Studio Visits: Brian Chen Go Inside Brian Chen's (multee)project Studio

By: Emily Jensen

studio visits

It’s rare that one brand can produce everything from coasters and coffee filters to water-resistant pants and shorts, and actually do them well — that means of course executing products that are not only stylish, but actually made with quality and function first and foremost. Nonetheless (multee)project, the multifaceted brand and creative agency founded by husband-and-wife duo Tina Yang and Brian Chen, aims to do exactly that. Despite a diversity of products and collaborations with brands like adidas and DSPTCH, (multee)project’s signature remains its first product — the carabiner. “I used carabiners for a long time,” Chen explains. “But I would get frustrated, they would break on me. And I just try to find solutions.” That process explains much of the impetus behind (multee)project; the pair conceive new products based on what they need for their lifestyle, and work on development from there. Chen remains hands on with the manufacturing process, even while the company has grown since it launched six years ago. He and Yang are not based in Los Angeles, however, as one would expect, but in Orange County. While it may lack a certain cultural excitement, the location allows them close proximity to (multee)project’s factories in Los Angeles and a family-friendly environment for their two-year-old daughter. We visited Brian Chen’s Irvine home and studio to learn more about the ever-evolving (multee)project.

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Irvine, CA multeeproject.com

Have you seen a big shift in Helsinki’s approach to fashion since then?

Brian Chen

In the last years it's changed a lot. Now you can see teenagers buying Raf Simons and Off-White™, and all the super expensive brands. I guess their parents buy them the clothes, but in my days when we were teenagers we didn't have that expensive clothing. But I think it's fun that people are more interested in fashion.

At what point did you want to become a fashion designer?

It was really by accident. During my 20's I tried to find myself, I don't know, maybe five times. Then when I was completely exhausted and had nothing, one of my friends just said, “You were always a bit interested in fashion, why don't you try that?” Before that I was interested in doing something artistic, but I didn't know what it could be. After that I applied for sewing school and that was it. I hate to use terms like fell in love because that doesn't sound Finnish at all, but basically I fell in love with the idea of making something myself.

What I explain to people is, it’s more like a lifestyle company. I just produce the product that fits into our own lifestyle as much as possible. So right now I’m working out our own instant drip coffee. During my travels in Asia, I found a lot of instant drip coffee that comes out of the package. When you open it up it has a filter, you pour hot water and you have the coffee. It was very useful. You can bring it when you travel and you can have good coffee at the same time you’re on the go. But I can’t find anything similar here.

I think the carabiner was the most time-consuming of all of them. In the beginning it was really hard to find the right factory, and the Type-1 and Type-2 were made in different factories because the first factory wasn’t specialized in those hardwares. So for the second one, we found better factories that had more experience. How do you know when a product is “done”? When I get the sample, I try to use them every day and find flaws. I’m always very critical of my own work. Like I read HYPEBEAST every day, and see other people’s products and go, “Oh those are cool,” and I see my samples and I’m like, “Oh, these are garbage.” Yeah cause I use them for so long that I feel like, “These are not up to what I imagine.” But with my whole process, sometimes it grows on me. A lot of times during the design process you add too much. And so during the sampling process, you wanna strip down the unnecessary things. You run (multee)project with your wife, Tina. How do you divide your responsibilities? We’ve been married for 10 years now. We’ve worked together for the last six years. We both have graphic design backgrounds, but we do things very differently. I learned graphic design from my work experience, so I’m a lot faster. Back in the day I would have deadlines, all that stuff. But she went to design school and she takes her time with it. And we have a lot of different ways of doing things, a lot of times she’s like, “Why did you do this that way?” and I’m like, “I don’t know, this is the only way I know how!” So I feel like in the beginning, we would design things together and it would just slow down the process. But we both know what each other’s weaknesses and strengths are.

How would you describe your style when you were growing up?

Andy Blank recently gave us a rare look into his studio to discuss his upbringing, creative processes, and what the future holds for his unconventional art brand. Read the full interview below and then view available artworks at AndyBlank.com.

How would you define multee(project)?

