Benson, introduce yourself to those who don’t yet know you.


My name is Benson Boone. I am a cliff jumping, rope swinging, rollerblading, snowboarding, surfing, rock climbing, skiing, scuba diving, scootering, flipping dude that happens to write songs and sing too.

In your own words, you’ve said that you didn’t really discover your voice until quite late during a battle of the bands. How was it stepping up to sing for the first time in front of an audience?


It was crazy! I didn’t know that I could sing until pretty late in my life. I think I was seventeen. So, it was wild for me to try and go for something that I had just recently discovered when I kinda grew up playing sports and being outdoors. Trying singing was very new for me, but it was a wild experience.

What about now, your performances are charged with energy and there’s a connection between you and the fans – has that emerged organically?


Yeah, I think I genuinely just love my fans more than anything. Everything I really do is for them. Especially when I’m performing, I feel the most connected to them because that’s when people can actually see my talents in person and my passion for music – so I would say it’s very organic!

n terms of live performers, who does it for you on stage? 


I’ve only seen two people in concert: Harry Styles and Jon Bellion. They do it for me. When I went to Jon Bellion’s concert he just made me feel like I was the only person in the room, and I think that that’s a very rare talent. So, Jon Bellion is very personal with his crowd. And Harry Styles is just freakin’ wack on stage - which makes it so cool.

In the studio, you’ve noted that your artistry and songwriting has evolved. Is this a constant state of flux, do you have goals in mind when penning tracks?


My music is always evolving, my style is evolving, the way I write is always getting better and my melodies are always improving. It always changes. I mean I’m not always gonna like the same music and I’m not always going to write the same style of music. I am letting my music show how my emotions are changing and they just flow with my emotions. [When penning tracks] I just do my best every time.

We read that it’s important for you to have a piano on stage. Care to elaborate?


Yes. Most of my songs have a piano in them so I like to bring a piano onstage, so my songs are able to be sung live. Because that’s what a concert is.

Before you took this path, you were on your way to study architecture. Whose work do you admire and why?


I don’t think that there’s specifically someone’s work that I admire, I think it’s more just I enjoy the satisfaction of looking at a building that’s aesthetically pleasing. I think it would be a very satisfying feeling to look at a building you’ve just constructed, and it looks cool.

Can you see a link between the two disciplines? Writing songs and drafting architecture / the legacy of the built environment and the finished song …


I really think the only link between the two - well I guess there are two links between the two - is that they’re both forms of art. Building and constructing a physical sculpture or a building is a form of art just as writing a song and constructing melodies and putting them in the right place is a form of art. But I think the feeling you get afterwards is a mutual feeling where - when you finish creating a building or creating a structure and you get to look at it for the first time when it’s finished - you’re proud of it. And you get that same feeling when you finish a song. When I’m done writing a song and spending hours and hours just portraying emotions onto paper, it pays off.

Let’s go merch. How does that slot into the music these days?


I create all my own merch. So, it’s nice to see people at my shows wearing merch that I designed and knowing that I can use one of my skills to help people feel a little bit more personable towards me. Kind of like walking away with a part of me.

How involved are you in the designs and artwork?


I am very involved in the designs and artwork. I create them all myself and I design them all myself. I think it’s fun to go to a concert and come back with something to remember it by, and especially when that’s created by the artist. I think it makes it more personal.

What are your influences as far as the merch goes? There’s some cool retro-inspired stuff and LA/Cali vibe we’re getting.


Well, I don’t actually live in LA so I don’t really know where that comes from but I just design what I think will be cool for me. I don’t lean towards a certain genre or certain way of designing things. I like style and I like fashion and I think it’s cool to base my T-shirts and sweatshirts and hats on something that I would wear.

What’s the merch mean to your fans and how does it feel to see them wearing it?


What a good question! I just think when you go to a concert and it’s an artist you really love it’s nice to leave with something you can remember that night with. Whether that’s a T-shirt or a picture - you do you - I think it’s cool to have a T-shirt designed by the artist. It’s cool to see people wearing something that I have spent a lot of time creating.

Finally… TikTok/social media. How important for an artist are these channels and what advice would you give to artists when it comes to social?


I think you just gotta go for it. It’s not like there’s a certain way to do social media or an exact right or an exact wrong. I think you just figure out your lane, and what you like, and then give it your all.

