Typography: The Collective Barber Studio.
Collaborating with The Collective Barber Studio on letters for merch.
Building relationships with others often leads to unexpected opportunities. I have been visiting my barber Fonzo Fades since I moved to Denver. He was my first barber here and I am very fortunate I didn't have to keep looking after our first interaction. Through our times in the chair over the first few months, I began to better understand the ambition and creativity he has for his craft and beyond. It wasn't long before that we began discussing his ideas to further his career in barbershop culture and build on his brand.
Soon after going solo in his barber endeavors, Fonzo and I began discussing branding and merchandising during our visits. He reached out to me when his new studio opened to help him bring an idea to life that he and his father were working on. Fonzo had an idea for a type treatment initially intended for t-shirts that he asked his dad to collaborate with. Fonzo asked his father to create some letters for his new brand and then asked me to digitize the letters for them. This was a project I was very happy to work on as it came from a very personal place and those projects often are the most satisfying to be a part of.
Upon receiving the letters, I traced out each one that was needed adding some weight to the letters for visibility and texture to keep the handwritten style intact, duplicating each repeating letter for continuity and cleanliness. I then took a few different approaches on the layout along with arching some to see which would work best for apparel and also appeal to Fonzo and his pops the most. As I was making the mockups for shirts, I realized creating the C/S (Con Safos) lettermark would tie this in together culturally and give Fonzo more options for print placements on the tees. After completing the mockups and sending over the vector art of the layouts, Fonzo surprised me days later when he showed me his first samples of hats rather than shirts using the letters his father and I worked on. Suffice to say I was extremely stoked to see what Fonzo created from the designs. It reminded me of his own creative spark and how much he believes in what he is doing outside of cutting hair. The passion he exudes in his craft and the creations we've been building on has been a breath of fresh air for me and reminded me that sometimes I am more of a facilitator than a sole creator. By far one of my favorite collaborations to date.
Fonzo Fades and The Collective Barber Studio is a private barber studio based in Denver, CO.
For all of your illustration and creative needs, please contact me directly at:
blue73100@gmail.com
