Custom Rocks! :: Drifter Threads

A great friend of mine, Kevin Bruinsma aka Drifter, is the founder and creator of Drifter Threads. He was so kind to agree to this interview and I’m happy to share it and hope to do some collaborative work together some time soon.

13L: What is your background and what do you do?

D: I was born and raised in west Michigan.  Now I am a husband, father, and an artist in N.W. Indiana. Currently, I am working as a full time graphic designer.

13L: Give a brief description of Drifter Threads?

D: Drifter Threads is a creative outlet. It’s working in the garage and getting my hands dirty. It’s therapy.  It’s playing with chemicals and inks. It’s working with texture and type. It’s experimenting with patterns and detail. It’s putting art on t-shirts.

13L: Can you explain the process you use to create your tees?

D: First, it start with an idea and goes into my sketchbook. Then depending on the design, it can go one of three ways.  The first is pretty strait up. I’ll lay out my design on the computer and then goes through redbubble.com to get printed. That’s for the designs I like to present to the masses. The second method is hand screening. I’ll do the designs on computer. Print them on acetate. Burn my screen with a floodlight. Then hand-pull them in my garage. This method is for the more “limited” run. The last way is a little process I like to call pigment desateration. I start out cutting a stencil out off acetate. Then I‘ll lay my shirt out and weigh down the stencil. (I like to use an old socket set, bolts, and screws.) This holds the stencil close to the fabric. Then I simply put bleach in a spray bottle and go to town. This method is a lot of fun because you never really know how it will turn out. There are a lot of different factors that will determine how the bleach will react to the shirt. (ex. brand of bleach, pigment of shirt, fabric of shirt, temperature…)

13L: What was your motivation for starting Drifter Threads outside of client work or full-time employment?

D: It’s an avenue for me to get out some ideas I have that don’t really have a practical use in my 9 to 5. It’s also a great way to just have fun with concepts. The Dutch mafia is the perfect example. It started out as a bumper sticker I created. From there is turned into a bleached tee and then a screened tee. Now I have it on redbubble. Now I’m starting to work on a bunch of designs that work off of Dutch stereotypes and correlations between the Dutch mafia and the Italian mafia. My ideas are snowballing and I’m having a fun time with it. That’s what it’s all about.

13L: What obstacles did you have to overcome, or still working to overcome, to get your project off the ground and moving forward?

D: Money, time, and an avenue to get the shirts in peoples hands, those are my top 3 obstacles. I also do a lot of experimenting with different things. I didn’t know anything about silk screening. So teaching myself has been a lot of trial and error.

13L: What advantages or disadvantages do you feel that designers have over others in terms of building a business of their own?

D: I think one advantage is the fact that designers have the gift of concept. We can take a theme and build a brand from it. We also have the gift of creative thinking and problem solving. Those are two things I feel are necessary to build a great business. A disadvantage for me is that I get caught up in the creative end of things and slack in the business side of things. I think part of that is the hazy line between hobby and business.

13L: What advice would you give to freelancers and full-time employees who want to pursue their own interests?

D: Do it. Just make sure you pick something that is creative, relaxing, and pushes you to experiment. Diving in and figuring something out will inspire you. It will cause you to think differently which will benefit you in your day-to-day tasks.

13L: Where do you see Drifter Threads in 1 year?

D: I really would like to get more into limited hand screened stuff. I mean really focus on all the details that go along with the art form, everything from tags to packaging.

Check out Drifter Threads on Redbubble // Or on Drifters Blog

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