E: This is interesting. It's like uh, live reporting style. We're on the scene, so we should just do the introduction right here.
C: Chris and Ethan live at LQQK Studio, for a very special edition of Acedia Spotlight
E: Laura’s AKA Ghostpimp is back.
C: For her first grand return ever, never before seen in like years.
WHO ARE YOU?
My name is Alex Dondero. I'm the owner of LQQK. My main job is just kind of making sure the ship stays afloat. I started the shop, so I have a good idea of what's needed to keep it on track. So yeah, I do a little bit of everything.
HOW DID YOU GET INTO ART?
Well, I've always kind of known that the creative realm was going to be where I live. School was always a challenge, but whenever it was something creative, it felt like it clicked more. So when I went to college, I decided to learn screen printing. I mean I had already dabbled with it in high school, but I decided to make print my focus for college. Music was always a part of that creative drive for me. So I would be printing posters and t-shirts for musicians and bands when I was in college, and that was kind of like an aha moment where I realized, "Oh, I should be making merch and producing prints and stuff for people." Working with artists and musicians was one of those things where I realized I could tie in the print side of things with my passion for the arts. That was when I realized it could be a career. I was like Oh, this can be a long game kind of thing.
C: So you knew from the get-go, that you were going to get into something creative?
Yeah, I think I didn't have many other choices. Yeah, it was kind of like all eggs in one basket.
E: Yeah, I mean, it paid off, though.
Yeah, 100 percent. I love what I do, and I love the community that we have. It just feeds itself. It's a self-running machine where you keep working with creative people, it inspires you, and you keep wanting to do the work you're doing. So as long as you keep that cycle and don't break that and don't sell out too hard, you can go on forever.
C: Now, how about the conception of LQQK Studio? When did the branding come into play?
So originally I was looking at it as just a print shop for clients. I just liked to do prints for other people, it wasn't a brand per se. Still, you know you have to have a name for your business and I was just playing around with names and stuff. LQQK just kind of stood out to me when I was drawing it up and just kind of ran through names. Then as we were printing for other people we realized oh maybe we should put out some of our own designs because it's like we're doing this work already, it'd be cool to make some stuff for ourselves. Then the demand for that slowly built to a point where I realized I actually really enjoyed putting out some of my own designs. So we just continued it and grew it from there. It's now its own separate entity from what we're doing for other people. We still do both though.
E: Are you the graphic designer for all of the LQQK Studio designs, or is it a team thing?
It's absolutely a team thing. We do a lot of artist commissions, but also in-house stuff. Still, not necessarily just under my own personal touches. There's kind of a whole roster of designers and artists that we work with, and it's great because I feel like it taps into that whole idea of the community that I've always really harped back to.
E: I mean, looking around the studio we can see there are so many different clients that you guys have taken on. Do you have a favorite project you've worked on or a favorite client that you've worked with?
I definitely feel there are some bedrock clients that I don't even print for anymore, which really helped me have a foothold in the space that I feel I occupy. I will always be appreciative to Richardson Magazine, Tom Sachs, Alltimers Skateboards, Braun Skateboards, Quartersnacks Skateboard, who were always champions for what I was doing in the early days. They have since either stopped doing it or moved production to other places because they grew so large. However, those were the people who were my bread and butter clients from the start.
C: You mentioned that you guys started off producing for different clientele and now you're producing your own stuff. Can you talk about the balancing act between being a producer and producing for others?
It is a balancing act for sure I feel like oftentimes I find myself devoting my work to the clients over my own brand. You know the saying, “the shoemaker doesn't have shoes” kind of thing. I feel that's often what LQQK ends up doing and so I have to burn the midnight oil to really get the LQQK stuff across the finish line. A lot of the reason why I really do lean on a lot of artist commissions and outside designers is because we're so busy making sure that the client work is something that we can just absolutely hit every deadline on. At the same time when you do start working on your own stuff like LQQK stuff it's like oh man I really love doing this. I wish I could dedicate more time to it. I wish there were more hours in the day to dedicate towards it but I mean in the meantime I just try my best to balance it. Still, I really do feel that oftentimes clients come first because that's what keeps the lights on in here.
E: Yeah, keeps the engine running
100%. Here's another thing, I also steal a lot of ideas from the client's work to use in my own work. Because someone might ask for a cool color combination, or a cool placement idea. It’s my technique that I'm kind of using all the client work as research and development for my own prints. It’s a blessing to be able to do that.
