Entrepreneurial Clothing Start-up

In the early aughts a friend of mine was starting up his own clothing company. He was selling t-shirts, custom apparel and accessories to retailers in Southern California and even online. I was excited to get the chance to collaborate with a fellow creative and jumped at the chance to provide a design worth printing, something that I would want to see my friends wear or sport myself.

At the time, I was influenced by communist war propaganda as it is very bold and distinctive from modern western art. I found the bold lines, zeppelins and military symbolism to be distinct from a distance and great in single-color applications. We called it “DINK DEFENSE”.

After giving my friend the design, he compensated me with a handful of stickers and a free shirt with the design printed on it. I was thrilled at the time to be getting a creative project out into the world. Yet looking back at the transaction later in life, I realize that I practically gave the artwork away for free.

Which if you think about it, it is comical that a communist influenced design taught me a lesson about capitalism. I’ve since tried to learn from that experience by making sure I get a fair compensation for any creative work that I design.

Like most things online over 15-years ago, it’s still available on Archive.org if you know where to look.