Interview by Charlie Festa

Hello Everyone! How is it going?

Super, thanks for asking!
-Reilly

What is Black Rock Collective?

Almost 3 years ago a few of us here at Threadless started to comunicate regularly, namely Blair Sayer (aka Mr Rocks), Rob Gould (aka Robsoul) and Graye Smith (aka Grayehound), and, more importantly, sharing design ideas for invaluable constructive criticism and feedback. The group grew to 5 with the addition of Stephenie McFeters (aka Mezo) and Ian Leino (aahhh... aka Ian Leino), and pretty soon a group themed submission was in the works The first theme was TIKI. Over time the group grew to 7, then to 15 members regularly emailing each other, with ideas and themes etc. Inboxes started to get full, and I started to get a little grumpy at the amount of emails coming in...(I am the second oldest at the Black Rock, grumpy old geezer that I can be...)
Jan Willem Wennekes (aka Stingerstyler) had the brilliant foresight to see where this was heading, and set up the Balck Rock forum (named after a location from the TV series 'Lost') and pretty soon the number of members started to rise. At present there are about 60-70 active members.
-Mr.Rocks



It all started when the Rob was visiting Blair and they were so drunk they couldn't remember where they parked the car. Two hours later they stumbled into a blues bar, and we're talking a "real" blues bar. Being the whitest two there, they proceeded to chant "black rock, black rock!" at the band as they pounded their glasses on the table. They woke up the next day huddled around a gas drum fire remembering nothing but the words black rock and so then they formed an art collective with others.
-Rockslide

To me it is a community of artists that have come together thanks to the internet, but more than that it is a family of critics and supporters that you can count on.
-Bortwein



How do your designs take off and spin into a giant collaboration?

They have taken off in 2 ways so far. One way is a mash-up style of design where we all find as many old files or drawings that we have as an individual and then we send those files to the lead designer on the project. That lead designer then makes something new and interesting with those items. The second way is more of an inspiration style collaboration where we start with a sketched out concept done by the lead designer and we all pick a part of the sketch to create our part. Then the lead takes all those parts and makes the concept come together. We all have the chance to be a lead designer on a project, but we need to come up with the idea first.
-Bortwein

Since there are so many designers working on their elements for one design who has final say or control of where the elements are placed?

Its an extremely complicated process. First theres the obligatory congressional discussion. Its called congressional because we don't make any progress as a group, and mostly just argue and present completely off track ideas. Then after a while, someone just announces they are in charge and we all agree it's best. Usually this is the first thing we agree on, but for no other reason than we are tired of disagreeing. Then we throw ideas in a hat, then we throw the hat into a pile of hats. Each person picks a hat, and the person with the funniest hat wins. We all have a good laugh and get back to work.
-ste7en

Basically, Stinger, or the responsible party, forces us to collaborate or releases compromising photographs from our last Christmas party.
-Rockslide



Who is the youngest/oldest member of BRC? You do not have to put your age Blair.

Blair "old balls" Sayer.
-Reilly

Actually douche bag, it's Aaron 'Hogboy' Hogg who's the oldest! HA! In your face Stroope! I am just the grumpiest... WTF? I am the second oldest, behind Aaron 'Hogboy' Hogg. I don't want to tell you how old he is, but he's older than me and I'm 35!!
-Mr.Rocks

Jeez am I really the oldest, that fucking sucks. Just for the record I am perilously close to 37 but I have the physique of an 18 year old athlete.
-Hogboy

*sigh* Lamentably, I do indeed have to take on the mantle of being the oldest here. I turn 38 in May. For the first three years at my last job everyone was firmly convinced I was at least 28 and fresh-ish outta school. Suckaz.
-Grayehound

Yessssss I knew it wasnt me! Haha in your face old man!
-Hogboy

Why is Jan so infatuated with Diamonds?

Diamonds are a girls best friend...Oh err wait, you mean the other "Jan".
-Luke...

Sorry, we cannot give away all our trade secrets!
-Stinger



Can I be a part of Black Rock? Is there an initiation ritual?

You have to be invited by another BRC member, and it also has to be 'validated' (for lack of a better word) by a few other members at least. This sounds elitist, but it's just a way of letting the BRC know who might be joining, so if you are not already a fan of their work you can check their stuff out. Most of the time it's someone whose work you really respect that warrants an invite. No secret society, farm yard animal lovin' I'm afraid. Although Aaron and I know some pretty attractive sheep in New Zealand. My first girlfriends name was BAAAA-bara.
-Mr. Rocks

The Black Rock Collective has mostly grown in an organic way: most of the members invited were friends of people who were already participating. This way the group kept on growing in a friendly and informal way. Basically, you have to be invited by another BRC member, and most of the time the invitations are discussed on the forum previously. This sounds elitist, but it is in fact just a way of letting the whole group that is the BRC know who might be joining, so if you are not already a fan of their work, you can check their stuff out. Most of the time it's someone whose work you really respect that warrants an invite. No secret (cyber) handshakes here I am afraid! Well, none other than a bit of keelhauling and bare-naked scrubbin of ye olde deck. And cookies, there's lots of cookies involved.
-Stinger

The Monster Mash Print you did for us is awesome! What's with that? How many people worked on that? Who did the final touch ups and locations ex: Mezo's nipple squirts?

Thanks! It took us quite some time to make it. The method we used was basically the one described above (collaboration), where one person was the art director/organiser and everyone submitted their artwork based on a compositional sketch. The sketch showed where your monster was, how it was interacting with the monsters around it, and what it's basic bodily position was. We had a list up called "division of labour" that enabled you to see who was supposed to do which number. We also worked with a limited palette for each monster to ensure that it would be easier to fiddle with the colours later on. In total around 40 members worked on this poster, there are even a few who created more than one monster. The art director/organiser put them all together in one massive Illustrator file (close to 25MB) and added shadows, drips and squirts. If you look closely you can see that each monster actually casts a shadow on the one behind or below him.
-Stinger



Where is everyone from? How do you communicate with each other?

We are everywhere and might be closer than you think, we communicate via tin cans and really, really long strings...As with anything the tension is what makes it all work.
-Luke...

We are all from the internets, and that is where we communicate with each other. We opened up a forum (see post by Blair) and this is the place where we discuss ideas, show work-in-progress, help each other out, give comments and suggestions, and share tips and tricks.
-Stinger



So what does the future hold for Black Rock? Spinners, Bling, Grillz?

The future is going to be huge. I know as a group we hope to have a Black Rock Collective store that should feature a variety of merchandise for people to buy and enjoy. As for the group's future I only see good things and many many collaborations down the road.
-Bortwein

Definitely lots of bling, diamonds, wild parties with champagne and strippers.
-Stinger

Interview by Charlie Festa

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