Opportunity LOL's Spotlight Interview: Pause Designs

The following 20 minutes is going to be well worth the time spent reading. You will not find a more entertaining interview in 2011 plus you may have a new favorite clothing company! I first learned of Pause through their contributions to the Most Wanted custom Dunny series and they have continued to release extraordinarily well done toys and shirt designs. Since their recent unveiling of a custom yeti toy built out of an upside-down Dunny, I had to learn more about the clothing design company and their work. The owners of Pause Designs took the time to answer my questions and couldn't have been more clever or prompt.

Who does what at Pause Designs? How are decisions made and how do you handle disagreements? How much time do you spend together?

Pause Designs: "Pause Designs consists of three hetero-sexual life mates: Ken, Andrew and Eric.

Ken's responsibilities range from conceptual design to polished illustration, but mostly he draws things, and provides a colourful background of child-like impishness through shirking responsibilities and avoiding deadlines. If it weren't for his skill that is necessary, we would cast him off like a leper, or set him adrift on the nearest ice floe.

By far, Andrew possesses that which most closely resembles business acumen in the group: website maintenance, Youtubular™, coordinating print design, and providing any technical assistance required. His background in graphic design poises him to liaison between us and other companies that use words like "Pantone" or "Vector Graphics" or "Fire Hazard" which he'll later explain to us using examples around the room, or puppetry.

Eric is the primary antagonist at Pause. He handles the custom toys, illustration, dumb Twitter/Facebook updates, hate mail, and t-shirt design. If this was a movie, Eric would be Indiana Jones, Andrew would be Short Round, and Ken would be Indiana Jones' thinly veiled drinking problem.

Decisions are made based on each individual's sphere of influence. If most things fall pretty clearly within one person's responsibility, then they'll handle it. We're all pretty good about soliciting and giving feedback. In the event of a disagreement: pie eating contests. Should sufficient pastries not be available, round robin rock paper scissor matches are held. Prison rules. On three. No mulligans."

Please walk us through the full process through which you create a t-shirt - from design to printing to sale.

Pause Designs: "The concepts for our t-shirt designs are kind of like a dare that's gone too far with your friends. There is no real system for deciding which concepts end up on a t-shirt and which get relegated to obscurity. But we usually end up printing the designs which make us the most nervous. A lot of the time we don't know if people will understand the humour. But those designs tend to be the ones that have the most impact. Often times a design will be the pet project of one of us, and completed from beginning to end. Other times it will be patch work batted around between us equally. but the real work is us concerning ourselves who we're going to offend, get sued by or get beat up by in the parking lot. We outsource our printing to an ancient silk-screening master, then affix the finishing details (Tags, packaging, labelling, etc.) ourselves. Sales happen either online, at trade shows, or select boutique shops in Canada and the USA."

Could you talk about the t-shirt/clothing design climate today? Do you have any opinions you'd care to share about any of the big name streetwear companies? Thoughts on prices and creativity?

Pause Designs: "We have the up-most respect for most of the big name streetwear brands, Threadless is one of the most brilliantly marketed companies on the planet. They produce exactly what their audience wants on a t-shirt, because their audience is creating it. They really opened up streetwear branding as a community, rather than a one-way street. Johnny Cupcakes' willingness to involve his audience, and his bigger is better attitude really inspired us to push ourselves in that direction. Same goes for The Hundreds. Freshjive inspired us to put whatever the hell we want onto t-shirts without worrying about the repercussions. We kind of looked at them like the canary going into the cave. The fact that they're still alive really makes us comfortable in being completely reckless with the designs we put out. We don't begrudge bigger name streetwear companies for having higher prices than us, but we hope that because Pause is more affordable, more people can enjoy our bad jokes and pretty pictures."

I'm a huge fan of the Most Wanted Dunny series. Congrats on participating in MWII and III - can you give us any early info? Where do you see this series going in the future?

Pause Designs: "All we can say at the moment is the upcoming MW series will blow past series away, and our Dunny will surely be a force to be reckoned with. A lot of the MW supporters are hoping for Kidrobot to eventually pick up the participating artists for their own production series, which we are all for. That being said we don't want to see MW becoming a farm league for production artists. We like the fact that MW is a handmade and indie series by non- professionals."

Your custom Munnys and Dunnys are expertly done! Why specifically Kidrobot customs? Any thoughts on other platforms?

Pause Designs: "Thanks!

Kidrobot got us into doing customs in the first place, a lot of the artists we respect and admire use that same platform. It's like using the same amp as your favourite guitarist or using the same contraceptive as your most frequented porn star. There is a legacy with Kidrobot that we want to be some small part of.

We have dabbled in other platforms ;)"

Congrats on the KRonikle feature! Do you think blog features are more about referral traffic or raising people's opinion of your brand?

Pause Designs: "Thanks again!

Most of all, blog features are about getting as many naïve art school babes as possible. Aside from them, raising awareness and a positive public opinion of Pause Designs are both important, but it as much about motivation for us. It gets us excited for making the next design even better and more fun, just because we know more and more people are paying attention."

