By Boris Pavlov, Year 11
LGB is full of incredibly talented people, ranging from all sorts of talents to fascinating hobbies. However, we often don’t get to appreciate their work enough. Take Anton for example, he recently started his very own clothing brand called Pogo Official (@pogo.official_brand_ on Instagram). His unique tee-shirt designs are extraordinarily cool but not too many people have heard about them. So we decided to ask him some questions.
How did you decide to start the Brand?
“Basically, in the future I want to do something with art, and I want to in the future go into an art university. This year I asked my parents to put me in this kind of team that helps me prepare myself for art universities. And of course doing such a course costs a lot of money. My parents were like, ‘Listen, Anton, we’re going to let you do this course but you are going to have to pay us back this year.’ So I owe them a certain amount of money and to do that I thought, ‘Why don’t I start selling stuff and then it hit me: why don’t I start selling tee-shirts?’”
How did you come up with the designs?
“I mean I haven’t made that many designs, but I feel like in general all of the designs that I am planning to make, because I haven’t made that many yet, have been influenced by skate culture. It’s something that I like doing, and it’s something that I like a lot. I am very impressed by it and the culture in general linked to skateboarding is quite artsy. And I would say that is something that has influenced some of the designs we have done as a team and in the future they will definitely influence them.”
How far do you hope this will go?
“In general, if this actually manages to go as far as I am hoping it will go, to the point where it becomes an actual brand, that would be crazy; that would be a crazy dream. And that is one of my crazy dreams right now: that if I actually managed to develop it to the point that it gets recognition and becomes an actual thing, well, it’s going to be a skate brand.”
Did it take you a long time to develop the designs?
“It takes a long time to develop the designs. First of all, because I have to think of the actual idea in general. Ah, it actually takes a long time because I make them and then I think , ‘Ah! That wouldn’t work’, ‘Ah! That wouldn’t look very good, though’. Then making it as a stencil itself takes a super long time too because you have to be ultra precise, you have to get good quality paper. And that’s what most people don’t realise, because when I am selling the tee-shirts people are like, “Why are you are paying 18 bucks for a tee-shirt that costs 5 bucks?” Well listen here, it took me two hours to make this stencil, so you’re either going to buy the tee-shirt or you’re going to go away. It took a long time to make and, yeah, they’re pretty hard to make. I think the ideas and the making itself are the two hardest parts of this thing”
Are you hoping to expand?
“Yeah so I am hoping to expand outside of school one day or another. Until now all of my friends have been quite supportive, as well as my family and that’s pretty cool. If I am going to expand one day, I am hoping to expand outside of school. I don’t want to expand outside of Geneva because that would just be really weird, even though I have had people outside of Geneva ask me for tee-shirts. That’s just not the thing right now. If I am hoping to expand outside of school I will need a bigger team because making these tee-shirts takes a really long time. If you want me to give you an approximation making four tee-shirts, it takes me an hour and a half / two hours because I have to wait for them to dry, I have to put the stencils in place, I have to get the graffiti paints, get the tee-shirts; it’s a pretty tedious job, to be honest”
What would you like people to know?
“So what I would like people to know in general is that I started this week. Literally Sunday. I started last week. Last Week. It has exactly been a week since I have started this whole brand thing. And a lot of people are already judging it, saying it’s too costly. No it’s not. Making these tee-shirts takes away a lot of my time, and time is money. Making one tee-shirt takes 25 minutes to half an hour. So if you don’t want to get a tee-shirt then don’t get a tee-shirt, and if you do want a tee-shirt then wait in line because I have a lot of people that are asking me for some. And it’s only been a week and I’m already so tired of this but its such a fun project and I can’t wait to see how far it goes. And the people around me that have been helping me with it have honestly been the best. And I would like to give a shout out to Tess and Doucia for being the the absolute besties!”
So don’t forget to check out Anton, Tess and Doucia’s Pogo Brand @pogo.official_brand_ on Instagram and buy some tee-shirts.
