Behind the Brand

Nothing. But at the same time everything. And that’s what I really wanted this to be. There is no real identity or brand DNA behind it, nothing to think about. So my brand name really says nothing at all, at least at first glance. Because at the same time it tells you everything you need to know. This is literally just the stuff I come up with, design and execute. And I think my whole thought process and design language can talk so much, if you just let it. So then all of a sudden this brand name is not so shallow anymore. That’s why it resonates with me so much.

I think my logo is the perfect example of my thought process with this brand. I started out by making some 1of1 pieces for myself, swell as for some of my idols back then. And I thought I needed a logo for it, to make it recognisable. So I literally just started sketching out NED and then made the letters more interesting. Completely out of my head. As a child I was really into graffiti lettering, so I had a vague idea of how I could make it look cool. When I traced in Illustrator and brought it into Photoshop however, it felt so empty to me. So I put this picture of a snake behind it, since I really f*cked with snakes at the time and still do. I used this Filter called “Threshold” and then removed the background of the image to get the effect that you can see in my logo. It’s really rough and unfinished. To this day, there a re some weird thin outlines, that I never removed. But I feel like the process of making the logo, swell as the final result really match with my whole brand perfectly. There was no months long planning and hundreds of sketches to make the perfect logo that looks good online, on posters, on clothing. I think my logo would look terrible on a plain T-shirt actually. But I am not planning on spamming my logo everywhere, so it really is no problem at all.

I really mess with the whole symbolism of snakes. And it aligns with my idea of fashion and life in general aswell. The dual expression of good and evil. Snakes are often viewed as a symbol of death, poison and fake people. And looking at my past, these ideas still linger in my mind and influence my way of thinking and designing. But at the same time, there’s salvation from all of this. Snakes shedding their skin, representing rebirth and new beginnings. And this really is an eternal cycle. Whatever you might go through, there is always a new beginning. I haven’t been into fashion since I was a child. This is really me shedding my skin.

It saved my life. It really saved my life, and that’s why I am so grateful for it. See, I used to struggle with depression and suicidal thoughts in my past. I never thought my life had any meaning. But when I slowly started to get into fashion, things suddenly changed. I felt alive again. And this was so strange to me at that time, but I started to feel good with my self again. I regained my confidence. But more importantly, I regained my creativity and my vivid fantasies, that I used to have as a child. And that is also what opened the doors for me, to develop this deep passion of creating clothes myself.
Fashion can get f*cked up online most of the time. But at least I know, what it means to me.

I always wanted to be someone meaningful, or create something meaningful. Knowing what fashion can do and how brands can have a huge impact, my goal is to create a brand that has meaning myself. A brand that can change lives through fashion. DesignedbyNed is not that brand. And I think it will never be. This is just me learning, laying out the blueprint and really understanding, what needs to be done. I am not ready to start a real brand yet. But there’s really no need for me to rush things. I don’t want to be the next meaningless TikTok brand. And I might even never be ready. But that’s for the future to know. Great things take time.

That’s a good ass question. I actually don’t plan too much for most of my pieces. Right now, I am kind of limited, with that I can create, because my sewing skills are not developed enough to make pieces from scratch. And I also don’t want to get stuff manufactured for now. So that’s why all my stuff right now is based off a blank. And to come up with new ideas I mostly just scroll through websites of these blank suppliers, pick a blank I like and see what comes to my mind from just looking at it. I visualise a lot of my pieces in my head and rarely make any precise sketches or Mockups. That’s why most of the times, my stuff does not exactly turn out as I imagined it. But I think that’s a beautiful thing. Because it lets the process of craftsmanship influence the design itself and not just execute it.

This question sounds so absolute. I am still learning day by day and I will keep learning new stuff forever. But I never took any classes or nothing like that. And I don’t plan to do that in the future either. I just picked up my mom’s sewing machine and started to get at it. In the beginning, I only made Buckethats, since they are super easy to do. But now we are here. And I think all of the other stuff, like content, photography, sketching, screen printing just came with it over time. It’s just me exploring new methods and expanding my toolbox.