| Please tell us your name, where you grew up and what you do. |
| My government name is Jeffrey Ng. But most people know me as jeffstaple. I was born in New Jersey. A small county named Monmouth; famous for racetracks, mega malls, and Jersey Freeze. It's getting harder and harder to describe what I do. I find that as I do
more things, it's easier to be as simple as possible in describing it. Recently when asked, I've been replying "I do nothing." So there you go... |
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| How does your day normally break down? |
| I usually wake up around 10am. Go to the bodega, get a tea and bagel, then go to work. "Work" entails juggling dozens of projects, client needs, staff requests, store problems, personal issues, shitting, eating, table tennis, emails, voicemails, AIMS, SMS's, Skype's, going thru the mail...etc...This goes on a repeat cycle till around 7pm. I usually try
and step out of the office for dinner with my girlfriend so she remembers my name. I come back after spending some time with her, and then its back to work. Usually till around 3-4am. Sometimes 2. Sometimes 6. It depends. |
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| Regarding Staple design, How did you approach it in the beginning? Did it start out as a fun side project or did you hit it full speed from the start? |
Calling it even a "project" would be an overstatement. I was taking a silkscreen class at Parsons School of Design. It was cool but they only allowed printing on paper. I wanted to print on shirts. I just always thought t-shirts was an important medium for our generation. So me my friend Shin (who now works for W+K Tokyo) would break into school at night with pillowcases full of tees and print after the professors left. I was just giving them to my friends. No sales at all. My first sale came completely by accident on March 7, 1997. My 22nd birthday.
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| What is your background in design? Did you go to college, or are you self taught? |
| I took Communication Design at Parsons and also Journalism at NYU, prior to that. I was supposed to be a Product Design major, but some good people told me I had Communication Design written all over my lifestyle. So I listened and I think it was a good choice. I would say technically I'm mostly self taught (as in the actual tools and applications) but I learned about principal foundation design skills in college and that was important. You can spot a self taught designer a mile away. |
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| At what point in the game did big companies start seeking you out? Who was your first major client and what was the project? |
| Depends on what your definition of "big" is. When I was working out of my apartment, my first big client was a record label in NYC called Rawkus, who's artists were Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Company Flow, Common, etc, etc. From there, I art directed a Cali hip hop publication called Subculture Magazine. Both companies were independent and small in comparison to their competitors, but they had much respect in both their fields. I think it was good to start with people like them. I would say from my work with those 2 companies, I was able to secure The Fader Magazine as a client after that. I art directed the magazine but also wrote and creative directed features. One feature I did was Nike Japan and this early notion of "limited edition" sneakers. This was back in 1998-99 mind you. It was there that I met key people at Nike as well as someone named Hiroshi Fujiwara. I guess regardless of where you are in life, Nike would qualify as a "big company". |
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| To say that your client list is impressive would be an understatement, do you ever get taken back by the companies that contact you? |
| No. I am 110% confident in our skills and ability as a design agency to help businesses of any size. So I'm never surprised about who contacts us. |
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| Have there been people that you refused to work with? |
| Yes. Its hard because you never want to turn down work. Especially when I still vividly remember the days when I would pray for work. So I try to be as cordial as possible..sometimes even recommending people or agencies that might suit their needs better. In this business, more so than in any other, What Goes Around, Comes Around. |
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| With companies constantly looking to get a "street" edge to their marketing, do you ever have to deal with company execs trying to dictate your designs, or do they run with what you give them? |
| We get both. But I'm good at achieving a balance between what the suits want and what is actually best for their brand. Its why people continue to work with us I think. We're "creatively reasonable". |
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| A lot of people reading this have seen ad campains and such that your agency has designed, whether they know it or not, does it still amaze
you to see these ads in magazines, bus stops etc... |
| Yeah, its a good feeling. I usually get a goose bump-type sensation when I see a billboard or something...and then I start nitpicking about kerning or composition or the bleed or some shit. I get much more satisfaction when I see people wearing a staple garment though. |
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| You reside in NYC, which is full of great artists, shops, architecture, imagery etc..., do you pull inspiration from the city around you? |
| Yeah, NYC is a great source of inspiration and a great place to work. But
you have to travel as well. See the differences that make your home what
it is. |
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| When Nike approcahed you to do a "new york city" themed shoe, how many
ideas did you run through before settling on the pigeon for
inspiration? |
| About a dozen or so. But it took only about a week to finalize the concept. |
