We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Rome Yansen. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Rome below.

Rome, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to go back in time and hear the story of how you came up with the name of your brand?

Artsy Blazer – A Must Wear is the name of my company. Through my journey of owning and operating my small business I am often always asked “Where did the name Artsy Blazer come from”? or “How did you come up with that name”? I was taught one thing growing up that stuck with me and that is “what you seek is usually in front of you”. My affinity for the suit jacket, or sport blazer was the inception and designing apparel was the spark that gave me the idea of putting those two things together. Thus the name Artsy Blazer came together perfectly.

Rome, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My name is Rome Yansen, I am a traveler of sorts. I was born in South America, then relocated to New-York and resided later on in and out of Maryland. I now call Vancouver, Canada my home. I specialize in Fashion Design, and Graphic Illustration, I own and operate my business “Artsy Blazer – A Must Wear” through e-commerce and based on the creation of custom designed apparel that I create.

Through my middle school years around 1998, I began to experiment with painting on apparel. This was a common trend in the D.C., Maryland, and Virginia (DMV) areas around that time. Many would often sell their custom designed shirts, shoes, and other apparel pieces in shopping mall stores, or through private sales. It was a special time for me as a child to experience such flourishing creativity all around. I felt fairly inadequate compared to what I saw the successful brands who specialized in this were doing throughout the DMV cities. However, I used that as a motivation to one day soar amongst the greats, and began to craft my style. Creating a style is no easy feat, it takes study of craft, humbleness to learn, reading literature, accepting critiques and endurance of personal failures.

Fast forward to 2011, I found success in selling and creating various hand painted apparel pieces, and being featured and showcased at various local art shows in Vancouver, Canada. This gave me the satisfaction of finally landing my creative journey on a pedestal that I was proud to bare witness to. As most artist can relate once. you’ve hit a ceiling with your craft you look for ways to break through and push to higher heights, at least that’s how I felt, and so I began to push my limits to create defining custom blazers but one serious critique shifted my thoughts and ambitions on the journey.

A young man who I knew from his mother’s very successful business that catered to women’s dresses all throughout Vancouver, visited the last art show I was apart of. I didn’t think he would make it to the show, then some of the models I had wearing my pieces came to me with urgency and said “there’s a man in a very fancy Mercedes out front asking for you”. I ventured on out to greet him and we took a walk inside the venue, he admired my works and offered to buy one of the shirts displayed on the wall. He said “any amount you want for this I will pay it”, I replied “Just $25 dollars will do”. I felt no need to ask for an astronomical amount of money, I was more invested in what critique or knowledge he had for me. He then expressed to me a few things, he said “If you want to go further in your journey as a clothing designer break away from paint. It is not practical and the comfort is not best for everyday wear.” he also stated “Invest in comfort and quality, I suggest you go into print.” Those words stuck with me, and shifted my vision of what to do next but the fear of the unknown lingered as print was unfamiliar territory for me.

A year later in June of 2012, a client of mine requested a project to have a photo of her dog printed on a shirt with my illustrative touch added into it, also at this time I began to converse with my business partner in Maryland, Ms. Sandra about licensing and registering a sole proprietorship business. These two events catapulted me into the realm of print production, and so it began the inception and creation of Artsy Blazer – A Must Wear. Sometimes in the journey of creating and manifesting your visions you will take other roads to arrive at your destination, and that was the case as I did not go directly into printing or custom designing sport blazers. My interest in printing my designs created through either Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Illustrator were so exciting and exhilarating that I focused more on t-shirts, sweatshirts, hoodies and other apparel accessories. My clientele began to increase expeditiously as word of mouth began to circulate, and the gears were moving full steam.

An e-commerce website was created using wordpress which I designed myself through many trials and iterations. I learned how to operate camera equipment, recruit models, liaise with different print shops to build strong business to business relationships. I learned more crafty ways to print on apparel, and I became immersed in my business while my partner in Maryland handled the books and finances so I could focus more on creativity. The logo development was one of the more challenging aspects of brand building. As the name Artsy Blazer meant so much to me, that putting it into a symbol I found frustrating, however a good friend who was a marketing consultant out of Atlanta, Georgia gave me some good insight, he said “less is more, and simplicity speaks volumes”. These words helped a lot and though my logo has been through over 5 variations I kept to that formula. Brands like Apple, Nike, or any major car manufacturer all have very simplistic logos, because their product is what we judge. A good logo is the name badge of your business it’s to identify who you are, the product is what you are.

I reached many peaks and heights and the dreams of yearning to fly with those long forgotten brands in my childhood were just that, long forgotten. Sales in other countries supporting my brand, and the perks of being able to design for other businesses and brands all followed suit with what I created. Artsy Blazer – A Must Wear took me on a journey I could have not fully fathomed. With the focus finally shifting to the original idea of custom designed sport jackets and blazers, the quality and intricate designs have put me in a stratosphere of unique high end time-less products. I focus more on quality rather than quantity, what sets my business apart is the details and themes that I create for the “artsy” blazers. These pieces are timeless and fitted to the measurements of my clients. Creating blazers for myself is also apart of running my business as people need to see how it looks and feels live and in action. A major take away gem for anyone reading is, if you don’t believe in your “it”, or support your “it”, you will get nothing out of “it”.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

Funding any business especially starting one is not easy when spare finances are scarce or the fear of where to allocate funds. I had a few mentors in my inner circle who own businesses that gave me some insight, and that helped with the knowledge of how to start and keep your return of investment coming in. When I began my business a skeletal plan was written out stating the “who, what, and why”. Who you are, what are you selling, and why are you selling it, then me and my business partner Ms. Sandra filled in the blanks.

Most of the capital to pay for registration were easy to handle, the challenge arose for capital to mass produce product for print. This is where tactics had to be explored, so we would invest in doing 5 – 10 one off prints of different designs on a variety of t-shirts, sweatshirts and other apparel accessories. Dependant upon which ones our consumers requested we then took pre-orders and fulfilled them based on the date we set. We did lose those who wanted immediate transaction, but we also kept return clientele that had no issue with pre-order and fulfillment date. Sometimes you may end up with product sitting on the shelf and sell it at a discounted rate just to break even. Working your job to finance your business is a common way as well, taking a small bank loan, or financial backing from investors or business partners are other ways to gain capital to begin your journey. My best advice is to write out a budget plan and write down the “who, what, and why” list, and the rest will fall into place.

Have you ever had to pivot?

There was a time in my business journey around 2015 where I was producing and selling high volumes of merchandise. I was getting local recognition while attending club events and venues, it felt good to know that people were investing in what I was creating. People would come up to me and ask “Aren’t you Artsy Blazer”?! I felt an immense sense of thankfulness that my talents brought this kind of positive energy and appreciation.

A year later personal life struggles and depleting sales due to changes in the fashion market was putting a damper on production and creation of new apparel. The spotlight faded for me a bit, and I was not giving my business my all. I even had thoughts of selling my intellectual properties, however I thought to myself that there is no need to restart, sell, or quit the journey. No moment is forever, and the pendulum swings, this too shall pass. To this day just those simple words and boost of morale pivoted me to push forward and sure enough a year later I was sent off to Hong Kong due to my talents and business being intact and keeping a steady pace.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://artsyblazer.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/artsyblazer
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/artysblazer
• Linkedin: https://linkedin.com/in/romeyansen
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/artsyblazer
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/artsyblazer
• Other: https://opensea.io/collection/artsyblazer