Who does the modeling? Are they friends or do you hire unknowns?

Pause Designs: "Unknowns that we hire (who we don't pay), who become friends, then enemies, then lovers, then back to unknowns. That's the majority. The rest are heavily photo-shopped Barrack Obama campaign photos, guess which ones! (But seriously, they are all our friends and we are incredibly fortunate to know so many attractive people.)"

With the massive amount of engagement from your company, I'm sure you can put together a master class on Web 2.0 and marketing. Drop some knowledge - how much time do you spend on the following networks in a month and what do you think you gain from each: deviantART, Myspace, Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, Google Plus, Youtube, your various Blogspot Blogs, and Flickr?

Pause Designs: "We'll put it this way, we're on them more often than we're not. It seems to be the longer we've been around the more social media we engage in. Except for Ken, who uses a typewriter...not because it's charming. He is still apprehensive of photographic devices stealing part of his soul.

Here's the lessons we've learned from social media: Treat people like friends, not like eyeballs for your advertisements. The fastest way to piss people off and get them uninterested in what you have to say is to try and sell them something. Only engage in social media if you enjoy doing it with or without financial gain. If you think what you're doing is cool and worth people's time, then these are great venues. Don't put up anything that you wouldn't enjoy reading yourself. Most of the content on our website has nothing to do with the pieces we're selling. We work with some extremely talented bloggers. Our website has a music blog, video blog, an advice column, comedic opinion blog, and a photo blog. If the internet was a house, we're trying to make it the cool place to hang out. The same way the posters on your wall reflect your lifestyle. If we entertain people, we've done our job, whether or not it helps us peddle our shirts."

What message boards do you post on and what do they do for your business?

Pause Designs: "There are two. The first, Kidrobot. Eric lives and breathes the Kidrobot forums. He considers it a friend and a companion. He loves it as he would a dear friend, nourishes it as he would his own child, and would die to protect it's honour. The other message board of nearly equal importance to this assembled group is the daily special sandwich board adorning the Lawrenceville restaurant's parking lot. You can't go wrong with eggs benedict written in a death metal font."

Are you comedy fans? Who are your favorite comedians and do you listen to comedy podcasts?

Pause Designs: "Yes. Louis C.K., Jim Gaffigan, Gavin McInnes, overweight animals, Daniel Tosh, Dave Chappelle, and Adam Carolla are a few of our favourites. Tina Fey's Bossy Pants audio book got Ken halfway through the Canadian prairies by car. Bill Murray is the only man any of us would traverse a major highway with in a golf cart. Individual comedians aside, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, the 1980s as a whole, SNL, Curb Your Enthusiasm and South Park have all helped shape our completely obscure sense of humour."

How much toy collecting goes on at Pause Designs? Could we shots of your collection(s)?

Pause Designs: "This would be a small part of Eric's collection of designer vinyl. While Ken doesn't collect toys, he does enjoy collecting facial hair. And Andrew runs a small collections agency for outstanding debts that require “extreme” measures. We suspect this is due largely to his Dog The Bounty Hunter super-fandom."

What trends do you see developing in the custom and production toy world?

Pause Designs: "DIY is definitely an up and coming theme in the vinyl toy world; smaller companies developing their own platforms; smaller runs of higher calibre work and a wider range of venues for more and more creative people. Vinyl and platform art is still very much in its infancy and trying to figure itself out, and a big part of what makes it exciting is not knowing where it's going to be five years from now. This isn't really like any other kind of art because it the medium itself isn't easily obtained like canvas or clay, and it isn't based on a technological advancement that could be commercially valuable outside of art like the television or the radio. Custom toys could very easily go out of style and disappear tomorrow and the only reason that they don't is because of people continually pushing their own creative limits, and the limits of the platform itself."

What can Opportunity LOL readers look forward to from Pause Designs in 2012?

Pause Designs: "The secret to eternal life, our own currency, perpetual motion, Andrew's award winning undefeated chili recipe revealed, spray-on t-shirts (?), physical evidence of Bigfoot, physical evidence that Andrew has been using Bigfoot in his award winning undefeated chili recipe, and unfortunately as of the date of this interview Pause is still an “alternate” for next season's Dancing With The Stars. (Finally) One of the Pause crew WILL be getting a sex change. I can't tell you which one it is, because it's going to be a surprise Birthday present for him. Also, Ken's Birthday.

More importantly, Pause is amassing a creative hurricane that will make John Cusack's 2012 look like a little black rain cloud a la Winnie the Pooh.

New customs are already underway, with MANY more steaming on the back burner. We'll be releasing our first art prints, so that your walls will look as pretty as you do. And as always, new tees – and if these shirts don't get you laid, I'm afraid that there is no hope. I'm sorry you had to hear it from me, but I didn't want you finding out from some kid at school, or an ill-mannered custodial staff member.

Luckily, if you are reading this blog, you are probably knee deep in reproductive organs of the opposite and/or same sex of your choice. Thanks so much for having us, Robert!"

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