db clay - BrandHabit

db clay

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Stick to it: A wallet ...

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db clay
http://brandhabit.com/designer/5895-db-clay

brandhabit's interview with
db clay

Q: What inspires you to design?
A: life experiences and found materials

Q: What one word best describes your designs?
A: sophisticated

Q: If you were to dress one person, who would that be?
A: i'm still working on getting myself dressed in the morning

Q: What did you do before you became a designer?
A: made duct tape wallets

Based in NE Portland, we create unique wallets called pocket art. What began in 1998, with little intention and lots of playfulness, has now become a full scale designer wallet and accessories label with highly functional and beautiful products being distributed worldwide. Building this wallet business has been a wild ten year ride and our products have indeed evolved over the years as we've grown. At the core of it all, each db clay piece we produce tells a story, intends to spark human interaction and encourage meaningful conversation.

"Beyond that shiny fashion world veneer db clay is, in my estimation, more of a creative think tank appropriating the fringes of art, content, technology, design, and dreams- then incorporating such into an architecture accessible to all..." - Graeme Mitchell

In 2008, our newest collection of designer wallets is titled Version 3.1 (three point one). We have developed a proprietary printing process for transferring artwork onto a custom eco friendly textile we call Tope, which is then stitched into a strong and beautiful billfold.

Stick to it: A wallet made of duct tape
Some years ago, I gave the commencement address at Barat College. Soon afterwards, the college shutWallet down. But that’s another story. Back then, I asked the graduating seniors how many of them did not know what they were going to do with the rest of their lives. Almost everyone raised a hand. This event came to mind after I talked to Garrett Croft Stenson, a young entrepreneur who might just be the world expert on wallets. It is safe to say that this is not a career track he anticipated when he first started making billfolds ten years ago. The sleek model shown here is the result of a process that Stenson refined after crafting about 30,000 wallets by hand. He started on a kitchen table in Idaho in 1998 with money he earned by selling his blood (actually plasma). This silvery item has a modern Prada vibe, all the more captivating since the wallet is made from duct tape. Stenson, now 28, originally sold his duct tape wallets at weekend street fairs, which is where he “learned tons about the wallet customer” through one-on-one, very personal marketing research. “I probably had tens of thousands of conversations about wallets with people, every weekend for five years: ‘What kind of wallet do you carry?’ ‘What do you like about it?’ ” After so much cutting and folding, Stenson, said, “I can’t make these things any more.” So he used his daunting experience to launch the Duct Tape Wallet Kit ($20,myductbills.com) which is where the pictured wallet got started. As a result of his daunting hands-on know-how Stenson (and his brother, Tyler) also produced the most brilliantly easy-to-follow directions for any do-it-yourself product ever. (Are you listening VCR makers?)Stenson has moved on to create an artistic, collectible line of wallets (www.dbclay.com)made from an eco-friendly material his firm developed. About his new venture (and unexpected career path), Stenson says that now it’s all about the perfect wallet: “It was never really about the duct tape.”
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