THE CREATORS PIONEERING MERCH – BENSON BOONE

Finger On the Pulse

Based in Stockholm, Fotografiska has risen fast to become one of the vanguards of photography as an art form. From the beginning, Fotografiska has adopted a demographic approach to curation and spatial design, with a holistic identity that begins the moment a visitor enters the museum. With a thriving store, and restaurant as popular as its galleries, Fotografiska has now linked with Creator Studio to expand its merch offering. We chatted to Eva-Lena Degerhäll, director of retail at Fotografiska about the experience so far.

In a short space of time, Fotografiska has become almost synonymous with photographic art and artists. What’s your special sauce?


We think Fotografiska is a destination with an experience that’s adapted and flexible. It fits our place in time and we try to bring people close to a real experience.
We’re all involved in the decision process and have the chance to bring something to the table. So everything we do is diplomatic and driven by meaning but we’re also pretty brave and bold. We have a defined stance but are also compact enough to react and respond to new ideas, trends, changes and societal flux.


One thing we want to be is inclusive, open and non-exclusive. You don’t need to have any sort of experience or knowledge in art or photography to get something from the experience. We’re welcoming and anti-art snobbery. Photography is a very democratic form of art, so it’s easy to understand and get your own sense of feeling from it. One of the beauties of photography is that everyone has a chance to respond and form a personal reaction to the work. It’s very immediate and accessible as a medium. 

The space itself feels very dynamic and as much a part of the experience as the works and exhibitions. Is that a conscious thing – that Fotografiska should be a destination as well as a gallery? 


We can see that our location and spatial design add to the visitor experience. From the way you make your way through the entrance, and on into the exhibition spaces and our restaurant – all these elements add to your experience. Visitors are feeling and reacting to something from start to finish.

There are subtle sensory aspects to our spatial design, like a nice scent, and the way the shop is airy and vibrant. We also had a nice ‘forest bar’ in one of the exhibitions, we really enjoy activating all the senses. Food, music, scent, light ambience… our sense philosophy brings together different elements that add to the whole. For example, not so many museums get visitors for the food as much as they do for the art.

Talk to us about the collaboration between Fotografiska and Creator Studio. And how merch fits into the museum?


We started the merch collab with the Hans Gedda exhibition and we’re very focused on our environmental impact, so responsible merch is crucial.

Hans himself is very curious and rock’n’roll and he felt there needs to be nice merch to complement the exhibition. He knew what he wanted and how it would fit into his vision and the show. It felt so right to do it as merch on demand with Creator Studio, and also from the artists’ perspectives.
The visitors will often want a souvenir from the exhibitions and artists they’ve just viewed and we saw immediately that they’re really responding positively to the merch and the way it's made.

Making merch on demand feels very of our time in terms of the production and it marries with how we think as well. We want to make the best decisions we can based on the outcome for the planet. Plus, it’s good to give people the chance to buy right from the beginning.

Are artists today aware of merchandise as a part of their way of connecting with their audience?


I’d say so, yes. Art and photography are very clued into merchandise and how their work translates into other mediums. Museums have had shops with books, posters, keepsakes and prints for a long time. Soft merchandise like we’re making with Creator Studio is a natural extension of this. On show now is a group show called In Bloom, and the artists Inka & Niclas, who’d seen our Gedda merch said; ‘We want that too!’


We want to have that kind of engagement between the artists and the way they are portrayed on the merch and the artists have all been very active in the creative process.

What are the plans for the collab between Fotografiska and Creator Studio in the future?


If it feels right for an exhibition and its artists, we’ll offer it to them. And we’ll work with them towards using artwork that feels right for the garments. It’s been a real proof of concept for us, and for you too I guess at the Creator Studio end!

THE CREATORS PIONEERING MERCH – FOTOGRAFISKA

Picture Perfect Merch  

Our Create:AR solution immerses a customer in the creative power of merch on demand, using augmented reality to bridge the gap between the physical and digital worlds. Through an augmented reality headset, we bring fully customisable merch into the world around us.

It’s a live merch experience that’s hyper-creative, exceptionally engaging and forges a unique bond between the person making the merch and their finished custom garment. The perfect merch forum for companies that thrive on being fast to adopt innovation to bring their audiences new ways to experience their favourite brands.

This year, to mark its centenary, Disney opened the doors to a multi-sensory pop-up experience entitled Disney Wonder or Friendship: The Experience, kicking off in London and travelling to cities throughout Europe. So, alongside the event’s immersive installations, and happenings, we took our Create:AR set up to London for a merch popup in the event’s retail area, to enhance the experience for Disney fans.

