We recently connected with Alec Ortiz and have shared our conversation below.

Alec, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Naming anything – including a business – is so hard. Right? What’s the story behind how you came up with the name of your brand?

I had always loved skate boarding culture and art growing up, but never had the chance to try, as I grew up in a rural setting with mostly gravel roads. I loved seeing the different brands of skateboards, their logos and of course the names of the companies. I also played my fair share of Tony Hawk, Pro Skater, and of course knew the brand Birdhouse. My freshman year of high school, we moved to a small city (with paved roads) but I was apprehensive about picking up the hobby. My senior year a friend gifted me his longboard, telling me “take this and learn to skate.” I took that Sector 9 board to a church parking lot and taught myself how to longboard at 18, while my uncle and little brother walked laps in the same parking lot for exercise and emotional support.

in 2009, I entered the University of Minnesota as a freshman. I was on the wrestling team, but looking to get some momentum with my art and designing. At that time, we did not have the NIL capabilities athletes have now. Therefore, when I was looking for a pseudonym to use for art purposes, I had to get creative. I was living on the 8th floor of Sanford hall, when the name idea finally came. Our floor meetings with our RA were called “House” meetings, and we were “House 8, as we lived on the 8th floor.
Riding my Sector 9 still, I did the math and started using House 8 Graphics as the moniker for my art, and eventually my company.

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Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Since I can remember, I have always been interested in art, and have been making it. My mom and grandmother would sew and embroider for my sister, brother and I, and my dad was talented with a pencil and paper. I was about 7 when mom taught me how to bead on a loom, and make the beaded critters that were so omnipresent in the late 90’s. I was also trying my best to draw the comic and manga characters I was seeing on tv and on the page. From Marvel to Valiant, DC to Tori, and everything else I could get my eyes on.

I have been in athletics since I was about 5. I tried baseball, basketball, baseball, and wrestling. I stuck with wrestling, and eventually cross country. The biggest lesson that I learned from athletics that I use in my business career, is that I am not the best at any of my given skills. However, I know I can outwork any competitor. A skill that comes in handy when your aren’t as talented as a given competitor. As they say, ‘hard work beats talent, when talent doesn’t work hard’. I believe that work ethic is what sets me apart from other businesses and allows me to stay competitive in a very competitive environment.

I take great joy in taking the idea from a client’s head, and putting onto a garment, or design. Not everyone has the ability to articulate their thoughts in a manner that is helpful to a designer, but being able to read between the lines, and at times read a clients mind, is a skill I feel I have honed. I have had the pleasure of designing a few logos and helping build a few brands of small businesses. By far, that experience is my favorite. Starting a client off with a logo, and seeing them build a business from it, is quite a fulfilling experience.

Can you talk to us about manufacturing? How’d you figure it all out? We’d love to hear the story.

As a screen printer, I take already constructed garments, and ad embellishment. I learned this process my second year in college, in an art sense, not a production one. For example, I knew how to screen print an edition of 10 prints on paper, but not 200 tank tops on a tight deadline.

I knew I would screen print as a hobby, but it wasn’t until my friend and teammate, Pat Smith (real person and name), asked me to print some tees and tank tops for his group in an intro to entrepreneurship class that I realized I could do this for a living. I initially declined, as I thought is was too much of an undertaking. However, upon hearing the local print shop couldn’t print the design we had collaborated on, in the dimensions we wanted, (as a person now in production screen printing now, I totally understand that shops position) I said they were lazy and I would make it happen. I troubleshot my way through a few hundred garments, and learned many important lessons about screen printing, personal management, and guerrilla marketing. We all made a few bucks off the project, some personal were bought out of the project, and I even gave instructions on how to screen print over the phone. This whole process gave me a small, but accurate taste of what being a small business owner would be, as well as providing a service to a client. I have a ‘Tankzedo’ to this day, the garment we printed.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

The only effective strategy I have found that works for me, is word of mouth recommendations. I will take jobs that won’t necessarily make me much money, but that person will tell someone about me, and that usually leads to a more lucrative job. It’s a strategy that I would not recommend, however I did my best to advertise on instagram, and saw zero to minimal increased interactions or jobs. I have built my clientele through execution of jobs in a timely manner, and with quality craftsmanship.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://house8graphics.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/house8graphics/

Image Credits
Image credits House 8 Graphics (me)