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Sewing at first, was very frustrating to say the least. Forgetting to put the ‘foot’ down, then realizing after you’ve sewn a long line your f*ucked. BUT, practice, practice, f*ck up, practice…and you’ve begun to master an awesome tool. I have been experimenting with my sewing machine’s settings, different stitch patterns, lengths etc. I am really digging the the closer stitch zig-zag pattern. I am now using that stitch to sew on my BKNY labels as well as some funky add-ons (pictured above).

This shirt was made for my buddy Headhoods (happy bday cvg!). I’m thinking I may do this on all the Scissors tees, but we’ll see, I may also just wait for a new BKNY design to pimp.
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Well, I decided to get crafty with an old raggety Nike t-shirt, a soft blank t-tshirt, a sewing machine and a couple of labels. I have a couple of un-wearable t-shirts I want to try and creatively reclaim, Mr. Nike was first up on the chopping block. My sewing isn’t perfect, but it was fun (and frustrating!) piecing together a one-of-a-kind garment all by hand. I can’t wait to rock my new creation around town.
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→BUY IT HERE


→BUY IT HERE
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As you can see from above, BKNY’s new scissors design is hand-printed by me at FLEAHEART’s studio. I can safely say I didn’t blow anything up or mess up any blanks, all-in-all a good first print run.

Also, (only fair) I made sure to print on a blank that I know the ladies dig (AA’s Tri-Blend Deep-V). Both designs came out great and interact well with the V’ed necks of both shirts.
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Filmed by Chris
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Yesterday at my ‘internship’, the guys at Fleaheart let me jump on the 4-color and print some tees. I’ve printed before, but am still a beginner in terms of experience. I did pretty well (I only messed up one shirt…;). Eventually (what I’m interning for), I will be able to print my own stuff at the studio (when the shop is closed). Reclaiming, coating, paint mixing, heater temps, pffft! It’s really only printing and burning I need to work on (being more consistent with squeegee pressure and figuring out this whole registration from light table to press thing).

All in all, my internship has been awesome. I love hands-on learning. It’s only a mtter of time until I have access to a fully operational silkscreen shop (look out world, let the experimenting begin), even if it means being a shop hand on Mondays.
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A big thanks goes out to my good buddy Erica for letting me borrow her Singer sewing machine. From the photos above you can see that things at BKNY are starting to come together. It started with sewing my labels on my pillow cases (ugh, that was a learning experience), but now I am sewing like a semi-pro (if I don’t forget to put the foot down…).

I plan on finishing all of my shirts this weekend (cases are done!) so I can start to really think about how I want to market my products (besides on Facebook). I have a couple of blogs I am going to send stuff, as well as some t-shirt sites as well.

Going forward, I have a really tight design currently in the works. I don’t want to let the cat out of the bag just yet, but it’s going to be printed on v-necks and deep-vs (for chicks!). Be excited ladies, I am keeping you in mind on this one.
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It’s here…well sorta. Even though I have a ton of more work still to do, I decided early this morning (6am!) that today was going to be the day I pre-launch BKNY to the masses (via Facebook). I am very thankful for all the positive feedback I have been receiving and proud of what I have achieved so far, but far from being satisfied. Be on the look out for constant updates and new style releases in the near future as I try to expand BKNY creatively. I definitely have some stuff cooking on the back burner that I am really excited about.
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My mini photo shoot with Clint was a success. I was able to re-design my BKNY landing page yesterday (to what I originally had in mind). My metal rimmed tags and striped string also finally arrived. I am planning on hand stamping each side of the tag, then with a safety pin, affix them onto the shirts (hanging under the sleeve). All the pieces are coming together slowly. I can’t wait until I can hold up a completed product (or better yet, make my first sale!).

Besides BKNY, the word has gotten around that I’m kinda an indexhibit master. My friend Emily came over and I helped her install (and code) a site for her book covers she designs. That last picture was from our walk with miso. Greenpoint has great unobstructed views of Manhattan along the East River (blocks from my apt).
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Yesterday, besides being beautiful, was a really good day – by good, I mean really productive. The photos above are a recap of what I got done.

1. Paid visit to my silkscreener to finish up my first run of shirts, I chose to run my printed label in green for the organic blanks (peep the hand stamped size, uugh!).
2. I figured I might as well hang my bike to make space for my inventory and to re-organize my office/bedroom.
3. Clint came over (needed to borrow his camera) and while sippin’ on some red & white dyn-o-mites (roomate’s nickname), he helped me snap some cool pics for my BKNY website. That picture is from my roof (shot with my iPhone). I came to the realization (I overlook the East River), that until the high-rise boom hits Greenpoint, I have waterfront property, holla!

All in all a great day by all means. Hopefully I can keep this productive vibe going for the rest of the week. I still have to finalize my sew-in label and finish the retail portion of my website.
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It’s been a while since I have had any worthy design work to add to the ol’portfolio. Lucky for me, I was asked today at work to design a sell sheet for Olympic athlete Mirai Nagasu. Although I can’t fathom laying a huge program, sell sheet layouts give me the perfect amount of ‘editorial opportunity’ to experiment with design. My mind blows up if I have to layout more than 5 pages…I’m still trying to get better and more efficient.

I used to loathe getting any layout projects, but now I welcome them (1-5 pages). Typography is a heavily overlooked skill any great graphic designer must possess. I admit, I’m not where I want to be, but I think my layouts are starting to show promise.

Check out my collection of sell sheets:

• Camilo Villegas
• Luke Donald
• Filip Krajinovic
• Derek Hough

I’m excited I don’t have to ‘work’ tomorrow (I’m on call, I’m hoping they don’t call). I’m picking up my first batch of tees which are being finished tomorrow (exciting!). I also will have some more time to work on my retail site and think about my sew-on labels. This clothing venture (BKNY) has been a long process, but I’m making headway. I just have to fight my temptation to watch back to back to back episodes of LOST…just started season 3.
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Its has been almost an eternity since I last entered a submission into the Threadless weekly t-shirt competition…it has been even longer since I was printed. Since I come up with a couple of these ideas a week and never really act on them, I figured today I’d submit a shirt design. It’s a clever idea. May not be the best execution of it, but my fingers are crossed. I’m surely going to give a shout once it’s approved for voting. Be on the lookout Facebook world!
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