From Logo to Luxury: Elevating Design and Decoration Beyond the Basic

Our regular listeners know this, but 2 Regular Guys are all about garment decorating, a bit of fun, and no rants or lectures or selling. We are not doing this for our employers, but rather for our industry. Since February 2013, The 2 Regular Guys have been the first and the most listened to garment decorating industry podcast on this planet! We are humbled by all of you tuning in each week. We work hard to bring you information that will make your business better, and our industry better. Take a look at our incredible weekly guest list and you’ll understand where this industry goes for news, interviews, and the heartbeat of garment decorating. Thanks for listening!

News

• Aaron: If you folks didn’t get a chance to hear our recent podcast with Jim Raffel and Ray Weiss on Getting the Right Color with DTG & Sublimation, you might have missed the fact that Terry and I were invited on to Jim’s excellent ‘Dyesubcast’ podcast; that episode featuring our interview is now up and ready- catch that episode at the link on the screen and check out all the awesome information in the rest of the episodes over at Dyesubcast while you are at it. https://anchor.fm/dyesubcast/episodes/DyeSubCast-Episode-12-2-Regular-Guys-eth3ib

Dad Joke: It’s hard to explain puns to kleptomaniacs because they always take things literally!

From Logo to Luxury

Erich: With that, let’s bring on someone with a little more style to shake things up and hopefully help you folks shake up how you think of decoration!

Jeremy Picker is the creative director and CEO at AMB3R Creative, a Colorado-based merchandise design firm with over 20 years of experience in the fashion industry. Jeremy has helped launch and grow merchandise for major label bands and is passionate about creating retail quality merchandise for the non-profit sector to fuel fundraising efforts and expand awareness. His client list spans from churches to restaurants to corporations, and he designs apparel for Podswag, the merch side of Sirius XM, Stitcher and Earwolf, doing work for some of the most popular podcasts today including Conan O’Brien’s, Office ladies, Lavar Burton’s, Bill Nye’s and more.

Jeremy is also a cancer survivor and a co-founder of ESTAINE, a high-end accessory line to support cancer education. We chat with Jeremy about some of the steps in his creative process for designing merchandise and Jeremy shares freely from his lessons learned while fighting cancer and building a successful business.

Welcome to the show, Jeremy!

Erich: When we finally locked down this slot for our takeover, you came up with the awesome title ‘From Logo to Luxury’ – before we start to geek out on the details, what does it mean to you. What do we usually see in decoration and what would you want to see?

Erich: I’ve seen so many amazing pieces of yours that take a creative bent, and I notice that many of them include applique and multimedia. Why do you like applique so much as a medium? Can we talk about your favorite fabric types, what do you use and why?

Erich: As a digitizer, I can’t help but want to discuss interpretation; we’ve talked a little about making coordinating looks, not just replicating logos, but in the process of embroidery, there’s so much we can do to further change the character of a design, even once we’ve already chosen a medium like applique- let’s talk about the things we can do in that phase- How do you approach specialty stitches and what we can do in digitizing?

Erich: Whenever I talk about creative interpretation or looking to get more dimension out of a design, I have folks clap back saying that nobody cares, or that Jane’s Plumbing isn’t looking to ‘elevate’ anything; my experience has been that more folks do want these treatments if they know they are available- How do you assess a company or brand for what fits with them? Is there a right audience for creative work, and how do you tailor your approach depending on the vibe or type of audience you are serving?

Erich: Ultimately, though I know you come from a very purpose-based, service-oriented place, we are in business- I’d love your take on how elevating your decoration creates more appeal and what that means for your pricing.

Erich: What’s your latest new ‘thing’? What do you love producing? 

(Potential Q’s if we end up with extra time:

Erich: One thing I really love about what you do is your research- Tell us a little about how you research and organize your ideas.

Erich: You produce incredible style guides, samples, and other assets to educate and inspire your customers; what goes into that process and how has it helped your business? )

Erich: What’s next for AMB3R? Do you have any new directions you want to share with us? 

Erich: Let our listeners know how they can find you, your awesome content, and AMB3R:

5 Things to Remember for Creative Apparel Decoration

1. Coordinate, don’t just Replicate
2. Let your medium do what it does best
3. Apparel is wearable, make people want to wear it
4. Remember your Audience
5. Show the work you want to do!

Be Part of #5Things

If you would like to present your 5 Things, five quick points on any subject whether it be advice or five instructional steps, we would love to hear from you. You can come on the show and present them yourself, or we will share your list with our listeners or even play a recorded video of you sharing 5 things. Whatever is easiest.

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