We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Alexander Heir a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alexander, appreciate you joining us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

Although I went to art school, I didn’t really start to refine my skills until after I graduated and spent time constantly drawing and creating work. There’s no substitute for just doing it, making mistakes, and figuring out what works and doesn’t work. Good taste and style always trumps technical skill, however. I’ve never been the most naturally proficient draughtsman, but I’ve had a confident vision. It took me a while to realize my technical challenges were actually a positive; the mistakes in my work actually help define my style and make the work more unique.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’ve been running an independent clothing brand based in NYC called Death/Traitors since 2007. Initially I just made t-shirts, inspired by the fashion of the punk rock world I grew up in and continue to be a part of. Over the years, I expanded to do a wide spread of products including shorts, jackets, joggers, hats, and many other items, all sold almost solely via my website. Unlike many other brands, all the artwork and design is created exclusively by me, not a team of designers or freelance artists. This gives a consistency and cohesiveness to the brand that many other labels do not have; it is essentially the fashion arm of my greater body of art and illustration work. I am still the only employee; in addition to the designing, I do all the order fulfillment and customer service. I think it means a lot to my customers and fans that I am just one person doing something they believe in, and not a big corporation soly trying to turn a profit.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

When I first started doing Death/Traitors, I had no customers. I would print the shirts myself on my printing press, freelance printing for other clients to pay the bills. I built a website myself, and would take samples to different stores around the city to see if they would stock the brand. Even though I had very few customers, I would still make new designs monthly and continue to treat the brand as it was “real” until it finally was. I taught myself how to source cut and sew items and slowly built a customer base- After 7 or so years, I finally had enough business to stop printing freelance and do Death/Traitors full time.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

I think a lot of non-creative people think that because an artists enjoys making work, it’s not a “job,” and doesn’t require an incredible amount of time and struggle, or that’s it’s always fun and fulfilling. This causes people to undervalue our time, or think we don’t deserve to get paid fairly for our work, because it’s something we “love to do.” Additionally, people think if something is done quickly, it doesn’t deserve a high compensation rate, not realizing that the fast turnaround is the result of years and years of practice and education.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.deathtraitors.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/deathtraitors/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/deathtraitors

Image Credits
Photo by Olivia McCausland