With Sprayground, Sandflower Is Sending Her Light Out Into The Galaxy
Sandflower is a musician and an artist and all of her work is achieved through that lens. For years now she has been working with SPRAYGROUND as its VP and Creative Director, the brand founded by David Ben David, aka DBD, finding ways to connect music and filmmaking with the company’s incredible bags. She’s behind the A.I. collections, and she’s been the vision behind some truly incredible collaborations on film with globally renowned brands and IPs.
We met on Zoom to talk about her history with the brand, her music, and all the ways that SPRAYGROUND is making a practice out of crushing goals and breaking every boundary that needs to be shattered.
But let's start at the beginning.
100% Organic, Made in Africa
In 2013 Sandflower was signed to Interscope Records and was working with the producer, David Sisko, who had a SPRAYGROUND backpack. This was just three years after the brand had been founded.
“He had his bag in the studio,” Dyson told me, “it was there for a couple of days and one day I just asked about it. It was a gold mini duffel, and then there was an army print mini duffel. He told me they were from this company, SPRAYGROUND. Then a friend introduced us, we went over to the office and I met DBD. His first bag was ‘Hello My Name Is…’ and I remember him asking me to sign the bag at the end of our meeting. That was the meeting where they decided to sponsor their first ever music video. I was the first artist that came to SPRAYGROUND and when I tell you they gave us a budget… We pulled out all the stops, and that was the beginning of my creative journey with SPRAYGROUND, though I didn't realize that at the time.”
“I was already styling myself and styling my dancers,” Dyson continued. “To bring a vision to life, especially as an independent artist, you've got to get people excited to do things without as much funding as you might like to have. You want to have everyone be super excited about everything and also sometimes compromise in a way that makes everyone really happy so people feel super invested in a project. We had a scene in Bushwick once where we had rented this huge warehouse, and we had about 50 dancers. And when I showed them these bags, there was a visceral happy reaction. These were New York City dancers, they've been there, they've done that, they've traveled around the world, they've seen everything. But when they saw these backpacks it was like, I can express myself with this. Dancers always have stuff to carry, they have sneakers, they have changes of clothes, they have whatever they're bringing for the day. For rehearsals, auditions, all types of things. That was also the first time that I ever seeded product. I gave them the bags and then I would see people that were in the video all around the city with them.”
In 2018, Sandflower was living in Soho, connected to a bunch of street artists, when she reconnected with DBD. One of her friends was a wheat paste artist and was taking her around the city to show her his work. A few weeks later she walked out of her building and saw all these SPRAYGROUND posters where the wheat paste work normally was.
“I called them up to say I’d seen these SPRAYGROUND posters and he’d actually put them up,” Dyson explained. “That's when I realized how much the company had grown. All these years I had been texting with DBD not knowing that it was getting bigger and bigger. I messaged him and we reconnected. He asked me to come by, and I actually had the intention of teaching meditation at SPRAYGROUND, and I did that for about a year. I would go into DBD's office, I was inspired by the bags that he had created, and there was this one bag that was up on his shelf. It was high up above everything, and it said, ‘100% organic made in Africa,’ made out of this rice burlap.”
DBD saw her contributions, the value of her mind and eye, he recognized a fellow leader. The founder wanted her to be a part of SPRAYGROUND, then and into the future.
“It was such a nerve-wracking experience making the first scissor cut into a SPRAYGROUND bag,” Dyson said with a laugh. “It's permanent once you cut the bag. But when I made the cut and I saw inside the bag, how well made it was, all the different structural elements. I took them apart and I think I've made about five huge masks and put them on five statues I painted. DBD and I started talking about things and with all of that information I created what we were calling The Africa Collab. I'm not a mood board person, I come from an artistic family and I come from a musical world. But a few days later I had actually prepared this huge presentation. At the end of the meeting, we were at the office on Broadway, and he asked me to work on this collaboration. Then we started designing bags. Our first collection was 23 different backpacks, luckily I'd already cut them open so I knew all about the zippers, pulleys, hang tags and webbing. Once I understood the different silhouettes of the bags, we looked at all these fabric swatches and I was like a kid in a candy store. DBD was an incredible teacher and Mike was an incredible teacher, and so was James Farrell, who is an integral part of Sprayground success.”
