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Anmlhse: Tougher Than a Lion
Interview by Xavier Walton
Photography by Ace Brown
Director of Photography Alysia Mazzella
Styled by Leslieann Santiago
Modeled by Crystal Garcia and Peter English Pockets
Just three art students from Phillidelphia, Jonathan "Rabbit" Francois, Kareem "Panda" Falber, and Cornell "Raccoon" Smith have created a clothing label ready to attack. Animal House is a brand marketed to the fashionable youth of America, specializing in graphic designs that make them peerless to their competitors. They have certainly become the elephant in the room; a well dressed elephant of course. Their tees and sweaters, which come in both men and women, offers our generation a new wave of street wear. Now that's something worth howling for!
21-7: What was the inspiration for the name and abbreviation of Animal House?
AnmlHse: The inspiration for the company name came from our crew being compared to the fraternity in the movie Animal House. We decided to run with that because of all the design possibilites and the name described our crew's personality. We ended up abbreviating it for fear of any possible legal issues and as a way to brand the company, making people say
"WTF is AnmlHse?"
21-7: In three words, describe an AnmlHse party?
AnmlHse: What The Fuck?!
21-7: "The Big Deal Project" is a series of several must-know people in the Urban scene, could you explain your plans for this project more specifically?
AnmlHse: We wanted to do a combination of a typographic design alongside a photo project that could be viewed on the web. Since we have a lot of random friends and supporters, we wanted to include everyone we knew from different scenes and crowds and bring them together. It ended up being the pinnacle design that put us on the map and definitely one of our favorite designs to date. It was exciting to see all the people come together in support of ANMLHSE.
21-7: The AnmlHse family is seemingly very large, how does one get down with the get down?
AnmlHse: We like to think of all our friends and family as fellow ANMLS. If you're cool and genuine people who like to have fun or even have a passion for what you do then you're a part of the crew. When it comes to the actual members of the ANMLHSE brand, we have a select few core members who are in charge of everyday operations such as designing, promoting, networking, etc.
21-7: Featured designs are fun and colorful, yet mature. What's the process like when creating a design for your products?
AnmlHse: Honestly, our process is half serious meeting/half joke session. During these sessions we come up with crazy design ideas/concepts that should never be done, and within this we decide it's so crazy that it just might work. Our designs are no holds barred, do as we please and hope that everyone will understand that we like to have fun but we have the talent to be taken seriously. After the brainstorm we pull out the sketchbooks, fire up the adobe programs and get to work.
21-7: AnmlHse screams "The Fun Never Stops." What is the plan to keep the fun going?
AnmlHse: Ha! Too many crazy concepts dealing with events, projects and new collections in the works. We take it day by day and hope our fanbase will keep growing and want to enjoy the ANML lifestyle with us.
21-7: Why did you guys choose clothing? Why not start off with toys or something of the like for animation?
AnmlHse: We didn't know what we wanted to do with our business at first. At the time when we started our brand we were still art students and we just wanted our work to be seen. Ideally we all came to the concensus at the time that our designs would work the best on t-shirts and slowly move our way up to newer, more exciting things as we came along. Also, at that time, some of us were heavily influenced in other clothing brands, but we also had a grander vision of what we want to be perceived as. So then it was a clothing brand, but as we matured into a respectable design collective, now our sights are set on making everything an individual art project.
21-7: Your company offers it's journey to success as a sense of togetherness for fans. How has that mindset helped the growth of AnmlHse so far?
AnmlHse: Family comes first. The bond we have together, and with our fanbase is what keeps us grounded, humble and creative. This helped us grow because we're the dudes everyone is rooting for. It's like a success story, slacker art students who built a brand by being who we are and I think that onlookers respect that. As wild and crazy as we might seem, we always pay respect and support the people who believe in us.
21-7: Do you have any upcoming plans for a(n) AnmlHse event(s)?
AnmlHse: There's always a new venue to be taken over and standards to be destroyed. We have way too many ideas, some are being conquered as we speak. Others are way too epic to be done at the moment but best believe we will be all over the place next year. DC, Baltimore, New York, and the whole east coast will be seeing us a lot if everything goes according to plan.
21-7: What does sex and drugs mean to a few college kids like yourselves?
AnmlHse: Ahh... the old adage... sex drugs and rock & roll. It's a lifestyle, not for everyone and only meant to be taken in small doses. We don't condone it, we just happen to live it. Life is art, and there's always some sort of art to anything we do.
21-7: You guys obviously have an eye for more than clothing. Offering a chance to Anmlize fans, do you plan on taking AnmlHse further then clothing?
AnmlHse: But of course! We don't want to give too much away but we're trying to do things to further our brand and build an identity that surpasses just clothing. Anything that has to do with design, comedy, alcohol, parties, music, we will try and conquer it. I will say that our sights are aimed high, and us brewing our own beer and having our own network reality show is not far from unrealistic for the ANMLS.
21-7: What type of person fits perfectly into an AnmlHse product?
AnmlHse: That's a hard question to answer considering our fellow ANMLs all hail from different areas with different interests and eclectic tastes. I guess it would be anyone who believes in being themself, having fun with a splash of artisic creativity and a sense of humor would fit perfectly in our clothing. I like to think anyone who purchases our products already believe in our lifestyle and are just like us in some sort of way. Different.
21-7: What should we expect to see in AnmlHse' near future?
AnmlHse: Lots of awesome new events with epic photos to match, new collections every few months, and individual projects from each of our members that will be pushed of course. Stay tuned for the ANMLizations as well, each series gets better and better!
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