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Q1 Pease tell us your brief profile and career. Why did you become a designer?
We first and foremost love the process of design whether it's fashion, product or graphics and becoming an official company allowed us to experiment creatively while keeping a balance between the limitations imposed by production processes and utopian design ideas. Although the company operates as a network of creatives, Derek King and Milton Ruiz compose the engine behind all the projects underneath the Stronglikebull, Inc. umbrella. Both Derek and Milton share a passion for the process of creating and especially the process of design and their strength relies on their diverse design backgrounds. Derek's expertise is mostly in illustration, print and web design, while Milton's is product, packaging and automotive design. |
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Q2 Would you tell us your career as a fashion designer?
When we started Stronglikebull, Inc. the idea was to operate as a design firm offering fresh concepts to the realm of graphics and product, but as we worked with a variety of clients we soon realized that we both had sensitivity towards fashion and that we found the need to explore in this area. We first created designs for apparel as consultants for Franky and Minx, we also have worked with Cartoon Network, Capcom USA and many other clients before we decided to apply what we learned and
start designing our own characters and apparel
Q3 Where does the brand name come from?
We have always had a passion for everything design specially for Asian vinyl figures and the graffiti subculture. When the process to start a company and to come up with a name for it we experimented with a number of names but the main goal was to come up with a name that would be catchy enough for people to remember. As we created a list of our attributes the name Stronglikebull was selected as the most appropriate since it reflects our strengths as a diverse creative team while displaying our influences and love for street art and cartoons.
Q4 Which celebrities are wearing?
We have designed tees for Jeff Hardy of the WWE for his rock band; also Donna from the Ghost Hunters was sent a Cute Skull tee, and a few others that we will hold off mentioning until we get pictures of them wearing our apparel. |
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Q10 Where do you live?
We are based in Cincinnati, Ohio and we also have a satellite office in Detroit, Michigan.
Q11 What is your favorite food? Any good restaurants?
We have some really good restaurants here Cincinnati, we are one of the fattest city in America (Laughs). Call us up if you get to Ohio and we'll take on a gastronomic tour! |
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Q12 Where do you go for shopping?
We wear a lot of our own gear, and do some shopping online.
Q13 Tell us the locations where we can find your collection?
We are currently available through specialty boutiques since our goal is to have pieces that run in a limited edition manner. We mainly handle our distribution through our website www.slbdesign.com but we also have distribution in the East coast through Stars & Infinite Darkness (www.starsandinfinitedarkness.com) and Pink Grey (www.pinkgrey.com), and in the West coast through Little Paper airplanes (www.littlepaperairplanes.com) as well as other smaller boutiques across the U.S.
Q14 Who is your favorite designer?
We have many designers that inspire our careers and it would be difficult to name them all without filling pages with names. At the moment we have been specially drawn to the work of Toyo Ito, ZahaHadid, Marc Newson and Karim Rashid but again there are many others that stimulate our creativity. |
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| We are StrongLikeBull a network of creatives and a design studio headed by the two amigos Milton, and Derek. Tired of being handcuffed by the stifling corporate mindset, we founded Stronglikebull, Inc. in 2004 as an outlet to allow freedom for our creativity. We needed to unleash our artistic impulses, and StrongLikeBull was the answer. Our strength relies in the fact that we are designers with very unique individual styles and widely diverse backgrounds. Stronglikebull's philosophy is to create orginal, ahead of the curve, designs not available at big chain retailers. We are constantly working to polish our ideas in order to develop the most original one of kind designs at an affordable price. |
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Q5 Would you tell us about the brand? What is the concept behind it?
We decided to keep the brand name the same as the company's because our clothing is an extension of the company itself. Our company is itself about creative freedom for the individual. The main concept has been for individuals to wear a piece of graphic design and as such our creations are intended to deliver a message which sometimes is humorous or it can have a more profound meaning but overall the idea is communicate a message.
Q6 What is your greatest inspiration when you make pieces?
As we mentioned earlier we are both heavily inspired by Asian vinyl figures as well as by the graffiti sub-culture but we do not limit ourselves to these two realms. Depending on the type of project or message that we want to convey we draw inspiration from as many sources as possible in order to keep ourselves from repeating a formula. Our goal is to push ourselves to discover new ideas that we previously didn’t have and those can only be discovered thorough absorbing the world around us from new technologies, music, art, world events, architecture, automotive, graphic, product and fashion design.
Q7 What do you see Japan from you? (Cultures, fashions, lifestyles etc..)
We are particularly interested in Japan for its great fashionsensitivity, its Manga and Anime artwork. We are also huge fans of classic Samurai, Monster and Period movies. |
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Q8 What do you think the trend for this season?
As we have analyzed culture and fashion in general we have noticed several cyclical patterns that tend to resurface every decade. At the moment we have noticed a global interest in 80's fashion particularly in the use of bright colors and large screen-printed graphics that give the impression of a vintage garment. Although the global environment is not drawn to a single fashion statement, we predict the mainstream fashion will continue to incorporate skulls as well big patterns reminiscent of the 1980's but with a current day twist.
Q9 What kind of fashion style do you like?
We have diverse tastes in fashion but we tend to lean towards a casual style that has cues of urban presence such as blazers with stenciled graphics, offset prints and other elements that will turn a formal piece of clothing into a more interesting and unusual garment. When its done right an amalgam of styles will always catch us pleasantly by surprise. |
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Q15 Tell us about your next collection? Any future plans?
We are currently working in a new collection of garments that will replace for the most part our current collection and we are going to focus in promoting our newly developed Frankenheart & Friends, which is a series of characters inspired by Asian vinyl figures and horror movies. Some designs will be themed based on subjects and interests that we have. We are also developing other generic designs and exploring the opportunity to expand into accessories.
Q16 What is your next achievement for your future?
We are currently working hard in revamping our corporate identity and our website as well as developing a good number of accessories to complement our garments such as tote bags, wallets and key chains.
Q17 Any last words?
Rock on! |
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