Interview with Unkl Brands

    Recently I had the pleasure of being able to pick the brain of another design industry giant, whose company goes by the name of UNKL Brand. Their most recent and very successful contest was the Unipo-By-You, which I regrettably did not send my ideas for.. Of the founders Jason Bacon and Derek Welch, I was only able to track down Derek as his partner was busy at the time, but I am sure after all of these years they are probably pretty much on the same page for the most part with their company. I hope you will enjoy reading this interview as much as I did creating it.

    I’d like to start off by thanking you for taking the time out of what is probably a very busy schedule to answer these questions.

Can you tell me a little about yourselves and how you started in the design field?

    Derek: Yes, things are busy, but I’m happy to take the time to share some of what we do. Thanks for the opportunity to do so. Now, how I got started…I went to college in Texas to be a “commercial artist”. At the time I didn’t really know what it meant. I just knew I wanted to create art and get a paycheck at the same time. I focused on illustration until I took a design class and the rest fell into place. After graduating I worked in Austin and Dallas for 3 years before moving to Oregon to work for Nike. I was there almost 6 years until JB and I started Big-Giant. I’ve been hooked on design for over 15 years now.

Do you have a long history of working together or was UNKL the first thing that you collaborated on?

    Derek: Jason and I met while working for Nike in the Brand Design department. We used to kick projects back and forth between us just to see what the other would come up with. We also would write stories with characters and illustrate them for fun. The collaborations allowed us to expand our creative reach by leveraging each others talent. We’re a great team, because we have different approaches. We push each others ideas beyond what each of us would create individually.

In reading your short “about us” page on your site, I found your original reasons for creating UNKL Brand very interesting. You guys didn’t set out to become what most people would view almost exclusively as an urban vinyl toy brand.

How did the toy aspect of the business come about?

    Derek: Toys were a logical progression for us because we had already created so many characters and stories on paper. Making those characters three dimensional just made sense. We didn’t approach it as a business though. It was just for fun.

When did it become apparent to you that this was growing so large within your brand?

    Derek: We had an indication that this was getting bigger when we showed our stuff at SDCC in 05. That was early on in the life of UNKL, but that moment in time was pivotal for us.

How do you feel about the direction the brand has gone in the past 7 years?

    Derek: It’s really been more like 3 years (Our design studio, Big-Giant has been around for 7 years).
I like what we’ve done and where we’re headed. The biggest challenge is keeping up with it all. We’re doing so much already, but the opportunities are vast. Getting it all done right is the trick.

You mention that primarily you design for yourselves and hope that others will appreciate your approach equally as interesting. As popular as UNKL Brand products are, I don’t think there’s any question. I think as an artist myself I see a lot of value in being able to do what you are passionate about, for your own reasons. You must be very happy to be in a position to do that!

Has it always been possible for you to approach your work in this way?

    Derek: It hasn’t always been possible. Life just doesn’t work that way. With our client-based design business we can’t design for ourselves. With UNKL we can and do. Even still though, there are times when we have to bend a little on requests from people we are collaborating with.
But it’s cool because the projects originate from within. All in all though we are very passionate about our work both with UNKL and with our clients.

I love the stories you’ve written about the different toys. Can you explain a little about the different concepts that you’ve shared with the World in your toys like the HazMaPo, UniPo, JunPo..etc?

    Derek: The concepts for the stories usually come from things happening in the world, social issues, personal beliefs and things like that. Often, the stories just happen. We don’t agonize over them or do a lot of development. We just shoot from the hip. We take some stories and develop them much further than the initial frame up. This gets much more involved and challenging but it’s all great stuff to work on.

How do you come up with your concepts? I can imagine you two sitting around talking into the wee hours of the morning coming up with them, am I right?

    Derek: You’re right…2 years ago. Not so much anymore. I like to get my sleep, but ideas come from anywhere at anytime. Sometimes I’ll wake up at 2:00am with an idea and rush into the studio to start cranking on it. If we are forced to come up with a specific idea within a specific time-frame, it becomes more like work. Our best ideas just happen without warning.

What kind of things inspire you?

    Derek: For me personally, the fact that we’re only on the planet for a short time inspires me to do as much as I can. The fear of failing is a big motivator, as well. Even though we do this for ourselves, we expect a lot from ourselves. Besides that, I’d have to say my family is a big inspiration. My kids are very good story tellers and artists. Often their ideas find a way into what I do. It’s the ultimate collaboration.

What about other artists and designers?

    Derek: There are too many people doing great things to mention all of them, so I won’t mention any of them. There’s a lot out there that look at and think, “Damn, I wish I created that.” But ultimately I’m happy with what we do and how we do it. I wouldn’t trade what we do for anything.
Actually, that’s not completely true, but if I were to trade it, it’d be a hell of a lot.

What is the significance of their names, specifically the suffix of their names?

    Derek: We first used the “Po” suffix when we named TinPo. The name just sounded right for the character. When we created our hazard-inspired characters, HazMaPo, they had a similar feel to TinPo and they both had 4 legs, so we simply combined “Hazmat” and “Po.” From then on “Po” became our designation for any character with 4 legs.

I have no doubt that there are many artists and designers out there that would love to do what you guys do everyday. I’m sure many of them ask themselves how they can get there. What would be your advice to those people?

    Derek: My advice would be to go for it. We didn’t know anything about running a business until we started Big-Giant. We didn’t know anything about running a “toy” business until we started UNKL. The only way to really learn how to do something is to do it. Another piece of advice I would give is to plan carefully and save money. This sounds serious and expected but it’s true. We calculated, planned, and saved for a long time before starting UNKL. We knew how much it would cost, so rather than borrow money, roll the dice and hope it paid off, we saved a little every month until we had enough to try it. This way, if we failed, we wouldn’t go hungry. Eating…it’s a good thing. Don’t sacrifice everything just to try it. Be smart about it. Whether you succeed or fail, it’s worth doing if you believe in it.

I'd like to say on behalf of myself, and other fans of yours, "Thanks so much for taking time out for this interview!"

    Unkl Interview originally created and posted for Urban Retro Lifestyle by s4ndm4n