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Brandon Rike My name is Brandon Rike, and I have been in official business since 2002. At this point, I’ve been doing it for nearly nine years. I am 27, and I started doing t-shirt graphics for bands around the age of 19. My First Band Logo I’ve always loved art. I was always a kid who could draw. Drawing was what I did with most of my time. Around the age of 13, my friends and I started a band called Dead Poetic. When we made our first tape, I designed the jacket. It was a humble beginning, but I sketched for weeks on creating the perfect logo for us. Making all the letters work together, encapsulating it all into one solid shape, making sure there was good symmetry from side to side. I was using a pencil and graph paper while I was in math class. At this point, all I knew was that I was making a logo for our band. Nothing more, nothing less. As time went on, I continued to design fliers for our shows, and jackets for our demos. As our band kept playing shows, we met other bands who I would design graphics for as well. THREAD’S NOT DEAD • Jeff Finley Skipping High School Art Class Meanwhile, my high school art class had little to offer that interested me. At this age, I was over making clay pots and tie-dye, but I was not over creating art and graphics. I enrolled in a post-secondary program, in which I went to college for my junior and senior year. It was not until I got involved in this college’s design department that I actually learned the term Graphic Design. I realized that I had been doing Graphic Design for years now, and now I could give it a name. I learned how to use Photoshop and Illustrator, and learned about what good typography really was, and how to create good composition. I took about half of an associates program, and never got a degree. Rock and Roll took over. Move Over College, Here Comes Rock and Roll My band did our first tour in 2001, and continued into 2002. In that year, while on tour, I designed graphics for bands that we had toured with, like Underoath, Beloved, The Uriah Omen, and Evelynn. While I had designed several graphics for bands the years before that, these were my first jobs that weren’t just local friends. I was designing for bands who played a lot of shows, and sold a lot of merch. As time went on, and we toured with more bands, it was a lot of, “Hey sweet shirts! Who designed them?” “I did.” “Oh cool, do you want to do some for us?” That was the bulk of my business. It wasn’t until we started touring with bigger bands, who gave my name to the global merchandise companies who they worked with. Then everything really started taking off. Now the majority of my business comes through these global merchandising companies. My Breakthrough Moment It was when my hobby turned into an income. I designed some shirts for a good friend’s band. He asked me how much I charged, and I said $40 per approved graphic. His jaw dropped. He looked at me like I was a stupid child and said, “You have to charge more, way more!” By this time my graphics were as good as anything else out there. He explained to me that I wouldn’t be truly taken seriously until I started charging the industry standard. Very reluctantly, I started quoting people the “standard,” and the jobs kept coming through. Not only did they keep coming through, I was getting more work than ever. It was as if a light bulb had gone off, and not only was I being viewed as a top-level designer, but Case Studies & Interviews 112
I put the time and effort into my work to really feel deserving of my new rate. It changed everything. It was like getting a new three-piece suit. I was respected as a good designer, and I worked harder than ever. My Inspirations My main inspiration was always Asterik Studio in Seattle. I was friends with Don and Ryan Clark, who now operate under the moniker of Invisible Creature. Those guys appeared to have such attention to detail, and were able to span from super evil art to happy kid toys. I ask them advice from time to time, and am always checking their site. “I want to be at the top of everyone’s list because I am dependable and have a superior work ethic.” —brandon rike One of my favorite designers, these days, is Aaron Draplin in Portland. Aaron has a no- BS approach to art, and creates graphics with the bare essentials. I admire his simplicity, and hard work attitude. I’m also always checking out designers like Ames Bros, Morning Breath, Mike Giant, Shepard Fairey, House Industries, Aesthetic Apparatus, and Methane Studios. I’ve found that FFFFOUND is a great resource of seeing art from so many designers compiled into one place. There are so many great designers that I feel like I could never touch - so it’s nice to always be striving for that anyway. Why Style Isn’t Important to Me Honestly, artistic styles come and go. So I have no interest in creating a style that people can point out as mine when they see it. I think too many designers are concentrating too much on putting their agenda into their client work. I want to stand out because I am versatile, and can meet the client’s needs. More than that, I want to stand out because I work my butt off, and go to bat for my people. I want to be at the top of everyone’s list because I am dependable and have a superior work ethic. Talent took me a few steps, hard work is carrying me the rest of the way. THREAD’S NOT DEAD • Jeff Finley My Non-Promotion Strategy I started with word of mouth, and it’s taken me this far. I do want to focus a little more on branding myself, and keeping an updated website, but the good news is that I’m just too busy to devote any time to that. My Advice to You Get over yourself, and do the work. Don’t be lazy. Laziness will not succeed. Hold a higher standard for yourself, and focus on doing great work. Talent only gets you so far, you have to be smart and hard working to actually make a living at this. Put up a site that easily displays your work, so that people will get who you are as soon as they’re there. When you get the job - work hard at it. You are selling yourself to them as well as the art. Be good to people. Trends I’ve Observed Oh man. Well, I remember doing off-placement of prints around 2002, and thinking this was the coolest thing ever. That whole trend got out of hand. Neon got out of hand. Splatters and hand-drawn stuff got out of hand. Oversize prints also got out of hand. I’ve tried to stick to my guns, and always be able to come Case Studies & Interviews 113 Shirt design for AFI by Brandon Rike
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Copyright © 2011 Go Media Inc., Al
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CONTRIBUTORS Matt Wigham, founder o
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Designs for Fall Out Boy by Rob Dob
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“The Strain” by Angryblue THREA
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Your 3 Roles: The Artist, Designer,
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Keys to a Great Portfolio The most
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“Year of the Beard” designed by
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4 Tips When Contacting a New Client
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Other Tips for Avoiding Busters “
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“Great Job” by Rikki B offered
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work directly for the band - but th
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commercial nature or is for nonprof
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From what we learned, the client th
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Dave Pearson of Paint the Stars t-s
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5 Tips for Design Contest Success W
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“Eco” t-shirt design by Chris C
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Does it Sell? Another measuring sti
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How to Come up With Good Ideas? Eve
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Affliction and MMA have heavily inf
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Dan Mumford has inspired many with
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T-shirt design for Slayer by Angryb
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Organizing Layers in Photoshop Laye
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This Despised Icon t-shirt is a gre
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Direct to Garment (DTG) This method
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Generally you want to order more S,
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Common Screen Size options Beerhat
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Design by Jeff Finley for Disciple
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Designs from Fright Rags “King”
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One of the new ghosted shirt mockup
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Personalize Your Orders But aside f
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Page 90 and 91: Dave Pearson My name is Dave Pearso
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Page 96 and 97: Rikki Burns I’m RikkiB, I’m 29
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Page 114 and 115: Design for The Chariot by Brandon R
Page 116 and 117: Jon Kruse My name is Jonathan Kruse
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