We created an augmented world, populated by family favourites like Mickey & Friends, The Lion King, Lilo & Stitch and Alice in Wonderland. Visitors were able to let their creativity run wild using either augmented reality or a touch screen (our Create:Kiosk) to interact with this virtual experience and create their very own garments.

It's not every day you can say you’re wearing a customised Disney-inspired garment, but a centenary celebration deserves to be remembered in style. Happy 100 Years of Disney!

THE CREATORS PIONEERING MERCH – DISNEY

Experiencing the Wonder of Merch with Disney

These new hues are developed to extend the men's and women's Hoodie, plus women’s Sweatshirt and Crop Top. All are available at Creator Studio now. 

Talking to our True Blanks designer, Ina Hjelte, she notes that; “Right now we’re seeing more colours with impact and wanted to develop some bright and powerful hues, to create contrast with our soft basics.”

On the Mens Contemporary Hoodie, there’s Toffée, a creamy foundation that pops against bright artwork and also works well in a utility/workwear scenario. The Womens Contemporary Sweatshirt gets a strong and fresh Primrose Yellow. Finally, the vibrant Hyper Pink is added to the Womens Contemporary Hoodie and Crop Top. 

Head to MyStudio now and go create with these new tones.

New True Blanks Colourway Drop 

The Womens Oversized Tee is the latest addition to the True Blanks Contemporary Collection, designed in-house and engineered for merch on demand.

Taking inspiration from our popular Mens Boxy Tee, also in the Contemporary Collection, the Oversized Tee brings a boxy, structured silhouette but has been iterated towards the female form and proportions. Designed by our in-house atelier, it’s another piece with detailing on a macro scale and made from a mid weight single jersey in 180 gsm 100% organic cotton. 

The new piece has an oversized, boxy fit, dropped shoulders, and elongated, chunky crewneck ribbing. The tee also features twin needle stitching at the sleeve opening and at the elongated hem fold. Sizes run from XS-XL, in off-white and off-black.

“We wanted to create a modern oversized silhouette for your female customers, the same look as the Mens Boxy Tee but with a slightly softer look. Lots of emphasis on the details and wider rib details. The body volume is like the Boxy Tee but on the new version, the material is lighter, giving a slightly softer and more draped look on the body. We also shortened the sleeve length for a more feminine silhouette.”
– Ina Hjelte, designer, True Blanks 

The new Oversized Tee is live now over on MyStudio.

New True Blanks Garment: Womens Oversized Tee

Our True Blanks fashion collections are unique in the merch industry, exclusively engineered by our atelier to be the perfect match for your Creator Studio products. There are two collections, and each piece has its own unique details and features.

In this post, we’ll break down the differences between Essentials and Contemporary collections, to help you discover the best canvas for your masterpieces. We tapped True Blanks designer, Ina Hjelte to give us an overview.

“All the collections are built as families. So you can think of each piece as a sibling that shares similar DNA but is also unique and individual,” says Hjelte.

“In the Essentials collection, details are minimal, but they have a purpose and reason. You can say that this collection has a classic fit with a modern, soft hand feel. Contemporary garments are more directional and experimental in details, cut and also textile composition. They feel a little heavier in the hand, like heritage merch pieces,” she explains.

Simply put, if you’re looking to create a merch line that feels ‘traditional’ Essentials is the first place to look. Whereas, if your designs are pitched to a more edgy, fashion-led audience Contemporary is where you’ll be pulling garms.

100% organic cotton or recycled polyester

Which True Blank is right for your merch? 

Creator Studio began as an idea to challenge the perceptions of today’s merch landscape and turn it into a creative force for expression. To do this, we examined the production and design tools, to inform Creator Studio as a service, but we also looked into the garments themselves. The latter is the seed for True Blanks – our own fashion label, made for merch

Calle Malmgren is Creative Director of the True Blanks label, with years of fashion industry experience under his belt and hands-on merch knowledge at his disposal. True Blanks is a manifestation of this love of merch, fashion and that gut feeling you have when you know how powerful a concept is when executed properly:

"I've been in bands all my life, making t-shirts for tours, so I know the merch pains. With this in mind, we want to raise the bar in every respect and truly own the design process of True Blanks. In our eyes, everyone should be able to make small quantities of premium merch and express their creativity. Print on demand enables endless ways to give your fans relevant merch, activate drops, stay fluid, fuel events, customise and co-create. True Blanks is about challenging the industry and eradicating sub-standard blanks so your merch can be truly next level."

