As iconic Beijing T-shirt brand Plastered 8 turns 10 years old, we ask founder Dominic Johnson-Hill to pick out his favorites from the last decade
"‘Vile Age’ was our venture into comic book artwork. This one is a panda destroying Sanlitun luxury brand stores." (2014)
“’Sex Shop Neon Sign’ was an obvious one for us, as we celebrate Beijing’s beauty.” (2009)
“My first ever shirt. The brand started here with one unsuccessful idea, because no one bought it. It’s also my favorite.” (2006)
“An iconic diswashing liquid bottle. I always loved the design and people would buy it – just not very often. But it started our popular iconic object series.” (2007)
“Beach Babe Beijing is a 1920s piece of art that we used to create this stunning full print design.” (2015)
“‘Gongbao jiding’ is a popular dish that we simply printed onto a shirt. It was worn by China’s Oprah, Chen Lu Yu, on her TV show and then it went nuts – with spicy chicken.” (2006)
“We launched this at the moment they banned smoking in Beijing and were told to take it out of our window display. Didn’t stop them from selling like hot cakes.” (2014)
Dominic Johnson-Hill on…
... how it all began
“The beauty of Plastered is that it’s been total chaos from the start. I had no plans, just living on Nanluoguxiang with my family. My businesses had all gone bankrupt, I’d run out of money and I risked it all on opening a little T-shirt shop that was 13 square meters.”
… early successes
“I was selling one or T-shirts a day then suddenly one Christmas we did a lot of sales because expats came to buy Christmas present. Six months later I ended up on China’s biggest chat show and I ended up as a semi-celebrity on Chinese TV doing regular shows. The brand grew along with my TV fame. A lot of people say ‘oh, you’re so good at marketing’ but I’m not. I just got lucky that I’m quite good on television. The stars aligned.”
… his biggest mistake
“There’s so many of them. It’s probably thinking that I could build a big business. At year five or six I made a decision to scale by selling in Shanghai, Singapore, Hong Kong… I was making the most money I’d ever made but I had no net profit. In business, everyone talks about ‘scaling’ but I only wanted happiness from this.”
… his best decision
“I went to the office and said: ‘we’re closing Shanghai, we’re cutting off the wholesalers and we’re forgetting the franchises.’ Since then I’ve been insanely happy. My ambition is to build the best business, not the biggest. I’m a small business man and I’m good at that.”
… how Plastered 8 has changed
“Beginning of 2008 our business was 70 percent foreigners, now it’s about 95 percent Chinese. The aesthetic has changed dramatically to cartoon artwork and figurines. But I don’t really design for the customer. You have to know who your customer is but you still have to design for yourself, otherwise the brand loses its soul.”
Check out Plastered 8's website for more .
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