E: You got a constant stream of inspiration. So as a follow up, what’s your favorite LQQK Studio piece you guys have produced then?
C: Is it the fruit jersey? People love that one.
E: The fruit jersey is super sick.
The fruit jersey is really good. I do love that one. I really love the Kokopelli Fleece. I think that was one of those things that we were missing, like one of these, you know, evergreen styles that people talk about. Where it’s like, oh, you have that one thing that always sells. Still, I feel every time we do the Kokopelli, it's really well received, so that fleece has always been really special to me. Then beyond that, we always try to do cool puffer jackets in the wintertime. Ah, so it's kind of hard to pick which one's my favorite.
C: Oh, you guys just made a book recently. Let's talk a little bit about the book.
So, our friend Takei, I guess, eight or seven years ago, did a smaller version of the book. He would come in periodically throughout the year and snap photos of us. I gave him an old archive of LQQK products, and he would document it and style it. So he made a smaller book and then more recently he was like I think it's time to do a second one I was like absolutely. So over about a year he snapped all film photos and archived everything that had been or not a lot, not everything but a lot of stuff from in between the last book and this one and it ended up being 300 something pages. It's just a very extensive very intimate look into our daily lives here in the studio. I told him every photo you took makes us look really dirty, but it is really dirty. Still, I thought it looked really grimy. It's a true behind-the-scenes look, which is cool.
E: I'm sure having a book like that produced and being able to hold it physically is such a surreal feeling. Are there any specific milestones from the past couple of years of running the ship that specifically stick out?
That's interesting. I think the milestones for me would probably be when we started to ramp up more cut and sew for our own brand. I think we had solidified our foothold as the print shop that works with clients and it was time to start doing more cut and so and expand our distribution in Japan. So we now have something in like 30 different stores in Japan. It was a big turning point for me. It’s a very cool growth from just printing a couple shirts every now and then to sell on the web store, to where we’re at now where we're following certain seasons.
C: Around what year did that turning point start to hit for you guys? When did you realize this was going to be the next step?
Yeah, probably around three years ago. It was like officially the right time to get it going, like this is what we're doing. Then you know there were times where it was slow, it's always been slow seasons. I feel like everyone was always like you guys are crushing it, or like you're gonna blow up. Still, you know, it's like you see other brands' progression and I don't think we're on any trajectory besides just slow and steady. So, it's like I don't know; I see this as a long game thing. That's kind of like the approach.
E: I mean, your guys' name has some real weight to it. Whenever we tell people that you guys do our shirts, they're kind of like “Whoa, how did you guys manage that?”
I think I mean it's just part of working. We are constantly trying to maintain cool relationships and creative relationships because you know we don't advertise, we only do word of mouth. So what ended up happening was we started working in circles of just similar minded cool people and I think that's like the real weight of it all. We have a cool roster because we’ve always worked with interesting people.
E: That gassed us up a little bit.
C: We needed to hear that.
It's funny that there are probably easier routes to take than we've taken, and like I run a business. But I'm far from a businessman. Yeah so sometimes when people say oh like I know Henry he works for you, I'm always like no Henry works with me. I don't see myself as the guy in the office chair spinning around smoking cigars. It's like you know we're all kind of in the shit together, we're all filthy.
C: So does everyone have a little bit of ownership over LQQK?
It's technically still my entity but like everyone has a lot of creative input which I think helps keep it engaging for everyone involved. Also, everyone has full access to the studio whenever they want to produce something for their own personal reasons. So it's like everyone produces personal projects in their own time and can use the studio in whatever capacity they want.
E: Also shout out to Henry, it's his birthday
C: One more time, how old are you turning
Henry: 28!
(here's your cake henry :D)
E: Alex, given that LQQK Studio was your idea initially, it's basically like your baby in that sense. So, how was it expanding the team and letting people into your vision?
It's always been kind of like a group effort even though it has always been technically under my ownership. I think if I were literally just doing shit by myself I would have stopped doing this so long ago. I feed off the energy of everyone, even if they work at the studio or not. It's like I need that collective energy to stay driven myself. Without the collective energy for example, when I have to work from home sometimes I just fizzle out after like a half hour. I just end up on my phone after a bit or I just completely space out. So having that kind of team energy is something that is always really important in order for LQQK to operate, no matter what.
