Meet Conko - BBB collaboration with a clown

Trish Conklin is a long time BBB customer..... which is a short time compared to how long Conko has been around.   This happy clown face has been the mascot for the family run carnival business for 3 generations providing the midway merriment across Canada and the US from Miami's Dade County Fair, the Calgary Stampede, to Toronto's Canadian National Exhibition.  The history of the Conklin Shows is fascinating - a veritable rollercoaster of ups and downs and Conko keeps on smiling.....  http://conklinshows.com/history/index.html. 

A couple of months ago Trish asked me if we could do a BBB with the Conko logo for the  Patty Conklin Foundation ,named so in honour of her grandfather, the founder.   Sure.... but I really was not up on my clown iconography.  Conko had a deja vu feeling and of course we had met before, realizing that this image is part of our carnival DNA.  But my first comment was Conko looked a bit tipsy! Indeed, the photo Trish emailed was on a slight angle on a paper bag. The cross of the eye became a sort of pie-eyed X. And personally being 20 years 'on the wagon', was an amusing reminder of how easy it is for one to become 'off balance'.  Also the position of Conko, right  on the middle of the corner made the in your face clown not quite so in your face; peaking around at you with a contagious half grin ......  I was smitten!  The Conklin Show's graphic team created the logo and I would like to know more about them, but for the time being Conko is beautifully and wonderfully balanced... not tipsy at all.

Collaboration tout finis!  BBB's were ordered by Trish with the Conko logo.  And  then bingo!  The idea came to me that this would also be a perfect fundraiser for the aspiring  junior rhythmic gymnast, Katherine Uchida.  So Trish agreed that we could offer for sale on our website a limited edition of the clown bag as a fund raiser for the foundation who would in turn support the Olympic goal of  junior rhythmic gymnast Katherine Uchida.    Have I gone full circle?  I wrote about Katherine in the previous week's blog and alluded to the support from a  special clown !!  So here is our proud collaboration with Conko and available now on our online shop.  Bring in the clowns and put this happy face on your arm.