Since the blanks we wanted didn’t exist, we made them. True Blanks garments are engineered from the ground up for Creator Studio and our creators. Every stitch, the fabric composition and weight, the details, and sizing consistency… all optimised to match our printers and production chain. It all adds up to better print quality, consistency on a global scale and merch that channels the spirit of the heritage merch we love so much while also breaking new ground.

These garments are exclusive to you as a creator and are used by all our production collaborators and print hubs across the globe. Premium quality garments, informed by decades of fashion know-how and tailor-made for your merch.

What is True Blanks? 

Sometimes, when you interview people, you can feel a knowledge, experience and skill that only comes from working hands-on in your chosen field. Mattias Lövkvist has that quality. In 2004, he migrated from journalism to found Hybris, a record label that would go on to push the boundaries of the new digital music distribution format in Sweden, 

 a brace of Swedish Grammy-winning artists in its roster.

Today, Lövkvist uses his decades of experience as the founder of Aloaded. Part record label, part music distribution, management, PR… it’s a model that defies description. And it’s got artists from all genres and locations tapping into its services.

John Gadnert and Mattias Lövkvist from Aloaded.

“At the core, we’re digital distributors. We distribute labels and their artists so their fans can find their music on the big streaming services. But we refer to ourselves as a full-service distributor – you’d to come us to save yourselves having to source countless other individual entities. We do everything an artist or label could ever want,” explains Lövkvist.

During the Hybris years, Lövkvist and Hybris co-founder, John Gadnert pretty much did it all, in the spirit of passionate DIY. From pitching their artists into the emerging digital platforms to PR, making vinyl, flyposting… When 2015 rolled around, Lövkvist and Gadnert, had an idea to use all their knowledge and offer it to artists and labels that need help with these kinds of activities. In 2018, Aloaded was launched in earnest.

“If you need, say, a music video, we hook you up with some of our contacts, if you want your band’s gig postered up in a big city, we fix that. You need someone to master a track, we got that. Maybe you want a publishing deal, we can help with the contracts. We either do it all ourselves, or we hit our contacts book,” says Lövkvist.

It’s probable that, reading this, you might get the feeling that what Aloaded does flies in the face of the digital-everything way of thinking that defines our music landscape today. And it does.

Lövkvist puts Aloaded in context, noting that most distributors today copy a system in which a distributor is just that in the truest sense of the word. But rather than a truck delivering LPs to a record store, a distributor today is essentially a ‘server’, storing music and pushing it out to a streaming service.

“At Aloaded we’re humans. We’re hands-on. The way we work is very scalable. We offer regular distribution for artists who get the rest done themselves and have almost 4000 artists with over 100,000 tracks out there. But most people come to us because we can really help make their artistry easier with our full service,” he notes.

What the Aloaded team has found is that by giving its clients a personalised human point of access, they support an artist or label in a way that the big players simply can’t hope to attain. Because, as Lövkvist stresses, the digital music revolution has a romantic vision of the artist being in control, but the reality is that they still need help with so many things. And, unless you’re successful enough to have a team around you, it can be a lonely industry. Aloaded brings professionalism, passion, and a willingness to get stuff done. Or, as Lövkvist says; “We give people the chance to eliminate the simple mistakes that can kill the success of an artist or track.”

As the conversation turns towards merch and how Aloaded is working with Creator Studio, we chat about the role of merch in music today. Lövkvist views it as a huge opportunity to turn it into a very potent revenue stream.

“Merch is a strong channel for sure. It makes so much sense to use it as an artist, especially if you’re at the stage when you’re touring or have a committed fanbase – especially if your fans can’t get to a gig. If you sell 100 hoodies on our website, depending on the price, that can be the same revenue as 1 million Spotify streams! And getting that is way more work. Sure, selling merch is a big job but, comparably, it’s a lot easier than making a piece of music.”

Having explored merch on demand before, Creator Studio felt like a good proposition for Aloaded. Better logistics, quality backed by the H&M Group and fulfilment working in harmony to give Aloaded a new service to offer to its roster, who are already embracing the solution.

