Emerging Fervour

Growing up in Monrovia, Liberia was an experience I won’t forget. So, when Vice created a documentary called ‘THE VICE GUIDE TO LIBERIA’ – an 8 part series (see video at the end of this entry), I got a little excited, especially because they noticed something really out of the ordinary…a lot of Liberian kids wearing some pretty cool vintage tees. Naturally, Vice decided to write about it.

LIBERIAN GIRLS AND BOYS have better vintage tees than you

In a country where almost 60% of the population live on around 60p a day, most new clothing is out of budget for the average Liberian; so what they wear come from donations from the US and large used clothing wholesale purchases. Liberia’s economy doesn’t have enough buying power to choose what comes into the country…”demand does not control the goods supplied; it’s the other way around”, Vice mention.

A few weeks back, I did a piece on some talented t-shirt designers I came across. One of them, Cole Blotcky has agreed to give me some much needed answers to a couple of questions I had for him.

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Sara: I’ve introduced you as some t-shirt designer – what else is behind the the pretty face?

Cole: Wish I could say I live some extravagant life. I really don’t though. I’m just a normal college drop out that spends his day drawing in his underwear until it’s socially acceptable to start drinking… and I usually start much before that. My whole life even since highschool has revolved around the t-shirt industry. My cousin hooked me up with a clothing line  based in Jacksonville, Florida when I was a freshman in highschool. It was my first design job and I was way in over my head. What kind of jerkoff hires a 15 year old kid to be responsible for designing his shirts? Regardless, I had about 5 or 6 really solid designs printed by them and it was  the most rewarding thing in the world to see your art on the backs of kids. Skip ahead like 5 years to me dropping out of college to be a full-time merch boy for a band called The Junior Varsity.

Emerging talent in original t shirt design has become more apparent to me over the recent months. We created this blog because our main passion was seeking out emerging fasion designers so we could get a glimpse of original design that you don’t see everyday.

Emptees is a site that focuses on independent t shirt designers with links to their online stores. Here are a few of my favourties that I recently came across while having a browse. 

A designer and a pretty cool friend of mine, Cole Blotcky has been on Emptees promoting his work for a while now. He’s at Byeline Design, which is a small graphic design firm in Normal, Illinois that features a collective of artists specialising in apparel, illustration and much more. Check out the site at www.byelinedesign.com 

I’m hoping to get some of his thoughts on his work, emerging designers and why originality is king. Emerging Fervour awaits you Mr Blotcky.