Since when have you been running a Spreadshirt Shop, and what made you start it?
I started my GRIMY Spreadshop early in 2010. I’d already experimented with the Spreadshop system before though. Back then, however, I couldn’t really think of a concept that had not already been around.
What eventually gave me the idea to open the shop was a t-shirt design of mine that managed to come up first in an online t-shirt design contest. The little Grim Reaper character of the design embodies the core of this idea, and it turned out to be a bit of a hit. This is why I came up with the idea to turn it into a character to try and exploit its potential. I then created a few new designs and a website that is linked to Spreadshirt.
What’s your favourite design, and how did you find the inspiration for it?
One of my favourite designs is the “GRIMY // Ice“ design. You can see GRIMY giving an ice-cream to his little friend, a squirrel. This design almost instantly reveals that the Grim Reaper is actually not that grim at all. GRIMY’s need for harmony and friendship is the central theme here. This design is probably one of my favourites.
Where do you draw your inspiration from?
I get my inspiration from real-life situations. Different moods and atmospheres are interesting sources for my GRIMY design visualisations.
Who is GRIMY?
The original idea of an evil and death-bringing character is quite detached from him. An evolved development of the reaper character took GRIMY to our modern world. Let me try to explain this: historically, there were catastrophes, famines, civil wars and terminal diseases. And these events have always delivered precious human life to the reaper. In our western society today, the new reaper generation obviously needs to look out for new challenges. GRIMY embodies this new generation. He enjoys life to the full, and next to being courageous and brave, he is also sensitive and considerate. GRIMY tries to make this world a better place while at the same maintaining his individuality as well as his lust for life (as contradicting as it may sound).
Do you market your character anywhere else than on t-shirts?
Next to t-shirts, there is also the GRIMY’s WORLD blog. There you can read short stories about GRIMY (in German) which are illustrated with my GRIMY designs. The blog is meant to be an entertaining backup for the character. This is important to support GRIMY in order to make him more ‘tangible’. It’s also great for me that I’m basically free to do whatever I feel like on the blog, which is a big bonus.
Do you have a certain type of peer group, and how or where do you market your products?
I’m aiming at people who can identify with the GRIMY concept, and who enjoy wearing extra-ordinary t-shirts and designs that live up to high-quality standards. Of course, a lot of marketing is being done online. Some of the designs attract attention on the Spreadshirt’s Markteplace platform. This is the place where people looking for t-shirts can browse designs and then find my label. A further marketing platform comes in the guise of a brand-store platform. Here, GRIMY designs are printed in serigraph. The way it works is that I order American Apparel t-shirts in a bulk of at least 50 t-shirts with Spreadshirt. The screen-printing method puts my GRIMY designs on these t-shirts. Distribution and shipping is something I look after myself. This always involves a bit of an organisational effort, but screen-printing is a delicate technique that is probably best left to professionals, aka the Spreadshirt bulk t-shirt team. And yes, Facebook is of course a rather important promotional tool for my ideas and products. Who has already started to take a liking to the little reaper will be able to become an FB fan as well.
Do you think that GRIMY has already established itself to a degree that you could call it a label? And if so, was it hard to get there?
GRIMY may be a known label in the t-shirt industry, but it is definitely a steep way up to fame in terms of establishing it as a label as such. The effort I have been putting into it so far has been immense, but it didn’t really feel like a lot of work because it is also a lot of fun as it offers a chance to find an outlet for my creative potential. You also need to be a bit of a Jack-of-all-trades type to fill the boots of a designer, website administrator and accountant at the same time. Even if you don’t consider all of these areas as your strongest sides, they still need to be tended to. What’s really difficult is making GRIMY known to the public. People need to devote some time to finding out what the character is about, and that takes a couple of minutes for somebody who sees him for the first time. “New” things tend not to be embraced as easily as well known concepts, so you need to devote a lot of energy and time to find ways of promoting GRIMY and the label as such.
Have you ever seen anybody wearing your t-shirt – anybody you didn’t know?
A TV host on an internet television station once wore one of my GRIMY t-shirts. For somebody like me who runs his own t-shirt shop this is of course a great moment to actually see somebody wearing one of your designs, but so far I can’t say that I’ve ever seen anybody wearing my t-shirts in the street.
What do you do when you aren’t tinkering about with your Spreadshirt shop?
My day job concerns consulting mid-sized media companies with projects in the printing industry.
Why did you opt for working with Spreadshirt?
I’ve known Spreadshirt for 5 years. This is a rather long time, and I’ve never encountered any difficulties. Spreadshirt are reliable and customer-oriented, and these are two qualities which are essential when it comes to running your own business. So they are a great partner for my GRIMY REAPER label.