“We’re seeing an increase in the number of artists using the connectivity between Shopify and Spotify to bridge the gap between the merch and their fans. And it’s something we’d encourage because it’s working. There’s one artist I know who sells 25k Euros a month on merch alone. If 1 million streams bring you 3 or 4,000, you do the maths as to the power of merch for an artist,” Lövkvist adds.

The opening weeks of 2023 have seen Artificial Intelligence dominate conversations in tech land. Tools powerful enough to replicate human language or visual imagery that some suggest may be the end of more sectors of human creativity. Our brief time with Aloaded shows that it’s often quite the opposite effect – the more tech evolves, the place and context for real human contact and skill becomes crystal clear. Disruption from the soul still rocks.

THE CREATORS PIONEERING MERCH – ALOADED

Disruption from within 

Impact Gym in Stockholm is a community for its members. Specialising in Muay Thai and Taekwon-do, it's one of many sports communities that use merch to deepen the sense of belonging that runs far beyond the walls of its dojo. With the help of a well-crafted blank and jab of print on demand, the bonds formed within the ring grow stronger when the gloves come off. This is a story of finding your place, the feeling of belonging and the ties that are reinforced by the simple act of proudly wearing a shared message.

“I think it’s important for people to feel a connection to a community, wherever you are. To feel that you belong somewhere.” 

We grabbed some cameras and headed to meet Impact Gym’s Emma Stonegård. Check out the film and grab some merch to join ‘The Pack’

THE CREATORS PIONEERING MERCH – IMPACT GYM

a merch collection punching well above its weight

Emma Stonegård from Impact Gym sits in the dressing room, ready to begin her training session.

Deeper Community Connections

“Should we hit the merch stand before or after the gig?” is a question countless live music fans have had to face. Swedish brothers, Henrik and Tom Ljungqvist, or Jung as they’re known to fans, are a band that’s taken the wise decision and hooked up with Creator Studio to give their fans merch on demand instead. A smart move that gives fans the chance to buy the merch weeks before the gig and show up wearing it already! We caught up with Jung as they dropped into our photo studio, to shoot their new merch, to talk about marrying music and visuals into one harmonious vision.

Jung was exploring music from an early age, today sharing songwriting duties, with Tom on keyboard and Henrik on the guitar. “It wasn’t until four years ago that we actually started writing songs for a common purpose. And, in one way, our goals are of the highest sort, but the main thing is that we just love to be able to make music for a living. It’s amazing to be able to work with something creative, a dream come true in many ways,” explains Henrik, adorned in Jung’s new merch.

The duo has been described as a band anchored in the traditions of classic melodic songwriting, twisting in elements of folk, dance and R&B. A fact that’s not surprising considering an upbringing that saw Henrik and Tom exposed from an early age to a wide variety of music.

“Our parents gave us the best from the past; Fleetwood Mac, Jackson Browne, The Beatles, Bruce Springsteen, Van Morrisson, the Stones, and the list goes on. Growing up our Dad used to sing ‘I swear by All-4-One in the car. A defining moment for sure,” says Henrik, with a wry glint in his eye.

With such musically strong blood ties, we ask whether their sibling relationship makes the band and the pairing’s songwriting easier. “We can’t comment on other siblings in bands, but we think it’s easier,” Tom remarks. “We have a deep understanding of each other and the same kind of musical preferences and shared background – as Henrik said earlier.”

With three albums under their belt and a host of collaborations, including Let Him Go (released in 2020 with fellow Swede, Clara Mae and streamed around 40 million times on Spotify alone) Jung has a purposeful work ethic that runs beyond music and into the visual aspects of artistry. And the band’s creativity seeps into its music videos, working closely with a blend of creatives to see its tracks visualised.

“We are very involved in creating our visuals, designs and looks, from the idea to the actual making of the layout. Usually, we create our artwork ourselves and sometimes we work closely with designers. For our latest album we got a lot of help from Lisa Borg, who is a creative genius and who’s been involved in our project a lot over the years,” says Henrik, grabbing a sweatshirt for the next shot.

There are clear themes running through the merch that links to the band’s record covers and song titles. Pressing on this, we asked about the ideas behind the merch and where inspiration stems for Jung. The response was instant and heartfelt.

