ONE SMALL SEED MAGAZINE Issue #27 Digital 02 | Page 50
HOW DID YOU BECOME A DESIGNER?
I’ve been drawing my whole life and at first I
was interested in fashion design. Then I went to
college and I saw the typical "fashion" people,
and I hated them, so I decided to follow my
passion of drawing and I studied illustration.
I graduated in 2010, and since I have spent
three amazing years in New York, there are a
lot of great opportunities here. In the past three
years I had the opportunity to work with a lot of
great clients, but what started my professional
career was all the internships I did when I was in
college. So I was interning for Ryan McGinness,
for Complex magazine and actually I had
a part time job in PUMA retail while I was in
college. Now, in 2013 I have my own collection
with them.
WHAT’S YOUR RELATION TO NEW YORK?
I was born and raised in New York, Queens, and
I’m still living here. My whole life.
WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BROOKLYN,
MANHATTAN AND OTHER BORROUGHS OF NY?
Queens keeps it real (laugh). Because when you
come into Queens everyone speaks a different
language and comes from a different country.
No one cares about where you are from, they’re
just here to live in New York. You go to Brooklyn,
parts of Manhattan, and most of these people
are not from New York, they’re from Montana
or Michigan or whatever, and they’re here to
work. New York is a big melting pot but here in
Queens, not a lot of people speak English. In my
neighbourhood, we have a Tibetan community,
Irish, South Korean, Thai, and a lot of Indians.
You walk few blocks and it’s all Peruvians and
Ecuadorians. You walk few more blocks you
have only Chinese and Korean, no white people,
it’s just a huge variety of different communities.