1Soul Designs

How did you come up with the name of your line?

Mike: 1SOUL DESIGNS Means that its not my brand, its not my partners brand, it’s everyones brand and that we do share this universal connection, we share this one universal soul, and all of our actions indirectly affects one another.

Scheme: Do you feel like your line portrays the work of a modern day activist

Mike: Well instead of walking around with picket signs, we walk around with t-shirts that express our views and frustrations with whats goin on around us. To steal a line from Common and put my twist on it, “If revolution had a movie I would be the costume designer…”

Scheme: Who is on your team/ What is your company made up of? Are there a couple of graphic artists? Do you design everything?

Mike: Me and My partner Randy Quiles who supports in production and propaganda. The team is everyone really. We are always influenced by the people around us, all the artists in our circle, they really help us in terms of just inspiration. I do most of the graphic designing, And Randy is like my first critic , so we have this process about which designs we go with.

Scheme: How heavily does hip hop influence your clothing designs? Does this modern day music influence or inspire you? How does old school music effect your creativity?

Mike: I would say all music influences my designs, as well it should. Thats the point of music, it’s a great source of inspiration. In hip hop right now, I would say yes it inspires me because there are things wrong in that industry and there are things right. And both sides inspire me. And always like bringing people back so old school music is always on my mind and in my ears, I grew up listening to my pops old motown 45s. I was singing temptations songs in grade school.

Scheme: What is your best selling item?

Mike: It’s a tie between our Hip Hop Was Fun tee, and our Che Wasn’t Cuban tee, I think, but alot of our designs are pretty much ties in best selling, they all best sellers in my eyes, whether they sell or not.

Scheme: Who is your target audience, like that age block of 16 to like 28?

Mike: Brown, black, white, orange, green, yellow, purple. I mean my target is to touch everyone really?

Scheme:What do you hope people will gain from purchasing or wearing your creations

Mike: I want people to talk, to have dialogue between themselves, I want people to get stopped by people in the street because of their t-shirt. Create this discourse among everyone, cuz thats what we really need right now, theres just too much goin on to just ignore it.

Scheme: Can you explain or elaborate on Mike 1 Soul being more than a clothing line, but rather a movement?

Mike: Well sometimes I think that 1SOUL DESIGNS is not even a clothing line. To be honest with you, its the message. Thats what we care about. Spreading this message. We not only about t-shirts, its the way we run this brand. Its really grassroots and no funding or business loans whatsoever. It has sustained itself in way thats so inspiring to people. Thats why its a movement, it has moved people people to get out and do something, it has inspired them and we continue to do so, with all our designs, our community work, our international work, everything we do we try to show people that they can do it too.

Scheme: Can you also give specific examples of how Mike 1 Soul works with the community and its programs?

Mike: 1SOUL DESIGNS run a Youth Apprenticeship Program where we get High School Students from the local area to come in and build their t-shirt brand. They are able to come up with he name, mission statement, make their own designs, print their own designs on t-shirts, and sell their own shirts.

We also aid other community organizations like Trust Your Struggle Art Collective and Clenched Fist Productins on special projects, like Mural tours, cultural exchange programs. We have linked up with communities in Mexico, Guatemala, Vieques PR, Cuba and hope to be touch a lot more places in the future