“We have always strived to produce and create things we can stand for, starting from the music and then moving on visually, live performance and of course, merch comes in as an important part of this. We have been testing around a bit through the years and now with this collab with Creator Studios, it finally feels like we have landed in what we have always been striving for, just where we are supposed to be. In terms of inspiration, there’s not really one specific place. It comes from different corners all the time and we are always open to new ideas – everywhere. From other brands we like to art, music, film, paintings…” notes Tom.

Our eagle-eyed shoot team points out a part of the design that’s caught his eye. A swirling painterly ‘moon’ with a central divide covered in glyphs. “It’s like a yin yang, right?” he asks. “You are absolutely spot on there,” laughs Henrik.

“Quite early in the process of creating Jung we wanted to have a sort of symbol that we could work around and the idea of making a yin/yang came up, although we call it our jung/jung symbol. At the start of the process, the line in the middle of the circle was actually our faces’ profiles that we then modulated.”

With time in the studio drawing to a close, the duo still appears fresh and alert – ready for more. Before leaving, we felt obliged to ask what lies ahead for Henrik and Tom?

“The beginning of Jung felt more like a test. Asking ourselves; ‘what can we do? Now it feels like we are truer to us and are asking, ‘what do we like?’ says Tom.

Casting an eye over the merch lining the stylist’s rack one last time, you get the feeling that these two driven creators are only beginning to focus their creative minds towards the sonic, visual and artistic shape of the Jung to come. 

THE CREATORS PIONEERING MERCH – JUNG

the band using visuals to bond with its fans

Jung at Heart

It’s no secret that we think print on demand (PoD) is the best thing to happen to merch since Ace Frehley drew the first KISS logo over a rival band’s fly poster. It lets designs live in the cloud until they’re needed – costing a creator absolutely nothing. And with zero minimum orders and countless types of blank garments to explore, you could argue that every piece of PoD merch is one-of-a-kind.

At the recent opening of the new Monki Flagship Store in Stockholm, a queue of feverish merch fans were waiting to grab a set of AR goggles and enter a new merch dimension. By turbocharging the power of PoD using Augmented Reality (AR), Monki’s community was brought within touching distance of creator Vanja Ivarsson’s recent work for the brand’s From King to Queen campaign.

“The AR project was the first project for our new community area in the Drottninggatan store and our first collaboration with Creator Studio. It's an activity and experience that really tied into our world. The Augmented Reality integrated perfectly with our From King to Queen concept that we’re working with and also Vanja’s own creative world. The tech ties the physical campaign to a digital sphere – one in which Ivarsson’s digital and 3D focussed artwork is the perfect creative vehicle,” explains Monki’s B&M director Simone van Starkenburg.

At the opening, each visitor was hooked up and immersed in a specially-coded platform where they could manipulate the graphical elements of the From King to Queen pieces and create their own unique T’s and sweatshirts. From beginning to end, the process took a handful of days to bring Monki’s community their new garments, printed on demand on our own True Blanks merch apparel.

“These kinds of initiatives are super interesting – both in terms of the sustainability of printing on demand, and giving people the chance to make something unique and personal,” notes van Starkenburg.

Is it the future of merch? Augmented Reality is certainly a concept creeping into our society more and more as retail evolves into experience-driven spaces that nurture community interaction, and our lives become more integrated with the metaverse. Future digital native generations are already customising avatar skins as easily as Generation X would scribble a post-it. For the Gen Zs and Alphas, individual expression is almost a prerequisite of all facets of life. So, perhaps it’s more a question of when the merch future will be our merch present.

As with all tech, today’s early stages of AR merch do come at a cost that not all brands can justify yet, and the ambition at the Creator Studio experience is to continue to explore its potential while also making it more accessible.

“Right now, Create:AR supports one of the most powerful AR head-mounted displays on the market: Magic Leap 2. The software is built by us from scratch, and we’ve options to roll it out in other ways too. For example, if AR setup is not possible, a brand can have a touchscreen kiosk (Create:Kiosk) or make it available on mobile phones (Create:Web), which would require less maintenance and man-power,” explains Emma Raventos, part of the team behind Creator Studio’s new experiences group.

If you want to connect your brand with the future of merch and engage your fans in a new way, get in touch.

THE CREATORS PIONEERING MERCH

The future (of merch) is in your hands

“Ignore the books behind me, I’ve just moved into a new place and haven’t really sorted anything out yet,” begins Vanja Ivarsson with an easy enthusiasm. The 25-year-old has already chalked up an impressive portfolio of work that spans multiple genres and fields, with a style that’s bright, expressive and feels like a slice into the heart of today’s zeitgeist. Her recent collaboration with Monki, entitled From King to Queen, has opened up fashion, merch and augmented reality as new artistic platforms to explore.