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| Was it difficult getting the colors right? The feet, the greys etc... |
| The reddish/salmon colored outsole was the toughest part. |
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| This may sound crazy, but while brainstorming the "pigeon" dunk, did
the idea of putting bird dropping graphics on them ever come up during
a delerious 2 am meeting with your crew? That would be funny. |
| No. It was not during a delirious conversation. It was SUPPOSED to be on
there from the start. Our plan was to have local artists from the
Beaverton/Portland area hand paint bird droppings using acrylic paint on
random spots on every shoe. It would have been so dope. Alas, things don't
always turn out the way you want them to. |
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| You have done a lot of work with Nike, which was your favorite project
and why? |
| Nike Considered. One, because of obvious ecological, ethical reasons. Two,
because we really touched that project from "A" all the way to "Z". It was
a 2 year process that was a hard fight even internally at Nike. In the
beginning, it felt like a small band of renegades trying to do something
right. In fact it was. But as the momentum kept going, people were joining
in. And by the time we launched it at Reed Space, everyone was on the
bandwagon. So it was great to see that compared with 2 years prior where
it was literally less than a dozen people into the project. |
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| What is your recent favorite ad campaign that you were not involved in? |
| There are so many great ads. But I would have to say Macintosh's "1984"
commercial is at the top of my list. |
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| You own a shop called Reed Space. What made you want to open your shop
in a city filled with so many amazing stores, and what makes Reed
Space stand out? |
| Prior to opening Reed Space in 2002, I had planned for it for a couple of
years. And in fact, back then, there were not a lot of good stores. NY has
a lot of "flagships"...stores that carry only their own label. But back in
2000, there was Union. Triple Five used to be good for that but they were
changing over to become all 555. Memes and Alife had just opened and they
were pretty good. So that's like 3. We wanted to open a store that was
more of a "community center" rather than a retail store. My vision was art
shows, symposiums, gatherings, critiques, viewings, education, and hey,
if some items get sold along the way, its all good. It's hard for me to
say why Reed Space stands out because my intention when we were opening
was not to say "Hey Team, we gotta stand out from the crowd! We gotta be
different!" It wasn't like that. I just thought we gotta be ourselves. Do
what we like and support what we're into. So I think when you walk into
Reed, you get this atmosphere and vibe. Tough to verbalize but it seems
people are into it. And in fact, we are now in the midst of double the
size of Reed Space so we accommodate more people and we have plans to open
Reed Space in Japan by 2006. |
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| Your blog has turned into a daily read for me. How does it feel to be
able to touch your audience at such a personal level? |
| The blog is kind of surreal. Its weird because that has been my life for
the past 10 years. Its just that now that people have this access to the
information, they are all amazed and its hard for me to share in the
amazement, because to me, its just life. The grind, you know?
One major drawback too is that I can't really have normal conversations
with people anymore. Like I can't tell a story, cuz my friends are like,
"Yeah, we read that...I know." Or strangers will come up to me and be like
"How is your ping pong injury? Are you feeling better?" Catches you off
guard. But I think its fun and very informative. It lets people know what
Staple is up to almost in real time. |
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| What are you up to when you are not working? |
| I am always working. But this "work" is "life" so its tough to avoid it.
In fact, I probably don't ever want to avoid it. I just enjoy turning
passions into everyday things. I love basketball...now we have the NRF. I
love table tennis, we're now organizing a league over the summer for one
of our clients. I love DJing, so I would spin at Staple events. I love
snowboarding, so we work with Burton all the time. So no matter what I'm
physically doing, my mind is always "on". |
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| What projects have you currently wrapped up and whats next, if you are
allowed to say? |
| 2007 is Staple's 10 Year Anniversary. We have some things planned.... But,
get ready to celebrate with us. |
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Ok, some quick info:
3 magazines you read. |
National Geographic
Wired
Business Week |
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| 3 websites you visit regularly. |
The Weather Channel
Fedex.com
To Darrin Hudson |
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| 3 gadgets you cant live without. |
| I can live without my gadgets.
But I can't live without toilet paper, Earl Grey tea and clean underwear. |
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| 3 artists you admire. |
Tibor Kalman
David Ellis
Yonehara |
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| 3 bands/rap acts you like. |
Gil Scott Heron
Wu-Tang
Elton John |
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| Jeff, thanks for taking time out to answer these questions, anything
you would like to add? |
| Yes, thanks for everyone who has supported me and Staple. We're coming up
on 10 Years. From printing shirts after hours in class to this, it could
not have happened without everyone's love. I also want to apologize to
people who post or email me regarding the blog and stuff. I read em all
but I unfortunately can't reply to them all. I'd rather take the time to
keep giving you the dope sh*t. |
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