Designer of the Week: Aleloop

Designer: Aleloop
Nationality: Argentina
Clothing Line: Her clothing line “Bring Out Your Happy” has fun and quirky T-shirts and underwear. They make great sleepwear.
Background: Before becoming a designer Aleloop worked as Art Director for VH1, MTV, Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network and launched LOGO TV for Latin America
http://www.bringoutyourhappy.com/



Q: How was making the transition from living in Argentina to the U.S.?

A: The transition from Argentina was hard and at the same time fascinating. I moved because my mom passed away and I needed to get away from Argentina for a while. I visited NYC, San Francisco and ended up staying in Los Angeles. At that time, I could barely ask for directions in English. So, the first thing I did was to learn English. And, at the same time I discovered the web. It was the mid 90s. The web was just starting. The web was a wonderful resource and I started studying everything I could get my hands on. I discovered that at the same time I was mourning my mom and was being able to absorb all this amazing culture, people, art, web, movies, language, food, everything. And I created soo many drawings and so much animation I became number 1 in yahoo at that time if you searched for animated gifts. It was a hard and fascinating time.

Q: What is the concept of your brand and how does music play a part of this?

A: Bring Out Your Happy is a fusion of fashion, music and pop culture. Every great design always comes with its own soundtrack. You see it and you can just hear what it is for that design. So for the Happy line, I took that literally, and called all of my musician friends, from all over the world. And asked them to choose their favorite character and pick one of their own original songs to be that characters music. The song had to have something to do with that characters' story or wearing style. And they had to pick the character the same way, the character itself or their story had to touch them in some way.

Q: I understand you created these designs while you were sick in bed; tell me about this time in your life?

A: That time of my life was not nice. I was in a lot of pain for about 10 months. I would be in bed, thinking in what kind of art I would create after this terrible experience. I thought I was going to draw skulls and bones and angry art. I had said to my self to draw everyday between 2 and 5 minutes. That's all I could do. Some days were 2 minutes, some days 5 minutes of drawing. But to the contrary of my thoughts, I started drawing these characters that were so happy, cheerful, quirky, and lovable, but mainly happy. They brought out my happy and that's how the name and brand came about.

Q: When did you decide you wanted to be a designer?

A: My mom had studied design and then she got pregnant became a housewife (it was other times then). She would design and make a lot of our clothing and briefly she had a clothing line. I learned how to sew very young and our favorite thing to do was to go to the store to get fabric. I remember holding up the fabric with her and imagining what we could make out of it. And then we would go home and make it and wear it that same day sometimes. I went to film school to make movies, there I realized I really should have studied animation, but there were no animation schools to go to then. And when I came to the States and discovered the web, and animation and motion graphics and became a designer here.

Q: What is the first drawing you ever did?

A: Since I was a kid…probably a princess. I drew a lot of princesses then. For Bring Out Your Happy, several of the first ones are currently in the line: Happy Lala and the Chihuahuas.

Q: Anything else you would like to share?

A:Two things that I learned along the way and are comprised in these two phrases: "Creativity always builds on the past" and "If it is to be, it's up to me."