If you’ve ever looked on our online store and wondered how we got so fashionable (stop, you’re making us blush!) then there is one person you need to know. Juan-David Quinones, Invisible Children’s product designer. Below is his interview with one of our elves (aka our Social Media Assistant, Carl) about our 2012 holiday product line.
What did we try and achieve with this year’s product line?
We are trying to show that there are a lot of amazing social enterprises coming out of East Africa that are making amazing products that people want to buy, and wear, and use in their daily lives. All the products were curated by people at IC for the purpose of giving others something they’d want to buy themselves with a great cause behind it.
Put a face with the name. Meet Juan-David.
Can you break down what “partnering with someone” means? Do we come up with the ideas and send over sketches, or do they just have their own stuff they use?
It’s different by partner. With 31 Bits we did some custom pieces, with Raven + Lily we did a custom piece, and with Oliberte we designed custom shoes. We reached out to people that we knew were making incredible products out of East Africa and asked if they wanted to collaborate for the holiday season. 31 Bits works out of Gulu, just like Mend. Their HQ is a stone’s throw from us.
Now it’s time for some hard-hitting questions. If you don’t mind, we’d like to play a little word association.
Alright let’s do it.
Holidays? Christmas
Fashion? Good Design
Family? Everything
Mistletoe? Kissing
Terrific. Moving on – what does a buying a gift mean to you, and when you’re getting someone a gift, what goes through your mind?
Probably how much time and thought you put into a present. I think a gift is a representation of how much you know and care about a person. For example, I love gift cards but I kind of feel like it’s a slap in the face sometimes, especially for people you really care about. If you really know that person you’ll get a gift that caters to their taste, or toward an experience that you guys shared together.
What is your favorite product that we have from this year’s holiday line? What is the one thing you would get for someone?
I’m definitely partial to all the Mend stuff because I designed it, but I love the Mend Messenger bag the most. I designed a lot of functionality into it, and we did a lot of user testing. The build quality and the story behind it is absolutely amazing. If people understood just how hard it is to manufacture in East Africa…to have [Mend’s] caliber of craftsmanship and the quality of materials is just remarkable. They are above and beyond what I could ever expect.
Early sketches from Juan-David’s journal of Mend’s Messenger bag.
Who’s more fashionable: Jason Russell or Jedidiah Jenkins?
Oh that’s like…that puts me in hot water either way.
They’ll never see this.
Oh, okay. I would say Jason.
What is the worst gift you’ve ever been given?
I love my Mom and this paints a bad picture of her but she once gave me a framed photo of herself.
Do you still have it?
I do! I don’t have it up, it’s still sitting in the box. I really hope she doesn’t see this…
To thank her for that great gift, what would you get her from our collection?
I love the scarves from Raven + Lily. All of the jewelry is beautiful. The story behind Raven + Lily is amazing because they use recycled bullet casings for some of their jewelry. Using materials that were once related to violence and war – it’s a story that writes itself. Beautiful. My mom also loves all the Mend stuff. And the pendants from Made are gorgeous.
Thanks for the tips. I’m psyched to check out those gifts as I gave my mother some soap last year.
Dude, step it up this year.
How do you keep up with current styles and what do you look towards to drive inspiration?
When I first came to IC, the limitations of manufacturing in Uganda had a lot of influence with what I wanted to do with Mend and the bags. I drew a lot of inspiration from defining what limitations I did have. Looking at blogs, Pinterest, hypebeast, Uncrate, Selectism. We created a Mend board so that people in the office could find things that inspire them and throw things up there.
Personally I’ve wanted to keep things minimal, timeless, and functional. I want people to use [these products] day in and day out, and prove that people can make quality products out of rural Uganda that last a long time and add value to their life.
Thanks so much for spending some time with us!
Always.
Think people should hear about this?