Interview by Jenkin Au
Words by Alan Ng & Kevin Williams
Photography by Jenkin Au & Patrick Giang
The justalilhype! Crew met up with Alan Law, the creator of the brand Rare’. With a background in communication design, Alan is able to transform his early appreciation of street wear fashion and turn it into his own venture. He follows a creative route through the development of his brand, where he wishes to covey messages that are less talked about in mainstream society. Alan’s passion with pop culture and films plays a huge role in the creation of his designs. He tells us the concept behind the first season which is inspired by his love to the character Joker, and how he plans to spread controversial messages through his clothing brand.
Tell us a bit about yourself.
I came to Vancouver when I was in Grade 4 and I have been here for more than 15 years. I started off at Alberta College of Art and Design, and then I went into Emily Carr for Communications Design. After that I got a 9 to 5 office job, which was okay but at the same time I wanted something more. I’ve had the idea of starting my own brand since 2008 so then now here I am.
What was the first time that you started thinking about the brand?
It was back in 2008. I was in school back then and I was also working with Adidas. Working with Adidas obviously got me in touch with lots of people, the culture itself. I’ve been into the culture for a long time. In 2008, I told my boss that I was thinking about starting up a brand. He said it was cool and encouraged me to start it. Along time ago, he actually started his own brand himself just for fun. For me, I’ve been following the sneaker and basketball culture since a young age, and of course back in 98 it was all about BAPE and what not; that was when BAPE was cool. I started following BAPE but I didn’t have the money to buy it. When I graduated and started my first job, I had money to purchase XLarge, which was one of the earlier brands that I followed. Eventually I went into FUCT, which is one of my favorite brands of all time because it was before BAPE, they were actually the ones that started all the Planet of the Apes graphics. With all those influences, it got me into what I am doing now.
How did you know what kind of direction you wanted to take with the brand? Did you base it with the brands that you follow yourself?
With the brands that I follow, such as FUCT, they were using planet of the apes, so movie culture. I first got into Starwars, and then I have also been utilizing the character Joker. Many of the things from pop culture that are portrayed in movies really interest me so that’s what I follow. Military is also a big influence to me.
What really inspired you to start a brand in general?
I guess it comes from childhood because I wasn’t able to afford a brand so I guess it would be cool to do something where I can make money off it and it’s something that I would love to do.
Starting a brand requires a solid artistic background and you went to Emily Carr for Communications Design, not really for the illustration side. Where did you pick up your artistic skills rather than the technical side?
I’ve been drawing since I was a kid and I loved looking around magazines and the Internet and that’s where I got my artistic inspirations.
European magazines are the best.
Yea they are, they have designs that you can understand and they can be great for years to come.
Actually that’s not true either, I think the whole street culture is kind of bumped down a bit.
The whole street wear culture is very saturated right now; everyone is doing collaborations with someone else, which makes sense in way. I remember a guy saying that street wear is going to die and it is going to be resurrected again.
I think it’s dying right now. Everybody is biting off each other.
Right now it’s a bad time, but it’s also a good time for me to build my foundations.
Tell us a bit more about Rare1.
Rare1 is a brand that focuses on rare things. The first descriptive that I got on the name is actually from a dictionary. Rare has got two meanings: Rare, as in an article or rare, as in hard to find. One is the first meaning in the dictionary. It’s really funny how I was thinking about just Rare, but of course someone used it. Rare1 is the next best thing to go with.
Rare1 is a brand that I want to convey messages of things out there that people should recognize but don’t really know about, or neglect upon. That’s what Rare1 means. I do believe that everyone is an individual and everyone has something to give back to the world. It’s definitely something important to me by seeing the good and uniqueness within everyone. That’s how the name came about. Before Rare1, I had some other names like Alpha Vision but it didn’t work out that well.
Can you tell us a bit more about the logo?