Although still very much in the early stages of her career, Ivarsson’s path is already dotted with accomplishments that established artists would be hard-pressed to list. “I make a comic zine that is published once a year with ten different artists who all interpret the same theme. We print it on a Japanese Riso print press, which only prints one colour at a time,” she says. We discuss that this, combined with her love of 3D design, could be one of the reasons why her work translates so easily to merch, a medium in which layers of a design are separated for print and slowly resolved as a singular design.

“During the prep for my graduation, I was contacted on Instagram by Monki. They knew about my art and were fans themselves – really nice people and it immediately felt like we were a good match. I felt safe and secure;” explains Ivarsson. “They asked me to make a pitch for its feminist campaign, From King to Queen, and they said not to be afraid to be bold and provocative, which was great.”

Ivarsson began the work as she often does, with pencil or pen sketches that she later brings into digital 2D format but, on the suggestion of Monki’s team, she began to extend the initial designs into the third dimension.

“Vanja shares our values of female empowerment and that’s important for us. As a brand we want to support the creative community where we are present, and for this project we wanted to work with a local illustrator – someone we feel is a queen in their own right. We encouraged Vanja to go bold and she did, and we are very happy with the result, explains Simone van Starkenburg, B&M director at Monki.

Looking back, Ivarsson states without hesitation that the whole process and collaboration “Felt really free.” Casting one’s eye over the bold prints and motifs, with layers of pastels and glossy bold characters, the collection feels very unrestricted. And the results shine bright.

As a project, From King to Queen is uncharted territory for Vanja – a new medium and audience to engage with. Was this something she considered before putting pencil to paper? “I was thinking that it would be fun if my friends would wear it. Monki as a brand has a pretty young demographic, but still, it would be cool if other creative people would want to wear the pieces,” notes Vanja, adding that there are lots of elements of her comic influences that crept into the capsule collection. From flowers with sharpened teeth to demonic-eyed demons and contorted monsters, there’s an aesthetic softness that reveals a harder stronger edge. A strength within every ‘Queen’.

For Monki’s opening of its newest flagship in Stockholm, it was Ivarsson’s work that played an integral part in the store’s customer experience. Facilitated by CREATOR STUDIO’s print on demand and Augmented Reality tech, customers manipulated layers of her artwork to create their own one-off merch. As pairings go, it was a no-brainer – the future of merch meets a progressive artist and empowers its fans in the process.

With our time with Vanja drawing to a close, and the arrival of her buddy to install her bathtub, we finish by asking what advice she’d give to emerging artists. She pauses and explains that, during her education, one of her lecturers was keen for students to try to draw artworks by creators they admired. “So you’d take an illustration from someone you like and copy it to understand their techniques, shapes and processes. What you realise is that you’re not actually copying but developing your own style. You begin to understand that you should also rely on your intuition and not be caged in. You have to be free within the systems.”

Dream Big

A powerhouse of a creative, Sámi rights and real social issues are just a few of the themes that Maxida Märak champions in her work.

Multi-talented Swedish-Sámi joik singer, hip hop artist, actress and activist, Maxida Märak is one of Sweden’s most fluid creators. With a charismatic stage presence and outspoken informed attitude, she’s paving the way for Sámi creators and lifting Sámi rights.

As a recording artist, Märak has a string of albums and EPs to her name, predominantly hip hop but drawing influences from many genres. Critics and fans often refer to her stage presence, whether performing or in tv appearances – in which she can often be passionately and brutally to the point. A refreshing standpoint in a sea of homogenised, groomed, PC pop acts. And it’s not just the struggles of the Sámi people that Märak touches on in her music and commentary but also the problems of general society and its daily grind.

Style-wise too, Märak exudes honesty and authenticity. She is who she is; a proud mother, a member of a unique community and it’s from her roots and daily life that she draws her power.

Maxida’s CREATOR STUDIO merch brings bold graphic motifs and stylised Nordic wilderness scenes.

Powerful Outspoken Words

Couriers are a subculture that exists in pretty much every metropolis; their daily rides and rituals are almost immune to changes in technology and trends that come and go. When you need something to get from A to B, there’s no quicker way to get it done.