The Lucasfilm Collab
I knew from my conversation with DBD last year that he’s been able to partner with brands like Disney and Nickelodeon and convince them to let SPRAYGROUND play with some seriously huge IPs, to expand his vision beyond the rules businesses set up for their characters and universes. I asked if there were any collabs she had a particular affinity for, any projects that she’d always look back on with love.
“Star Wars and The Mandalorian was awesome,” Sandflower told me. “I called DBD, and wanted to push this, instead of just photoshoots, I wanted to make a short film, because The Mandalorian really touched me with its casting. It wasn't about skin color, it was about the story, and that really touched me very deeply, because in previous Star Wars stories I didn't see myself. I didn't really need to, because the storyline is so incredible, but The Mandalorian was something that I didn't know I needed. Seeing Ahsoka and all the new, different shows and films that are coming out of Lucasfilms, when I saw that that was already happening, I pitched that short film idea to DBD.”
SPRAYGROUND’s founder asked her what it would look like, and Sandflower wrote out a synopsis. The brand’s artists helped her create storyboards, and then DBD and his team met with the Lucasfilm/Star Wars licensing team.
“We had a Zoom,” Dyson explained, “and I told the story, and everyone was excited about it. That was a big moment for me because of the respect and the love that I actually have for the Star Wars franchise. We made the film, I also wrote a song for it called It Is What It Is, and we also had to make sure that all the music was approved.
With Star Wars, and with most licensees, if you're allowed to, you're really bringing the characters into your world, and telling the story that way. So it's more of an allegory, not necessarily a recasting The Mandalorian, but the idea of finding that bravery and pushing through inside, and having people along the way help you achieve your goal. Its also protecting something, having something to protect, and a mission that's bigger than yourself, that's not just about your personal wants and needs. That really spoke to me. And so, when they said yes, we could make a 10-minute short film. I was more than elated, and when we finished it, when we got the actual approval, they were like, ‘make sure you put Lucasfilms on it.’”
What an incredible CV item, I said to the artist. And Lovely Reader, this writer cannot imagine a woman who deserves it more.
I wanted to hear another story about Sandflower’s accomplishments with SPRAYGROUND, another time she has found a way to use music and filmmaking to prove that what this company does is so much more than just making backpacks.
“The Metropolitan Museum of Art collaboration was 3 years in the making,” Dyson said to me, “so when DBD first told me about it, 3 years before we did the shoot, I was soexcited because the Met embodies all the things that we've been talking about. It's a place that everyone who is from New York knows about and that anyone who comes to New York goes to see. I guess this is also very similar to Star Wars, because the whole world knows Star Wars and the whole world knows the Met Gala.”
“Getting to do that meant something so different to each one of us. Then when I saw the bags, bags from around the world, how we were able to incorporate these actual elements from different cultures, and work with the museum to design these things that were so inspired. When those bags were approved, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art loved those bags, that's where I got to step in with my idea of what each different bag could, how it could be represented, and that was a that was the first time I had to push myself in the process of how I was presenting everything. They had a specific way that they wanted things presented. Most IPs, most corporate partners, as they should, have systems in place already.”
“And to really rise to that occasion,” the artist paused for a second to think, a giant smile that went all the way up into her eyes.
“This is the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I've been going there since I was a baby. I gotta bring my story here, but also represent in a very respectful way, for all these different cultures. When I first created this presentation for them, we were thinking we’d have a very limited amount of time to shoot in the museum. They are very protective of what they have in the museum, as they should be. I would have been happy with five minutes. I told them, whatever time you have, I will find a way to make it work. And as the process went along, my mood boards and ideas became more detailed and deeper. One of the most amazing moments was when I asked them to give us a schedule so I could go to the curator of each part of the museum that we wanted to use and know what time they'd like to come. So I made this schedule, and they gave us so much time.”
