Q&A With Julian Donaldson the Founder of Geniuz Ink

Timeless back again to bring you yet another Q&A like I said I would!

*Timeless Question* Could you tell us a little bit about yourself and Geniuz Ink for all the readers who haven't heard of the brand before?  

Geniuz Ink is a brand out of Denver, Colorado and we started back in January 2009 when I (Julian Donaldson the founder) was in school and printing out designs through a local printer there. I decided that I wanted to do this full time for a job so I began building a brand. We are still young but we have a very mature feel to everything we do, our website and all designs are created in house. We have a passion for urban couture, graphic design, and creativity.

*Timeless Question* I just visited your website and the background is very futuristic, which I have to say I do like, is that the style of Geniuz Ink?

I wouldn’t necessarily say we are a futuristic type brand, we have a respect for the old principles of graphic design but we do like to have a contemporary or modern feel. I am a technical geek I love apple, windows 7, and newegg.com, some of that inspiration can be seen in our design. The background of the site has changed time and time again and when it was being built it changed 40 times before I settled.

*Timeless Question* When did you fall in love with fashion and decide this is what you wanted to do?

I have always loved fashion and style and I have always had an east coast demeanor, I used to visit NY every summer and some winters. I would see the local brands there and have to buy things from them, some of my older clothes were from start up brands in NY like my own. I really loved that scene, I knew I wanted to be a graphic designer from the minute I stepped into high school. In college I realized art doesn’t pay most people, I loved graphic design but hate corporate designing, and a typical design firm was going to be very hard to work at right out of school. So I made the decision at the beginning of that January and released my first set of tees Heartless and Mindless printed on a Gildan Poly/Cotton 50/50. It is the baggiest shirt I own haha!

*Timeless Question* As the owner what is an average day for you and a hectic day?

Being the owner my days are less than hectic I don’t stress about much, I am easy going but I am working because I am not at the point in the company where I can fully fund my life through Geniuz Ink, going out, eating, bills etc...But it is a long day wake up at 7 work a design job 8:30-5:30, workout typically since I have been sitting and eating all day at work, then come home and design late into the night. I am an insomniac like many designers I will design from 9-2 or 3 in the morning and wake up and do it again. I take Friday and Saturday off to do other things that keep me sane.

*Timeless Question* Knowing that it is Black Friday, does your schedule change at all?

My schedule changed today, with this interview . I still freelance a lot and I have been working on some flyers for a friend/promoter, I have been putting together quotes for the winter line coming this January, and I have been packing orders today is hectic. I am supposed to drop off some shirts to one of my retailers, and get dinner at 7 with a good friend. So much for a day off! No time for rest.

*Timeless Question* Can you describe some of your influences to help you create Geniuz?

My main influences are my weird mind. I draw inspiration from other artists, but I definitely have my own feel. My family is my biggest influence for my design we have so much crazy stuff we talk about, especially my sister and I always draw and sketch designs from them. Also everyone in the indie land of shirts inspires me daily to be better than the next because there are definitely people doing bigger things than me but I want to be running head to head with them. I don’t back down from anyone especially in the design community. Its healthy and super friendly competition.

*Timeless Question* How do you go about promoting Geniuz Ink to customers and stores?

Word of mouth. I took some notes from Johnny Cupcakes, create a brand, don’t rush, and produce quality. It will be seen. Always walk with a business card.

*Timeless Question* There are an abundant amount of clothing lines out there, how does Geniuz Ink differ from them?

There are an abundance of clothing lines but what I have come to realize many people will do it for a year and get frustrated from lack of money and/or bored and give up. We are here to stay. We want to have the best line in Denver, Nationwide, Worldwide, and in the Universe. I assume there are aliens that make clothes some where. We always will be designing until I can’t see my computer.

We also will be working with local schools on collaborations. More info to come, there are some in our Look book that we did. We can’t spoil the full release just yet.

*Timeless Question* What are some of the adversities you had to overcome creating your line?

The risk of losing all of my money, the risk of people hating my brand, screwing up orders, getting orders out late, forgetting business cards, rushing on designs, rushing on stationary and branding, credit card, complaints about a shirt, messing up scarves time and time again, learning to sew, deciding what people want, and ultimately building a customer base and fan base...The list goes on though...

*Timeless Question* Is there anything you can share with everyone looking to get involved in the clothing business?

I am still learning and when your done learning your done growing. My main piece of advice is people will ask you for things, “Yo hook me up with a shirt” So you have to separate your business and personal life as much as possible. For me my business is a big part of my personal life since its just me and a new partner of mine. You will lose money you will give away free shirts but when you do make sure the loss is a future gain. For me nearly everything I have given away has been a plus. It has helped market and build. I just donated some shirts to my long time friend for a charity event at a local Sushi Bar and she is forever grateful and has sent me more customers then I could even have found on my own.

*Timeless Question* Can you take us through the process of a design on paper to the finished product?

 

A lot of the design process is different for each design,

My Mona Lisa shirt started as a google search that landed me on a monster shot of Da Vincis masterpiece. I had a fitted hat that was new and was joking how it would be funny if people wore hats. That sprung a design I threw it together in couple days and had a solid design. At first the hat had a Rockies symbol on it but I didn’t know if the Rockies would be mad I have their logo on my shirt. It is kind of illegal so I redesigned the hate if you look close there is a Geniuz ink logo. I had pics of the Colorado skyline and thought it’d be a nice fit. There are some other details that I added so it wasn’t just Mona with a fitted.

My other designs like the Until Death Shirt stemmed from one of my figure drawing classes we had to learn how to draw skulls, and I had the image I drew laying around, I said this would be cool as vector art and started tracing I was listening to some song and a lyric until death do us part came in and it clicked that it would be awesome with a skull and headphones. My inspiration is always random.

Last night I woke up and said my logo shirt isn’t going to be a typical logo shirt I am gonna get wild on the design for it I woke up and started sketching. We have definitely stepped our game up and we have been kind of boring with our typography and our new shirts will be showing our love for the art. We will still have our style but it will definitely be spruced up. Shout out to Jeff Sheldon at Ugmonk.com for putting together such brilliant type faces and inspiring me to hit the sketch book even more.

*Timeless Question* Where can customers find Geniuz Ink and how can they reach you if need be?

Customers can find Geniuz Ink at Geniuzink.com we update our blog regularly and always have some good things on it. We are on Facebook geniuz ink (lower case) and on twitter.com/geniuzink, we rarely use myspace and will be deleting it off our site. Last if you are in the Colorado area stop in at Division West they carry some of our shirts to, located at 3rd and Clayton, in Denver .

Email me for any questions julian@geniuzink.com or info@geniuzink.com

*Timeless Question* Is there anything else you would like to add?

Thanks for the interview sorry for talking so much! Geniuz Ink – Embellish Creativity!

-Julian

*Remember Im Timeless Here to Bring You The Latest Styles*