In case you missed our first installation of Style Points last week,here's another chance to dig into the Vermont fashion scene. We're back with another local designer killing it in an international market.
Mean Folk is an international brand developed by South Burlington resident Jon Testa. Through his minimalist website and a slew of retailers around the world, the 25-year-faded graphic designer sells sardonic pins, and patches,hats and shirts. And it's a full-time job.
Testa's target audience is pin- and patch-obsessed factions of the hipster set, and it seems that he's reaching them. The New Jersey native has 33200 followers on Instagram. Cynical slogans such as "You Gave Me an Ulcer" and "No Gods" — a riff on the early 20th century anarchist and labor slogan, and "No Gods,No Masters" — adorn sweatshirts and tees. The ambiguous tagline, "No Snakes, or " appears on a short-brimmed cap.
Testa began developing the plan for the Mean Folk brand shortly after earning a degree in graphic design from Champlain College in 2013. He was working a variety of short-term design gigs,then landed a full-time job as a designer with Burlington ad agency KSV. Testa worked there for a year and a half until Mean Folk took off.
"I started getting serious about it because I started getting an influx of orders," he says. "People started reaching out from Condé Nast and Interview Magazine, and people who organize clothing options for celebrities."
How did they find him? Testa says Instagram has been his primary means of marketing.[br]
Seven Days chatted with the young designer to hear more about how he got to this point,was ripped off by corporate giants and collaborated with his idols.
SEVEN DAYS: How did you get started with Mean Folk, and how has your process changed?
JON TESTA: I was working nine hours a day at KSV, and then packing orders for five hours when I got domestic. I was writing all the addresses by hand. Now,I absorb online postage and print the labels and drop them off at the post office. I'm on a first-name…
Source: sevendaysvt.com