Sometimes our staff are like herpes. Even after they leave, they never stop popping up (that’s right, I compared our team to a venereal disease).
The latest Best. T-shirt. Ever. in my continuing and seemingly never-ending series is with our former head graphic designer Benjie Escobar, who is grazing greener pastures these days over at Slow Culture. But back when he was first applying for a position with The Hundreds, I remember this featured T-shirt sticking out in his portfolio. Not sure about where you’re from, but here in So Cal, this was a pretty ubiquitous tee in the early 2000s, and it was all thanks to this beefy Guatemalan jungle DJ. Oh yeah, he also showed up to the job interview in a neutral button-up and chinos, like he was a Kinko’s clerk from 1994. The first question I asked him was if he dressed like that all the time, because that was a definite deal breaker. He made up some excuse that he had another interview lined up afterwards (probably Kinko’s). Whatever, we still hired him even though he was a bad liar and had terrible taste in professional clothing. And the next 6 or 7 years of The Hundreds’ T-shirts after that were christened.
The T-Shirt: A design I did (that’s right, my favorite t shirt is something I did) for The Globe aka GCS (small mom and pops clothing store in downtown Pomona) forever ago. Let’s say 2004?
The Story: The reasoning for it being the best T-shirt ever isn’t so much the actual shirt as it is the influence it had on me at the time. I had always drawn and done a bit of design and illustration work that had been in shops, but this design really concretized the fact that I should (and could) do something. I had regrettably always been the guy saying I could do better and was an active part of the peanut gallery, so seeing this shirt actually take off made me realize it was time to shut the hell up and put in more work. Whenever I see someone wearing this, I’m reminded of that time, which helps to clear out whatever brain-noise is in my head at the time and remember to do something with my life. It’s still being bootlegged a decade later which is pretty awesome, too.
What’s up, Benjie? We have constant shows coming up at Slow Culture (gallery I co-own in Highland Park), I have my mini brand stayweirdforever going, and I occasionally update my shit on benjaminescobar.com.
