Here is an interview I just did with Ryan from AlrightOK, he is making all the right moves in my opinion to getting a solid brand off the ground.I wanted to interview him because this line is basically brand new which allows you to watch as they expand and grow into the industry.

In the interview we talk a little bit about how important the little details are and as much as I like to support the artists of the industry if you want to be successful its more to it then the graphic your chest…Enjoy!

When and How did you get into the apparel industry?

I guess you could say i’ve been messing with it since 2003-ish doing freelance for bands and such, but I didn’t do anything of my own until 2007 with my ‘AOK Mart’ line that was intended to only be an off shoot of my own freelance work. It was really a place for rejected designs from clients that I thought had ‘legs’. After about a half a year of running it I decided to change the name/logo to something that would leave me free from any possible legal troubles moving ahead. You can read more about that on my blog: http://alrightok.com/2008/08/06/use-your-confusion-pt-2/

What does your brand name mean and How did you come up with it?

I’d been freelancing under ‘Alrightok’ since I was out of school and working. I honestly don’t remember where it first came from but it’s definitely in a lot of rap songs and it is a combination of words you’ll hear one after the other so i’m sure it was repeating in my head and when time came to register a domain for my portfolio it just stuck. I think part of what made it work was at the time of me leaving school and being unsure of the future a phrase like “alright? ok…” just made sense.

What inspires the designs done for the line?

Wow, it’s really something that’s hard for me to answer because we’re still feeling it out ourselves you know? I think the biggest thing we’re trying to impart is that we’re trying to give all of our ideas, experiences, and influences through the visual medium of the tee shirt. We aren’t a traditional brand in the sense that it’s built on one singular vision, theme, or lifestyle in mind. Part of that, i’m sure, comes from doing client work where the goal is to stay consistent and on a guided path when it’s my turn I want to take so many different paths and express so many different ideas that it’d be impossible to pin AOK as any one thing. We’ve got a lot of respect for this medium/business (I pretty much don’t wear anything but tee shirts) and all we’re really trying to focus on right now is adding something worthwhile and learning the industry.

As you know there are tons of new brands out now, what are some things that you think are sometimes overlooked by start ups?

I’m going to completely contradict what I just said but having a point and/or theme and sticking with it. While I did say we don’t have one theme or market in mind, all of our artwork is done in-house between myself and another artist, so by nature everything will have one consistent look and feel to it. I see a lot of new brands throwing paint at the wall and they end up with a mish mash of ideas and styles. To me a lot of it looks like band merch that happens to have the brands name on it instead of a bands. There’s obviously a market for this but if you want to be a real brand and ‘blow up’ you need some level of consistency and follow through.

The other thing that i guess stands out to me is presentation. I suppose a lot of people who own these brands aren’t designers themselves and sometimes they don’t see the importance of good web design, finishing on the garments, photography, etc., but part of what separates you from what someone can get in the mall are these things so I wish there was more care taken. It makes all of us look better.

It seems like a majority of newer brands are geared towards the younger crowd and feature super bright poppy colors, not saying that is a bad thing, but you’re going a different direction correct?

Yeah, you’re right it isn’t a bad thing at all it just isn’t me. My general taste leans more towards subtlety and creating something classic. Doesn’t any artist or designer want to do this? The basic idea of a graphic tee will never go out of style so I would feel odd creating something that years from now i’d say “man, that looked so 2000″.

I’m really big on things like tone on tone printing, garment finishing, quality of the overall garment as opposed to just the design. These are all things, as a designer, that make me feel good internally as opposed to a brightly colored loud graphic that, I would assume, make a person feel good externally. Myself and the Yesh (the other artist with the brand) come from loving comics, video games, cartoons, Japanese culture, etc. but we feel like there is a difference between regurgitating all those things and creating something new with those influences in thought.

Can we expect you to be around for a while, what is down the road for AlrightOk?

I mean we can hope right? Haha, we definitely have a lot of things planned we’ve only recently dropped our first set of tees. We don’t plan on leaving the still very fertile ground of tee design for a good while. I believe people should stick to what they’re good at and more than just designing cool graphics for tees I want to feel we’ve mastered it before we decide to move on to things like cut and sew, hard goods, etc.

You have a blog at alrightok.com where you post videos and insight into the business, what makes you do this?

The biggest thing is wishing I had a resource like this when I was starting out. I had so many questions and rarely were the answers either 1. good (for the kind of brand I was aiming to create) or 2. from someone who’s made the mistakes themselves. In a short 2 year span there are tons of blogs about this subject now and great forums to ask these questions, so it only strengthens my thought that there’s a want for it. I’d like to chronicle the growth of the brand and let people take whatever info they can from that rather then just say ‘here’s how you do it’ because there really isn’t a right way to do this.

Do you have any advice for those looking to get into the game?

Research and planning. Pick a name that you can live with and make sure it doesn’t bear resemblance to anything else out there. Figure out who it is you’re trying to sell to and design with them in mind. Create something that stands on it’s own. “When you make something no one hates, no one loves it.” – Tibor Kalman

Any last comments or shout outs before we finish up?

Any person who’s supported me thus far either with words or buying a shirt. Hopefully some of these answers didn’t come off as pretentious i’m generally a ridiculous person. Comment: Do it because you love it!