Designer Spotlight: Emptees Profile: justgeoff
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justgeoff (Geoff May) lives in Cleveland, OH, and has been an Emptees member for 12 months. Check out his personal site www.geoffmay.com and contact Geoff at geoffmay [at] cox [dot] net, or on AIM at geoffm35.
Interview
Why did you decide to start designing tees?
justgeoff: I was working freelance as a print/web designer and not really digging it. It was just boring corporate stuff. It paid the bills but was pretty unfulfilling. I knew that I wanted to break into doing tee shirts but really had no clue where to start. I contacted the labels of bands I was into but got zero replies. Last December I stumbled upon Emptees and just started doing some tee designs for fun and throwing them up. They were fairly well received and next thing I knew, the same labels that ignored me just months earlier were now contacting me. It just snowballed from there. I'm stoked to be doing what I'm doing and being able to make a living off of it. Maybe I'll get burned out on it, but right now I really enjoy what I do.
Where do you get your inspiration?
justgeoff: I definitely get inspired by other designers. I like just checking out people's portfolios and picking up little bits of inspiration here or there. I also get inspired from real world stuff, like architecture, music or things in nature. They don't always transfer over exactly as I saw them, but I think that's the point of it. It's cool to put your own spin on something you saw. I think it's so rad to be able to be literally anywhere and be able to draw inspiration from random things.
How quick of a designer are you?
justgeoff: Some designs I'm able to put together quickly. Either it started with a strong concept or it was just serendipity that I was able to make something cohesive in a short amount of time. Other designs take a ton of time. Usually the hand drawn stuff and custom typography I do tends to take a lot of time. They involve a lot of sketches and little revisions along the way. Sometimes I literally create as I go and just adjust on the fly to things that I'm adding. Other times I have a strong idea already and just go off of that. I guess the answer is that there is not a set time it takes for a design to get done. It's done when it's done.
What is your favorite blog?
justgeoff: Obviously www.geoffmay.com!!
I honestly don't really read blogs. I'm not really down with the idea of everyone posting their thoughts like they're important to the world. Sure, our thoughts and problems are the most important thing to us, but why publish them for others to read? I'm a private person, so maybe it makes sense to other people to do it. It just seems weird to me. My blog is all about the design stuff I'm doing or that is already out. I don't get into personal stuff. Honestly, no one cares about my problems but me.
Where do you buy your t-shirts?
justgeoff: I've purchased a couple off of Threadless (www.threadless.com) and Design By Humans (www.designbyhumans.com). I'm really not into many tees other than boring tees that I've had since high school. I like plain tees. Plus, I'm pretty metrosexual so when I go out I'm usually wearing some sort of button up shirt. Gotta dress to impress!
Favorite movie of all time?
justgeoff: The Big Lebowski. Hands down, the funniest movie I've ever seen. Last Halloween I went as The Dude. Of course I ended up passed out in someone's attic from drinking too many White Russians.
PleaseDressMe's Favorite justgeoff Design: Panda Cutout