C: How long has it been going on for? Like 10 years?
Dog, it has to be more than 10 years old already. I think it's like 13 years, damn.
C: So what would you say is like the biggest thing you've learned from the beginning to now?
Good question. I think staying competitive and not taking your foot off the gas even when you might catch a wave. It's really easy to have that wave crash. I think I've been pretty diversified between the brand and the print shop, that when one lightens up you end up putting a little bit more energy in the other and vice versa. I think that's kind of been the biggest learning curve for me was staying competitive in both marketplaces. For example, making sure we're making interesting products for the brand but also making sure when we're printing that we're able to compete with other print shops in the area. I don't want us to seem exclusive, I want us to seem accessible. Yet, at the same time I do people want people to understand that they have to come correct when they're going to get stuff made with us
E: Yeah, there's like a clientele.
100%, the door is open but like you have to be organized. This is not Custom Ink.
E: Yeah, you won't make bullshit.
Nah.
C: But have you made some bullshit?
Of course, the lights are still on
(LAUGHING)
E: That's fire. I respect the honesty.
I think luckily we have been blessed to not have to deal with too many softball teams or like you know birthday parties. We don’t really have to do that type of stuff, but not saying we wouldn't. Still, we're busy enough with pretty cool projects that it has never been a necessity.
E: Yeah, I mean, looking around here, you guys got so much shit going on right now.
Yeah, you guys came on a really good day. This is kind of a really good snapshot of what it's like in here.
E: How was the initial reception when you started doing branded gear?
It's funny. I think that's actually a really great question. In the sense of my perspective, having done this for so long and being a hater of myself and a really critical person in general the initial reception was this crazy honeymoon phase. It’s like holy shit i just sold out of everything I made, i'm fucking crushing it. Fuck you all you other brands! You know you think the ride's never gonna end and then next year, or next season, another brand does the exact same thing you did. Or steals your “idea” or something that is not actually yours, but felt was a good idea. Then you feel devastated and crushed and stepped on, or you know sales might not be where they were on the first drop. Then you start to become really insecure, you're like wait it might be what i'm doing is just not cool anymore. You have to have this real moment where you have to understand that it really is all so cyclical. Things really do come in those waves.
As long as you're true to your identity and stay true to your values, then the audience will grow and stay with you. Just don’t sell out, you can't be upset that maybe the honeymoon is over. You're not washed out, it's just people's attention spans are short. Stick with your core and that's who you're doing it for. You're not doing it for the people who jump on and jump off of the new brand. If you're really interested in doing this for the long game, don't be upset when you don't have the same initial response fuckin 10 years later. I actually just shipped an order on the web store for someone and I've seen this person's name so many times, I looked back and saw it was their 28th order. They have orders from us dating all the way back to 2015. This is who we do it for.
C: You threw something in for him?
100 percent, I actually did. I literally threw in a little extra for him, I was like yo this is why i'm doing this. As I said, that initial wave of interest comes and goes because everyone's looking for the new brand. You just have to stay driven, and I think about that all the time.
E: After kind of going around and getting to meet the team, it seems like a lot of you guys share that sentiment that you guys aren't artists. What do you think separates an artist from what you guys do?
I mean we commodify what we do. I feel like with art, I mean the art market is its own thing but I think art is something intrinsically that does not necessarily have a value. Design has value because you're paying for a service. I think art oftentimes is one of these things that obviously a gallery or collectors place value on, not exactly the artist. The artist is a pure artist who should be making things regardless of the market. So we are not in that sense, I mean we are running the show for money. We are doing this to live in New York. We feed on that kind of energy and that sky's the limit mentality. It’s cool to do good work, and also get paid for it.
E: It's honest work.
100 percent, I don't want to take advantage of anyone. Still, at the same time, I want to get paid for the work that I'm doing. We're all designers, we're all creative people. You know, I think the word artist is an easily abused title, and maybe the layman might consider us artists, but I take no offense to the title. At the same time, it's just that we're doing what we do.
C: How do I phrase this without sounding crazy… Since you're a little bit on the older side you came before the internet. Now we’re in like the internet golden age, how was it adapting to the times while owning a business?
E: Damn, you made him sound ancient.
I don't mind.
C: Let the people know how old you are, real quick.
No.
