Where did our "little man" come from?!

One of my staff recently asked me "Where did the Concept Music ganster came from?".  He was assuming I think that it was a generic photshop image I'd found in "word" or from an Adobe disk or something.... but the reality is that our little guy has been around since well before personal computers came into being! 

I first saw him in a Japanese Music Trades magazine back in about 1975 (though exactly what he was promoting I'm not sure... the Japanese text next to him wasn't giving much away!). Nevertheless I liked him & tore the page out of the magazine & filed him in my "ideas" folder in my filing cabinet (I still have one of those!) & forgot about him. 

A few years later when I decided to open Concept Musical Instruments I pulled out that file trying to think of ways I could get people to promote my "new" store for me that would be fun.  Out came my little guy... "How could I use him?" It was about the time car stickers were appearing around the city saying "Mafia Staff Car" & so I had the idea of making him into a case sticker & adding the words "Keepa da hands off!" as way people might be able to (politely of course!) say "This is MY instrument... don't touch it!" and hence WANT to put it on their cases & get the Concept Music name out there in a subtle, friendly way.

31 years later, our little ganster is still there & the only change has been the recent addition of a splash of orange on his hat & platform shoes to macth our current logo. The sticker still appears on cases all over the world & he is also on our VW Caddy Van as well our free notepads &... as of last night, on the side wall of Concept Music espousing the message: "Lifes' Better When you Play!" courtesy of Drew from The Graphite Crew.  And yes, we still have the stickers & they are still free any time you want one... just drop in!