I asked the artist how this felt, back in 2024 when this whirlwind of fantasy work was happening.
“It was a testament,” she told me. “Not only to what I was creating, but also what DBD had already created, and also how our team functions and communicates with different corporations and partners. They could see our passion, they could see our respect, they could see the reverence that we have for the museum and its art. I mean, the history of the world is there, that is so important. Everything that is important to the way I was raised is there.”
It wasn’t just coming up with an idea that the museum loved, for both Sandflower and SPRAYGROUND, this shoot was much more than creating product and content. It was about the awe a person can feel standing in front of a piece of art. The film she createdwas about capturing the feelings that art elicits and finding a way to encapsulate all of that in a collection and then on film.
“That is one of the most magnificent moments I've ever had,” she said. “When I started talking to them about this project, that it's more than a photoshoot or video shoot for us, I saw in their eyes, talking to them, that it meant more to them as well. When you understand someone you're collaborating with, what they want to see, what the restrictions are, and then you take a chance and present them with something that might be outside of their comfort zone, if it's done with respect to their legacy and their history, you can create something that's never been created before. It truly was a full circle moment for a kid who grew up in the museum. And walking through the Greek and Roman Art section, walking in the Temple of Dendor when there’s nobody there but us. It really showed, this is what happens when you put your heart into something.”
It’s Not a Job, It’s a Vocation
Before we ended our conversation, I told Sandflower I wanted to better understand the culture that sets this company apart. Because what they do is so joyful, their products are of such an exceptional quality, I felt like she would have vital insights which would help me to understand how such a magnificent vision was so consistently probable.
About a month before the COVID-19 Pandemic began, Sandflower was spending more time at the SPRAYGROUND offices, which was a challenge for her. Not because of anything related to the company, but because this lady is an artist. But DBD and his business wanted her input, they wanted to work with her, found ways to let her spend time walking through the city, or work from home blasting the music she needed to immerse herself in to do her best design work. Then, in March of 2020, just before the team was set to go to China, Covid broke out.
“Then we were all forced to work remotely,” Dyson said. “We had to recreate the definition of work and teamwork, all of that had to be reassessed by society, by the entire world. Previously there had previously been a content team, and I was coming in doing special projects and they trusted me. I was pushing the area of what these shoots were costing. I was increasing the budget or I wasn't thinking about the budget. But I really felt like this one particular group of bags, I really wanted to see them in this beautiful home, and they took the chance. We booked this house, I booked the models, and I found the photographer and everything worked out, it came to life. When the pandemic hit, I had already been working remotely, and I had already been inspiring people to get things done outside of the four walls of SPRAYGROUND, and that created a huge amount of trust that despite these extenuating circumstances, despite what the world is going through.”
“If you care about what you do,” Dyson said to me, “if you want to be a part of something with other people you never work a day in your life for anything that you don't care about. I work with DBD. I work with Mike. I work with James, and that is the only way I could even be in any sort of position in anyone's organization. And David Ben David is truly, in my opinion, a very unique leader, a very unique founder, a very unique CEO, to have this artist come in and throw out ideas. I had many ideas about how I wanted women to be represented, how I wanted people of color to be represented.”
“DBD takes chances on people, because he understands how to build a team, how to build something where it's functioning at its highest level. You have to be able to trust the people that you're creating with. It's like a band. You can't be wondering what the guitar player is doing while you're singing on stage. You have to trust that the bass player and the drummer are in sync with each other, because when you're on stage, you gotta fly. That is something that DBD is really great at, something that we’re all good at, bringing all those different aspects of our expertise, of our knowledge and experience into an environment that respects and cherishes it is everything. And I get to work with the world’s best backpack company, and it's not even just a backpack company.”