(LAUGHING)
Screen printing is analog, when I DJ I play strictly vinyl, I collect vinyl. Everything we do it's analog, I'm an analog guy in a digital age. I’ve always been kind of like old school and a lot of my mentors were always older than me so I was the young guy in an older crowd. I mean I'm talking about people born in the 70s, these guys were my mentors. Back when I lived in Baltimore I had a homie who’s like 10 years older than me and he had a streetwear brand and clothing store, but he didn’t have a web store. It was before the time and so I watched him have basically the sickest store out, to it kind of fade away with time due to the internet era. It was a crazy learning curve for those people, “where they're like yo why aren't people coming in?” Everything’s online now.
Watching brick and mortar stores just tank and that stuff was happening right when LQQK was starting to come up. It was an important lesson, I was like yo the only way this is gonna work is to have a web store and a digital presence. So having a web store and an instagram was one of those things where it was not even a question whether you want to do it, you have to do that stuff in this era. Even now just like, holy shit the amount of content, the amount of new brands we see pop up will make your head spin. It's impossible to feel you can keep up with that energy because you also just don't want to feel like you're just being constantly targeted and spammed. It’s just shit like that where you just fucking lose interest. You don't want to feel like you're the internet's bitch, you want to feel you have your own free will. Hopefully hopefully LQQK doesn't enter that world because we don’t really do any targeted ads, so it's like the people who fuck with us have been riding with us for a while. It’s part of the process, because they know us and trust us. So yeah I think watching a lot of my old heads fall off gave me knowledge of what to not do. It sucks, but you gotta watch their kind of stumbling blocks and learn from that. I would also say just keeping yourself surrounded with younger people is really important. Like Ben he's like fucking— I don't even know, he's like 12 years old. Henry’s 28, (happy birthday Henry!) all these cats are mad young.
E: I think that word-of-mouth mentality & core that you guys have is what ultimately gives you guys that staying power in the long run.
WHAT'S NEXT?
I want to keep going with the print shop, I want to stay as a contemporary and keep pushing the boundaries of the print services we're able to offer. For me it goes hand in hand with the brand, we do cool prints for other people it only makes sense that the prints that we do for us are cool too. I want to make sure the printing side of things stays as sharp as possible.
E: Sick, anything you’re looking forward to Alex? Outside of LQQK Studio, in your personal life.
I have a four-year-old daughter now, so a lot of my priorities have shifted, yeah, let's put it that way. So if my daughter ever decides to pick up a squeegee and start printing, I'll be pretty stoked.
E: That's a really sweet way to sign it off, you wanna do any shout outs?
Shout out, shout out, just the general creative people that don't necessarily know what their path in life might be. Just keep working through it, and yeah, stay true to your beliefs.
LQQK TEAM MEMBERS
E: Can you give us a little bit of an introduction about yourself and what you do here at LQQK?
Aaron: My name is Aaron. I'm on the computer, so I go over emails and everything, and walk people through the process. I do all the separations for printing, so I prepare all the artwork for them to print.. That's kind of the overview, yeah.
E: Can you give us a quick introduction of yourself and what you do at LQQK Studio?
Ben: Yeah okay so my name is Ben and I'm kind of an intern right now. So I'm kind of everywhere. Right now I'm just stacking all these shirts, but I spend a lot of time reclaiming the screens or helping with the auto press. Just doing every little task.
E: Could you give us your name–
Also, it's his birthday.
E: Oh shit, it's your birthday, Henry?
C: Hey, get hella pictures of this guy.
E&C: Happy birthday, Henry.
Henry: I'm sure your listeners will be very happy.
C: Yo, if you're reading this, drop a happy birthday for Henry, please.
E: Name & a little bit about your role, what you do here at LQQK Studio.
Henry: My name is Henry, and I started out as a screen bitch. I work on the autopress now, and uh, I love it. I love that shit. It's mechanical, and I get to work with my hands, and I get to feel like an artist without actually being an artist.
E: If we could just get your name and then a little bit of what you do, uh, here at LQQK.
I'm Kevin Everson. I've been working here on and off for like eight years. I kind of just fill in the blanks.
C: He's a glue guy.
Kevin: Yeah, I'm a glue guy. I work every so often. Once a week, twice a week, once a month. I've just been in the crew forever. I do some different kinds of stuff outside of here, but I know how to do everything in the studio, so I just come in and help whenever they need hands.
E: This style of interviewing is very interesting for us, for sure. I'm trying to get something printed on my shirt. Look at all the presses they got running.
