About us

We love our Graff and most of our designs are linked to graffiti and street art. Having been influenced by street art for many years we have been lucky enough to follow the scene throughout Europe and on home soil and this is echoed in our designs.

Rebus Collective started out in December 2006 as two friends and is the brain child of Mish and Tom. Since then Rebus has grown into a whole family of creative minds. We are now a creative pool of DJs, break dancers, skateboarders, surfers, lyricists, photographers, street artists, composers and graffiti artists, creating REBUS COLLECTIVE.

Tom.  The feeling of having a pencil in your hand is one very familiar to Tom and one that goes back even further than he can remember. Coming from a family of creative people he seemed destined to follow that path so it’s just as well he didn’t become an accountant or things could have gone drastically wrong. As far as his family the strongest influence was his grandfather Will Carter. Will was a leading typographer and some of his more notable fonts such as Klang and Octavian are still in use today. This basic knowledge of typography came in very useful when Tom’s obsession in graffiti was formed in 1998. The rules of letter spacing, form and structure are the building blocks behind his designs.

Tom moved away from his home in Cambridge in 2000 following his long time friend Mish to discover the wonders of Cornwall. After a year or so Hamish decided that his traveling was not quite complete and set out to see the world leaving Tom to his own devices. After a few years of exhibitions (solo and joint) and short bouts of teaching graffiti to children at local Cornish youth groups, Tom was given an opportunity that would prove to be a turning point in his life. Tom’s Godfather sent him on a History of Art course in Italy. Six weeks surrounded by the best art in the world with some amazing tutors had the desired effect and Tom came home with an almighty hangover and more creative energy than he had ever had.

After a few months of exhibiting in Cornwall and Cambridge Mish decided to re-appear and the concept of the Rebus Collective was born. The idea of an independent, Cornish clothing label is what drives Tom to keep the designs flowing and hopefully it will stay that way.

Mish. Mish spent his years bumbling through life trying his hand at many trades such as boat restoration and chefing on yachts to pulling the odd pint down the local. Mish is the driving force behind Rebus Collective and has accomplished what he set out to do back in 2001. 

Having spent many years at sea experiencing different cultures and meeting some ‘really interesting people’ it was time to get back to reality and start building a future for him and his buds. He is always aspiring to do the things which make him happy from chucking paint onto a wall (not literally) to organizing nights in bars or promoting his own clothing label (which he co owns with his ever long bud Tom). Tom was the one who inspired Mish in graffiti and street art, it was from then a great friendship of creativity formed and a graffiti duo was born.  

Mish is an extremely passionate wake skater / surfer and gets out on the water whenever he has time or the odd note in his pocket. He has big plans for Rebus and the collective and shall keep pushing forward to create a better brand.