyd, Ludacris, and many more as the go to visual design guy. He told me how with working with their managers and such that he accumulated this long list of important people who owed him favors and could help us get this into the public eye in a big way.

I didn’t have these connections, not to mention I didn’t know about business. I figured that the graphic designer was way more knowledgeable than me because he had been in the game longer and hell…he was eight years older than me (What sense does that even make? I told you guys I was a rookie at business. I made tons of mistakes). And with that… a young artist decided to split his company with the graphic designer…50/50. What ensued was one of the longest years of my life that I’m surprised Loveless  even survived through.

--Loveless September, Vintage Tear collection, Spring 2013--

As it typically goes, the graphic designer and I started strong. We would have weekly meetings discussing avenues of trying to monetize the product. It was not uncommon for us to yell out how rich we would be during half of these meetings (great time management, right?) One thing I learned very early on was that the graphic designer was just like me, not a business type at all. With that knowledge, I became obsessed with learning about brands and clothing as much as I could to bridge the gap.

Weeks went on, and I started to see that progress was minimal. Of course I was drawing tons of cherubs and doing tattoos, but we still had no website or logo, and that was solely my partner’s job from the beginning. I was starting to see that he was always putting other projects in front of Loveless. Sometimes he’d even work on these projects during our meetings. His contributions more so started to just state all of his ideas (which were not being put into action) and what he wanted Loveless to represent (he is an afro centric militant kind of guy. He wanted the cherubs to make a political statement. I on the other hand don’t even watch C-span without wanting to change the channel in favor of Cartoon Network).

--Society member, Loveless Free. Her cherubs represent her internal struggle of love--

After months he finally finished the logo as well as the site. It was a broken heart accompanied with a plain looking tumblr page, a seemingly uninspired rush job considering I know his talent with design. And best yet, it was all still just beta, not the official thing...not ready to launch! I was starting to feel like I made a mistake in this partnership. To top it off we got into legal trouble with another company over our trademark because it sounded too similar. Our broke asses didn’t even have one single product on the market and were having all the trouble in the world. And what was the graphic designer’s solution? Let’s find some guys to intimidate the other company and drop this. It’s war.

It was not war; it was the end of the partnership.

--Society member, Loveless Drea. Her and her husband got Zombie themed Loveless. Got featured on Halloween--

After the split, things went into hyper speed. Some things include:

• The Loveless Society website was finally realized Valentine’s Day 2012.
• We were able to showcase ‘The Society’ and their stories as told through their Loveless tattoos.
• An official logo was finally adapted that was unique and meant something to the brand, whether it was explained or not. The Loveless Lovebomb logo was born.
• On the one year anniversary of the site, we launched Loveless September, the first shot at apparel of Loveless.

First website, donning the Lovebomb logo front and center.

Current Loveless page. A rework is in the works to make it more user friendly and change up the format.

The growing Society. Everyone is treated like a star and interviewed by Cupid. On the new site revamp, these will be replaced by initiations and made into short videos. There are 200+ members in the Society (not all documented on site right now).

Loveless September site. Now rebranded into Loveless Lovebomb.

After a year that saw me getting booted off a reality TV show, almost losing my life in the ocean, and becoming a father, my drive is at an all-time high and in my eyes, there is nothing that will stop me from getting my brand to the masses. Loveless is finally at the top of my priority list and things are already shaping up for the better. We are in a phase of rebranding the image and giving a concise simple message of recognizing and chasing what you love in a loveless world. Even the clothing brand is being changed (Lovebomb, coming Fall 2013) to be the answer to the question we raised in Loveless Society (What is the answer to a Loveless world? You are…you are the Lovebomb. Don’t do it for the gatekeepers; do it for the goalkeepers, and “just blow us away” with who you are).

Enjoying my journey is what it’s all about and hopefully I can spread a great message all while making dope shit that people love. That is what Loveless is about and what it will continue to be. Thanks for reading this long ass shit. Let’s go out there and be fucking great! 

A little tour of my office. By next year we plan to expand into our first studio workplace. For now, this is where the magic happens. 

The tattoos are catching on and my plan is for the rest of the brand to follow suit. Our feature in Urban ink.

Business Cards

Sketch of Psyche. Wonder what I can have this adorn one day?

Loveless September, 2013

Loveless September, 2013

Loveless September, 2013

Zombie Loveless

Society member, Loveless Victoria

New garments being prepped for launch of "Lovebomb"

So I've been gone for a week or two maybe. I wasn't being a slacker, promise. Instead I've actually achieved something that I actually stated earlier in this project. After finding out about Skillshare, I've been taking mutiple classes in order to strenghten my brand. With this one being the tipping point, I sat back and re-imagined my brand into one that involved something I love and that is fashion. 

Loveless Lovebomb was born. 

As a child brand to the lifestyle brand of Loveless Society, Lovebomb focuses directly on attracting 'Lovebombers' or people who actually chase what they love regardless of cynics. The edgy brand identity follows the style that the parent brand started, but makes it even more about the person wearing it. By stating that "everyone is not allowed to wear the Lovebomb" we have made a sense of exclusivity. To keep with that, we want to make sure that we have limited runs on certain items.

The site was launched 11.9.13, two months after my daughter was born so I wouldn't forget. With the last line that I tried, I made myself seem like some enigma to the brand. This time, I decided to give more of myself after reading Unlabeled  I showed my vulnerability and mistakes like I have in this class. After looking at other brands like Ecko, Staple, Johnny Cupcakes, I saw that the creators of the brands were a big part of their success and made sure to be in the forefront as an actual person. I felt like I was on the right track. It felt right.

We released a new item that donned our Lovebomb logo "The Lovebomber Hoodie" and marketed it solely on social media...because we're broke. I made sure that everyone on the team did for a few days and created pages for the new brand, including our instagram @LovelessLovebomb 

We made the site live around 4am 11.9.13. 

We sold out of the Lovebomber Hoodie around 1:30pm that same day.

Just knowing that this class and meeting certain people have helped me evolve this brand to something that I know will be successful has been humbling. I will now focus extra hard, and eventually I will be phasing out of my tattoo career to focus solely on Loveless (soon as in like next year. I love tattooing so I'd still do them, but only the Loveless tattoos since they further the brand. The Loveless Society website is next for a facelift). 

Below are a few comments:

I think you guys get the point. No more half attention from me with Loveless. I know that there will still be things that come up and more failures, but I also know that there will be wins--epic ones. I know that I will learn and improve as a person. I guess I'm finally ready. Thanks again Marc for putting out this book. It has meant a great deal to me and my future. I want my idols to become my peers one day, and I eventually want to inspire the next wave of lifestyle brand owners. This is my destiny. My brand will never die.

Thanks for reading again. The critiques, likes and comments have meant a lot to me. Peace.

-Mel