We recently connected with Brandon Richter and have shared our conversation below.
Brandon , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Going back to the beginning – how did you come up with the idea in the first place?
Like a lot of screen printers, I fell into the profession. I developed an interest in visual and musical arts pretty early on, and started feeding those interests in high school with some guitar and photoshop electives. Fast forward some 8 years and I was in my mid twenties, a few bands deep, a few dozen dead end jobs in and trying to make ends meet without subduing to a soul sucking career with all the nonsense that comes as a package deal with a 9-5 job. I think i stumbled across a youtube video of some screen printing and thought that might be a good place to start. I pestered a local shop for a few weeks and they finally let me come in and I got the job. While it wasn’t music, or visual arts at first, it was incredibly satisfying to be making art and getting a pay check from it. I had an incredibly talented and artisitically passionate shop manager who taught me a lot of what i know now about screen printing. The process is very hands on, and you get really close and intimate to the artwork you are sent. I worked strictly in the shop for 2 years before the company bought out a sports warehouse, I had expressed interest in moving up to the art department and so I was first in line when they expanded. I realized then how much of the companies success falls on the artist, as everything being put into print needs to be created, and translated to by the artist. While my year in this position efficient in adobe illustrator, I was also spending a lot of time on phone calls with sales reps, and doing e mails, and redundant sports artwork, and it began feeling like a 9-5 as its own, and the pay wasn’t enough make me feel like sticking around. I picked up a gig as a full time traveling photographer for a year, but it’s always been a life goal to start my own company and be able to make my own schedule. So while on tour i started saving my pennies for the trade i confidentally know from start to finish, which is screen printing.
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?
“Are you shirt guy?” From an unknown number. “Yes” i replied, “I am shirt guy”. I am a screen printer and I’ve been making shirts for nearly 8 years now, 4 as my own company.
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
I’ve essentially been a content creator for the last 15 years, whether that’s for my own musical projects or for companies doing photo/video work, so having the tools and know how to make video edits and all that fun stuff has been a valuable tool for me. As far as getting it out there, that is a whole other department, and I’ve been lucky enough to get some traction on instagram. Some advice maybe, which is really just general creative advice, is don’t think too hard on it or think it needs to be so perfect that you never get around to finishing it. Other than that just take notes on what is working for you and stick with it. I’ve had more success on Instagram then Tik Tok or Facebook, so that’s where I primarily focus on. And you know, keep at it and don’t get discouraged.
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
As of this year, the majority of my clients are artists and musicians. Salt Lake City has such a cool and vast amount of talent, and I’ve been involved in some sort of creative project in the area for the last 15 years. Aside from social media, a lot of my networking is just doing the things i’m doing anyways, like going to and playing at shows. And my bands and clients have been really great about spreading the word!
Contact Info:
- Instagram: entropy_ink
- Facebook: Entropy Ink