Staffies get described as a lot of things they aren't. What they actually are
is relentlessly affectionate, permanently convinced they are small enough to
sit on you, and physically incapable of being subtle about anything. They
grin — not a figure of speech, but the wide open mouth, ears back, whole face
involved. And anyone who lives with one spends a fair amount of time
explaining that the reputation and the dog are two different subjects.
Meet Ruby
Ruby is a real dog. Black Staffordshire Bull Terrier, white left front leg,
white triangle on her chest, and a grin that has never once been switched off.
She was the first stencil. The whole thing started because I drew my own dog,
then couldn't stop, and now there are sixty of them — husky, doberman, corgi,
dachshund, and a series of deeply unimpressed cats.
She rides the metro. She comes to the office. She has personally changed the
mind of at least one person who was frightened of the breed. She also rolls in
things I would rather not identify, and refuses to respond to her own name
unless I ask where my girl is.
She has no idea she is on a t-shirt.
About the design
Black and white photorealistic stencil art, deep shadows, high contrast.
Every character in the crew wears one tiny red clown nose — the only colour
in the entire design.
Printed on garment-dyed heavyweight cotton with an unstructured, relaxed fit.
The print is built to survive washing, because a staffie owner's clothes go
through things.
Why the staffie works as stencil art
The head is made for this. Wide jaw, high cheekbones, ears folded back when
they're happy, and that enormous open grin — it reduces to black and white
beautifully because the shapes are so strong. Ruby's white leg and chest give
the design its only break in the black, which is the part people notice second.