Josef Lindqvist is a cycle courier and founder of the independent Stockholm-based courier collective, Joyride. He spends his days' rain or shine on the streets of the city he feels he ‘owns’, with a relationship to its roads, paths and passageways other residents could never lay claim to.

“I own the whole city. In this job you ride among a population dressed in their fine clothes but to be a courier and do what I do means to own your entire city,” he explains, pausing with one of his fellow couriers in the centre of town to grab a much-needed bite to eat.

“I that I’m among the people but have the freedom to move how I want to. It feels like I’m flying, riding on this wave, with these small interactions with people that last just a few seconds and then I’m back flying again,” he smiles, watching cars stream around the iconic Sergels Torg roundabout.

While he does feel that his lifestyle has isolated him from developing close, intimate relationships, he’s quick to point out that being a part of the courier culture gives him a community that forges strong bonds with its members.

“Sometimes I feel a little alone because there’s nobody who gets to truly know me because I have this freedom to roam how and where I want to. I’ve always felt that I’m different but the togetherness that I feel from the cycle courier world makes a connection between me and the other ‘courier freaks’,” he smiles again, flashing his gold tooth from under his moustache, before pulling up the sleeve on tie dye hoodie and fastening his helmet.

And then, he’s gone, weaving his way back into the traffic, flying on his wave for another brief interaction with Stockholm and its people.

take a joyride and see the world a different way

Take a Joyride

The work of the AWAL record label stands in stark opposition to ageing structures with a platform that empowers its artists.

An alternative to conventional record labels, AWAL is a distributor with a unique offering created to empower independent artists. An acronym of Artists Without A Label, it was founded in the UK in 2011 to support and distribute the work of artists and producers without them relinquishing ownership or control of their music.

With a structure that pays out as much as 80% of streaming revenue to artists, AWAL has an impressive roster of talent and signings including Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, You Me at Six, Banks and deadmau5’s own label, mau5trap.

As well as the support it provides for its artists, AWAL is also active on a community and social activism level, using merch as a key player in raising awareness as well as funds for its causes.

AWAL’s merch isn’t just great to look at, proceeds go towards the causes it supports.

Bringing Freedom of Expression to Independent Artists

Stockholm-based Anna Gavanas has been DJing since the 90s. Away from the decks, she’s also a multi-faceted producer, author and researcher.

During the pandemic and its lockdowns, communities like the dance music world were stripped of their platforms for expression and social togetherness. Gavanas used her lockdown as an opportunity to isolate herself in the studio and create new music.

During this time, she discovered an old cassette tape of her brother – who passed away more than 20 years. Sampling his voice, Ganavas used these echoes of her past as a form of collaboration for one of the new tracks.

”When my brother was alive, he truly lived for the music. It has been such an interesting experience collaborating with him on this new track, 20 years after his passing. He still makes me laugh, just like when we were growing up.”

uplifting inspiration from beyond the grave

Communicating Beyond Life and Death

Dejan Cekanovic has worked as a stylist and hairdresser for more than thirty years. He has traveled the world with his work and been featured on Italian Vouge, worked with Linda Evangelista, Madonna and Beyonce. Dejan himself say; ”Sure that was a cool thing to experience, but for me it’s always been about the dolls.”


“With humans I’ve already pushed my creative limits to a potential that I am content with. But with the dolls, no, I’m not even close to done yet.”


Stylist Dejan Cekanovic said that working with dolls helps him make sense of the world we live in. “With humans I’ve already pushed my creative limits to a potential that I am content with. But with the dolls, no, I’m not even close to done yet.” Dejan, of Stockholm, has worked as a stylist and hairdresser for more than thirty years. He has traveled the world with his work and been featured on Italian Vouge, worked with Linda Evangelista, Madonna and Beyonce. Dejan himself says that ‘sure that was a cool thing to experience, but for me it’s always been about the dolls.’ 

Me and My Dolls

Gaia Gozzi’s music mixes Italian, Brazilian and Portuguese and draws from a vast foundation of influences. Often driven by simple acoustic melodies and stripped back beats, it’s a sunset, enjoyed barefoot on warm sand, captured to reel. Listed in Forbes as one of the 100 Italians under the age of 30 who will leave their mark, she’s already recorded two full length albums all which bring a diverse set of influences from Diana Ross to Stevie Wonder and Caetano Veloso.

Her CREATOR STUDIO merch has an easy bohemian edge and, as show, feels great worn oversized.

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