Spliffie Designs hit the Web
What do philosophy, music, art and science have in common? And what in the name of hemp do they have to do with t-shirt designs? Plenty, according to Spliffie Designs CEO Michael Robinson.
An “urban Jamaican line of tees”, Spliffie’s mission is the promotion of ‘conscious evolution’.
“So we know the designs will make you think,” Robinson says on the site www.spliffie.com.
There are shirts for men and women, with images of persons like Cuban revolutionist Che Guevara and Marcus Garvey, with the message ‘we have to liberate ourselves’.
“Garvey was Jamaica’s first national hero. A very powerful spirit,” Robinson says. “One theme is hemp education. I really believe in the economic and utilitarian benefits of hemp and I think the shirts are a good forum to get that knowledge out. We’ve also aligned ourselves with keeP’n it real – a non-profit organisation in Illinois – and we’re putting HIV/AIDS awareness on the agenda.”
The designs, the 33-year-old says, is how he expresses himself.
“I seem to say a lot on the shirts. It’s how I express myself best these days, I think. One design is a fly – just a fly. That one came to me in a flash. Other ideas I have to slave over – usually on the computer.”
The chemistry-major-turned-designer-turned-entrepreneur has taken an eclectic background and produced a flavour all his own.
“I think it all comes together in every design I produce,” he says.
Robinson has studied chemistry, computer science, marketing and sculpture and won nine national professional art awards, including two bronze and a silver medal. He has been drawing and designing since he was four years old and taught himself how to use the graphics software.
From spoofing Star Wars as a child to hand-painting t-shirts in the ’80s, he went on to interning as a copywriter at an advertising agency where he was first exposed to graphics software.
Since then, his output has become completely digital. Graphic design, digital illustration and even digital photography have become part of his repertoire.
While design is still how Robinson gets what he calls his “creation fix” he has found the challenges of entrepreneurship, marketing and “yes, even shipping” quite fulfilling.
His move to wholesale and retail a line of screen-printed t-shirts places Spliffie Designs among a handful of Jamaican businesses and an even smaller list of Jamaican t-shirt designers.
Operating out of Kingston, Spliffie Designs embody Spliffie, a character Robinson says he used to draw in college. “The strip didn’t last very long, but Spliffie kinda stayed with me through the years, appearing in doodles and evolving along the way,” he says. “His look changed, and his personality too. He used to be very angry. Now he’s more laid-back.”
There’s a strong resemblance between Robinson and Spliffie, but he believes this is funny, since “people always say we look alike, but when I first drew Spliffie, I was only 15 – hadn’t even thought about growing locks or a beard”.
And in the works, he says, are more designs and more hemp education.
“We’re also putting out a line of hemp tees. We’re a website, we always keep it fresh. We have our official launch happening all through the month of September.”