Pimp: Get these nuts printed on your shirt.
C: That shit sucks.
E: We missed that humor over here at Acedia Studios.
C: You're on thin ice, by the way.
E: Yeah, and by the way, we both lost our girls, so we're pissed today.
E: We're pissed.
C: We're pissed.
Pimp: Oh my god, what is happening?
SUMMARY OF WORKING AT LQQK
Kevin: If you can't take the heat, stay out of the kitchen. Or if you can't hang with the big dogs, stay on the porch. Everything that you do here is gonna affect the next person that's working here so if something went wrong it either happened under your fingers or like five feet away. It’s a very good place for team building, everyone has to know their own job in and out and also know how to put stuff aside and get to where we need to get. In order for someone to work here they have to kind of match the rhythm. Because I feel like everyone works pretty seamlessly towards the same goal here. So although it can be stressful, it doesn't really feel like it because it's like everybody's under the same fire.
C: Would y'all say you have little to no conflicts?
Kevin: I think the nature of everybody here is we all have pretty thick skin and we like to mess with each other for sure. Everyone knows how deep we can cut, you know? It doesn't get too crazy but I think it's good. It's like we trust each other. Everyone has each other's back so hard that I think we work hard and we play hard. Some people can be sensitive about conflict and stuff like that, but like when you're in here working it all makes sense. Ultimately you're definitely accountable, everyone's gonna keep you accountable.
E: Henry, your turn. Describe working at LQQK in a summary. It could be as short as you want, or as long as you want.
Henry: Did you say in summary or in the summer?
E: In summary, happy birthday by the way.
Henry: Thank you, happy birthday. To summarize, it's kind of like a training facility, or maybe that was just my experience. Still, i came in like kind of young to the scene but they're all in already and so I feel like i joined at fucking boiling pot. There was a push to make me quicker and get better comebacks and know how to act. Have you ever heard the phrase like “act like you've been there before”, it’s some shit like that. Ths is a really good spot to be able to ride with the people who are here like you'll just learn a lot of fucking life and people skills. Or at least I did, it taught me a lot. It put me in a room with a lot of people that I enjoy being around.
C: Sick, yeah, that's beautiful.
E: Ben, you’re up. How is it?
Ben: Let's see, I mean, I love it, it's just real, like there's, yeah, everything is authentic, it's quality, like I love this place
E: What's your favorite part of the job?
Ben: Let's see, it's just all like the after-work lunches, just kicking it with everybody, it's really fun.
C: On the company card?
Ben: Sometimes.
E: How'd you end up here man?
Just a random Instagram DM, yeah. I met them at a pop-up and loved what they did, so I just shot him a message.
E: Yo Aaron, want to describe what it's like working at LQQK?
Aaron: summary, I guess it's just like a group of friends working on prints, trying to make cool shit. Yeah, that's the gist of it, I don't know, I mean–
Kevin: Oh, Alex would hate this but I gotta say working with him especially over the last couple of years has been super inspiring. He would hate for me to say this, but if you've ever heard of lead by example that is exactly what that dude does. That dude's work ethic is so grisly and he's such a hard worker and he's never asked any of us to do stuff that he wouldn’t do himself. He’s just a really good example to be following and a person to be working under, but he never makes you feel like you're working for him, you're always working with him. I think that's a huge testament of how this place has stayed like it is. He’s never mean, I mean you catch heat in here, but like you're always gonna learn why. How hard he works is inspiring and sets the tone for the rest of us. I think it's helped everybody that's ever worked here grow and find what they're strong at, or what they could improve on.
C: Since you're one of the OG members, do you see yourself staying at LQQK for a while?
Kevin: I mean it's why I've come back so many times. If I'm in New York and I have free time, I always check up and ask what the guys have got going on. If Alex is like oh shit we're actually busy right now I’ll come by and help out. He likes to keep fresh faces in here learning and that's good, that's what this place is for. I hit my limit of what I was going to do here, but the studio continues and as long as they need people I'm around. Everyone just stays in contact, like how dudes just end up pulling up for a couple months and working again or filling in. It all steps back to how nice it is to work with Alex, I just wanted to say some real shit.
E: We needed that, actually. That's nice.
He will never make it seem like LQQK is just his thing, but his drive is what keeps this place running. Also Toya, who's not here today. Yeah, I mean, if you ask anyone in here who the boss is, they will say it's Toya for sure.
