Welcome to the Cartoon World of Melbourne-Based Creator DOCG

You’d be forgiven if you assumed that Melbourne-based DOCG was only a clothing brand. Everyone and their mum in the Victorian city owns one of their shirts. But rather than just a platform for clothes, DOCG – named after and run by the enigmatic creator of the same alias, DOCG – stands as a creative platform for young, up-and-coming artists, musicians and videographers to share ideas and build out a culture that’s cemented in collaboration. 

“I'm just a curator of ideas,” DOCG jokes when we sit down to talk about his latest output, CARTOONS by DOCG.

“If I want to make something, if I want to make jewellery, if I want to make shoes, if I want to make a game, I’m gonna do it. I think that’s the ethos of the brand.”

“It’s to encourage people to back yourself and back your ideas.” 

DOCG started the journey of his creative output in 2014 when he was 17-years-old. From its genesis he never saw it as a brand, but a way to showcase his multifaceted set of creative talents that stretched from cartoons, to clothing, to video. Through process of experimentation, the DOCG brand was born – and with it came a cartoon-inspired cacophony of colour that modernised a throwback, 2000s lookbook. Soon, the brand expanded into women’s wear and collaborated with legacy brands like Nike, Puma and Butter Goods.

“In my household it was like, you need a job, you need an education, you need all of these things because you need to be able to provide for a family one day,” said DOCG.

“And I think that kind of put that drive in me and why I believe creativity is important. A lot of people sometimes drop off from doing creative shit, because they weren’t able to figure out how to facilitate it. So I try to help my friends so that we can do this for the next 50 years.”

Like most things that are worth following these days, the brand stems out of a strong and growing community of friends that have been making their mark in Melbourne for the last 5 years or so. And rather than pander to the haggard, commercialised nature of Australian culture – that thankfully seems to be finding its demise – it brings to the forefront the diversifying and underground creative community that have taken matters into their own hands. 

DOCG’s latest multi-layered campaign is just the latest taste.; an assimilation of art, fashion design and technology. It includes everything from NFTs to sculptures to short films, and is an artistic manifestation of this decade's push towards multi-hyphenate creativity.

The promo video in particular hones appearances from musicians Agung Mango and CD, artist Aki Yaguchi, and creatives Joshkun Aslan, Jarma Cutrona and Jeremiah Wright. There’s also a strong presence behind the camera: Shaki Prasanna and João Marco Deloie with producer Swell on music co-ordination.

It showcases the cartoon world and pop art movement of the 1980s– from Astroboy to Spongebob – that sits as the driving inspiration for the aesthetic of DOCG, all while staying true to the platform's ethos of collaboration and community support. Throughout flashes of DOCG’s brand mascot, that I originally thought to be a cloud (others thought to be a giant ass or balls) but is actually just a giant pair of eyes, flashes throughout. A domineering character that ties DOCG’s creative output together and in the future he hopes becomes a symbol that translates internationally as DOCG reaches the world.

DOCG will be running a four-dimensional art exhibition at Converse Renew Labs Fitzroy in Melbourne on Friday the 23rd from 6pm to 10pm. 

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