The typography comes from a magazine. Its kind of more of a luxurious font, I use it because it has pretty good balance, thinness, thickness and it looks very elegant. I kind of modified the A and E into a symbol, so it kind of looks weird in a sense. You kind of have to take a closer look to know what it is. Just like the name, I am trying to do things that are harder to find. It’s kind of like a hidden meaning, which brings up to the point of the bloodhound; that part of the logo is a symbol. It’s really funny when one of my friends told me later that Rare1 can be played around and it becomes “Be-rare” instead of being Beware and I found it quite interesting. It kind of matches the theme. From the start, I never intended them to match, it just that the logo works and looks cool. I guess with the whole brand image, it’s a little darker compared to other brands that I’ve been seeing locally. I’ve seen a lot of brands playing with smiley faces and what not. I guess that’s not something that I am doing. My brand is doing something that’s a little bit more evil, or disclosed.
Noticing some of your designs so far, it’s very black and white. Will this be kept moving forward?
I love black. It’s definitely something that I will try to keep but you never know. I try to keep it black and white but I guess that depends how my designs goes. If I have a crazy design, I might use a different color.
The first release is pretty centered on Batman and the character Joker. When you were first thinking of what to put in for the first drop, did you put yourself in the character’s shoes?
It’s really funny how this design started back in 2008. When The Dark Knight came out. Actually, just before the movie came out, I had this idea. Let’s first talk about how I got this idea. First, Batman, back in 89, it was a movie that I loved. I don’t know how many times that I watched that movie. I don’t know how old I was when I watched that movie. I got hooked since then to a point that I loved Batman till this date. My perspective, that movie is incomparable to any other Batman. It’s kind of cheesy and lame but it was scary. Forward to 2008, The Dark Knight is coming out and Heath Ledger is the Joker, just when I was just planning the design, Heath Ledger died. At that time, I thought about launching that shirt. I could get sales from that, but I didn’t want it to become a question of who was a better Joker. I ended pulled the release back.
Why did you stick with the Jack Nicholson Joker? Was it because of your love of the 1989 Batman movie or did you think he played a better one?
I can’t really say who played a better joker. I loved both of them. Heath Ledger acts the joker in a scary way. Joker in my brain is more of a humorous character. What he does is scary, but he doesn’t look as scary. So I decided to keep Jack Nicholson. Part of that is because after all these years, I still like his style. With the new Joker, he looks scarier. You kind of know he’s evil for sure. With the old Joker, you don’t know what he’d do, and that’s the scary part.
With this first line coming out as more centered on Batman, will the next drop be around this theme as well or will it be changing up?
This will be the first season for me. The themes will all gear towards Batman and the next theme will be something different. Even with Batman as a theme, it targets less people because not a lot of people may like Batman. The next theme is going to be more general; it’s going to be on war and terrorism. It’s going to focus on topics that more people are going to have views upon.
The theme is called Apoca-now. The theme pretty much runs around terrorism. That’s my fall and winter series so that matches the theme of 9/11 I guess. It’s very controversial but at the same time I have to release it because I find that people should be reminded of it. With all the wars right now, it definitely brings awareness to the Apocalypse and how’s it going to happen and what not.
With all these political figures, it’s pretty mainstream. To me, street culture is something that is more of a niche, something where a lesser group of people can appreciate properly. How will you cater this theme to street culture?
I will be incorporating these characters in a movie sense, or street culture theme. It could look like a movie poster. It could look like a scene from a movie, it could look like a CD cover. I will use that way to convey my message.
With a brand, it’s always going to be extremely expensive to make.
I am still releasing in limited quantities for now. It would be about 60 to 70 per design. The reason for doing that is that I would think about mass-producing it later, but I would want the quality of t-shirt to be manageable by myself. I want the quality and packaging that is controllable by me.
How are you financing this project?
So far I don’t have a problem yet because it’s still affordable and it’s definitely worth the money.
Quality wise I am quite satisfied about it, so the money I am spending is worth it.
Where are you getting the prints done?
I am getting them done locally. For the next season, some of the prints will be hand screened by myself.
In what niche within Vancouver do you see Rare1 belonging to?
It’s really hard to say because when I tried to position myself, I would think about it on a larger scale because I have my web store online. I am trying to push it into an international brand. For now, I don’t see any similar stuff in the market right now so it’s definitely new.
What is HYPE?
HYPE is a surprise that you don’t know if it’s good or bad yet. It’s like a hidden present. Just before you unwrap a birthday present, you don’t know if it’s a good or bad present