As teenagers, three friends and I created our own clothing brand. We could never find things in our rural home town that we liked to wear or could afford. Over time, the small scale, limited runs of custom clothing grew out of my parent’s basement into what we considered an “international” status. We worked with Canadian manufacturers for a hoodie project and had sales in countries like Australia, Norway, and Sweden in addition to creating quite a loyal hometown following.

(Note: Due to theft of my hard drive and computer years ago, I lost virtually all of my design assets for Glyptic. Below are some highlights built from surviving assets, principally from a circa 2012 summer collection release.)

Founded in early 2009, I effectively managed all business and creative aspects of the company. My friends helped me to sell and spread the word, but I created the designs, built our e-commerce platform, and managed our business, social, and production endeavors. I also shot and directed all photography and videography used for the company. I did this all prior to graduating high school and without ever taking a formal design or marketing course. It was how I cut my teeth on the Adobe programs and gave my first taste at being a multi-disciplinary designer instead of just a high school art kid.

Glyptic Apparel formally concluded operations in 2014 when I graduated college. I’ll forever be known as the “Glyptic Kid” in my hometown and the iconic “g” logo still inspires reactions across the Geneva Lake region, and beyond.