Campaign: MORE POWER TO US #LocalEntrepreneurs
Three long time high school friends: Harry, Blue and Nadim are putting smiles on our faces with their first product “The Smiley T-shirt” of their very own brand Spectacular. Which they dropped for the second time exclusively and with limited stock available only via the Gorilli webshop.
For this supportive team-up and as part of our #MorePowerToUs Campaign second series #LocalEntrepreneurs, we spoke to the founders of Spectacular about starting a business, their vision with Spectacular and the making of the smiley t-shirt.
The three have been friends for over 10 years, sharing a common vision for the fashion industry. In 2020 they made the decision to start a business together and this is how Spectacular came into the world.
Spectacular: “We all had the desire to do something with the creativity we all three posses and to find freedom in creating. With Spectacular as a business, we really strive to compliment each other as business partners while experiencing big fun creating stuff.”
Nadim is a graphic designer and photographer, Blue is an all round creator and Harry studied package design. A multidisciplinary team-up that has big promises for the future.
Spectacular: “Spectacular for us, is an outlet for our creativity, a way to express ourselves and our visions, which we want to share with the world through fashion and design.”
In all this seriousness of building a business, the three ensure that in this whole process, having fun should always be the main drive.
Spectacular: “We just started off with Spectacular and we are now dealing with start-up hick-ups, but none of it really matters if you keep in the fun and find joy in what you are doing. We would like to show the world the fun that is experienced when creating and share this joy with the world. Let’s bring back the fun.”
The Spectacular vision finds its inspiration, besides from the hip-hop culture and design, from rather philosophical meetings where they think of future scenarios.
Spectacular: “We’d like to think about the future, wondering how a hyper modern futuristic society would look like. We try to translate these thoughts into designing practical products with a focus on a sustainable future. It’s our mission to specialise in specific pieces that out-stand time and trends.”
The “Smiley T-shirt” is the first product they dropped, a starting point for Spectacular to send out their message into the world. Although they chose to launch the Smiley T-shirt during covid times with covid measures, the drop created an instant chain of likes on Instagram and were sold out rapidly. The success of the t-shirt is due to the thoughtfully created graphics and its message.
Spectacular: “At first, we experienced some difficulties with the design of our first product, questioning ourselves how or which way we wanted to go with Spectacular. Eventually, we just starting drawing, just doing it you know. The image is somewhat a response to the covid times that fucks with many peoples mental state. Our intention with the Smiley T-shirt is to send out happiness to the world. The t-shirt functions like a positive message for everyday to remind people that having a bad day is also OK, but in the end everything will be better."
The Smiley T-shirt is now exclusively available via the Gorilli webshop.
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Spectacular is an assembly of like-minded entrepreneurial forces. Just like Gorilli, supporting and to link-up the (Rotterdam) local entrepreneurs community, is a mission they try to push forward:
Spectacular: “We think Rotterdam based creators should start making more noise and connect with each other to lift-up one another. We’d like to do so by giving some shout-outs to Fat Crayon, Sumibu and Maas Broekhuizen in particular. They are, besides from really close friends who give us really valuable advice and bring inspiring products to the table, big inspiration sources for us on sustainability and authenticity level. We learn a lot from their entrepreneurial mind-set.
The term ‘collaboration’ is an integrated aspect of their business. For anyone aspiring to work with these fellas, take notes on this one:
Spectacular: “For us to go in business with anyone or any brand, it is important that we are on the same page, sharing the same vision in creating special products. Being able to learn from each other is something we value big time. Of course, showing and having respect for each other in the design and creating process is a rule to us.”
Last but not least, a little advice they would like to share with anyone starting in this industry from their own experiences:
Spectacular: “Don’t forget to have fun while creating, enjoy the process!”
Gorilli will be exposing more local brands in the near future. Link us up with unseen creatives by tagging @gorilli.nl via Instagram.
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Connect with Spectacular:
Official Website
Instagram
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Photography by Lisa Elean
Follow Lisa on Instagram:
@lisebae