Stay Young, Stay Hungry
Pyknic officially began my freshman year of college (2006) while attending DeSales University but I believe it was something that was deeply rooted and growing along with me all along.
My mother’s father was a shoemaker in Indonesia so the fashion aspect could have been in my blood. My dad was always building things or fixing things around the house so I grew up helping him and seeing a hard working, DIY-ethic. In first grade my class was working on questionnaires and like any proud son, I said that I wanted to work at the factory where my dad worked when I grew up. I’ll never forget him telling me I didn’t want to do that and that he wanted better for me.
I was always drawing, my Nana was very supportive of my artistic abilities, and in grade school I started hustling Pokemon drawings. When the family finally got a desktop computer, I think a Packard Bell, I bought “Greeting Cards Workshop” as a family-gift. I would literally spend hours on there, not making greeting cards, but just messing around with graphics and type. Somehow I was utilizing it as a very crude Photoshop before even knowing such a program existed.
Finally in high school I landed in a few commercial art courses under the tutelage of Mrs. Stockton (who I’d love to track down today and thank her for being a big part where I am now) and I was finally transitioning into Photoshop and Illustrator. Besides these few high school courses, I actually have no formal training whatsoever. On my own time, I sought out local screen printers and began putting my art on t-shirts and selling them while in high school.
A couple constants in my life were obviously family and also my love of food. I have two sisters so whenever we’d be out with my mom and none of them could finish, they could always count on “the garbage disposal” to finish their meals off for them, (thank God for staying active by playing soccer through college, by the way). With Pyknic I wanted the brand to encompass that inclusive friends & family aspect and food certainly brought everyone to the table, together. That is what I wanted the brand to be about: family and creating a conversation, even if just a laugh. Along with the food theme and lifestyle came the symbolic “hunger” in terms of the hard working ethic I grew up with. I was “hungry” all along to work for myself and do something I was really passionate about. I think we’re all hungry for something, even literally.
The first Pyknic shirt I drew by hand with a Sharpie Marker on an undershirt. What Pyknic is now has been a constantly evolution through trial-and-error, for better or worse.