I was doing reverse painted acrylic polymer peel paintings for a long time, and those were hyper-detailed and all super hard-edged and super meticulous. It got to a point with that where I guess around like 2012, I wanted to start doing something more visceral and more painterly and less sort of slick.

Is there a product that was especially difficult to execute?

Good advice is work a lot, experiment a lot, and see a lot of art. Find out who the artist is who you really admire and what do you like about their work, what can you bring into the work, but also how can you experiment with materials and make paint do something that's your own language. At least for me, that's always been really important to my practice.

“I just produce the product that fits into our own lifestyle as much as possible.”

Brian Chen

“Any time we go into the new product category, it’s like a different ball game.”

I think it’s both. I feel like now it’s more difficult because we have a two-year-old. So now the difficulty is more time management. It’s easier in the sense that you both want the same things. You have the same goals. Everyone’s idea of having money and success, or how to spend money, is different. So when you’re a married couple, it can get tricky at times, but at the end of the day you know you just want the same things.

“There are elements of creativity in what I do but it's very process-focused work.”

Cj Hendry

Do you get a lot of inspiration from Asia, or other places you travel to?

Yeah, I grew up in Taiwan and I moved here for college when I was 20. But my whole family is in Taiwan. We used to go back more often, but now we have a two-year-old so it’s harder. Travel is a big inspiration for (multee)project. Our first collection actually was inspired by the way I would travel. There’s certain things, certain garments, that when I traveled I wished the function was there. So I incorporated those experiences into our first collection. How much research do you have to do to figure out how to produce new types of products in a way that has the quality you want? We did want multiple kinds of products as the basis of the company. Tina and I want to be able to produce different things, but our goal is just to work with the best people and the best factory as possible. It’s really hard. Any time we go into the new product category, it’s like a different ball game. So sometimes it takes a long time to try to find the right partner to work with. And a lot of times, it doesn’t work out the way you want it to. If the quality isn't there, we’re not gonna sell something. So there’s a lot of trial and error, and a lot of learning.

Did your parents approve of you becoming an artist?

They were not happy. While my folks were supportive of me as an artist when I was an adolescent. By the time I'm a teenager and I'm introducing graffiti, they were not happy about it. It was like myself and my brothers, we just took a left turn and we were just lost as far as they were concerned. The thing that they kept saying over and over again was, "If you get caught, don't call home." That was the number one thing that you understood is you've got nobody that you can call. You've got to figure it out on your own. The goal was to not get caught, period.

Did you ever get caught?

No, I never did get caught. I never did. It's the one benefit of being part of the crew is that you just have to be faster than the slowest guy in the crew.

Is it particularly challenging running a business with your partner? Or does it make it easier for communication?

You’ve done multiple collaborations with (multee)project. How do you decide who to collaborate with?

I usually approach collaborations a bit more organically. Usually it’s a brand that we know for a while, or the people behind the brand. And we both want to make something cool. I think there’s tons of collaborations out there that just put two logos on something. But when I see a collaboration like that, I don’t think it’s cool. There was one time that we got an unexpected email from adidas headquarters that they wanted to make a custom carabiner when they launched the NMD. So when they launched it, I believe it’s called the Urban Utility Kit. They had a lot of matte black compartments that fit in with a RIMOWA to go with the shoes. And we made a custom carabiner for that.

I think as long as it’s coming from an authentic place. The main thing is not to make money. I would say that’s for me a bit more genuine. There’s so many collaborations today. The customers, they’re smart. They can pick and choose where their money goes. Back in the day it was so rare to see collaborations, so you would spend money on that item. Nowadays the industry has become so big, and the industry is dropping collaborations every day. I think customers are smarter in a way, but at the same time because of social media, there’s less of the self-awareness. A lot of people tend to follow what the hype thing is. You yourself are kind of a collector. How did you get started? So I’ve been collecting since I think probably the mid, early 2000s. I think the first thing I got was the 1000% mastermind JAPAN BE@RBRICK. That’s actually one of my favorite ones to this day. I got it on I think a European site and shipped it here. And it followed me through my old one-bedroom apartment, my condo and now a house with my wife. My daughter likes to stand in front of it, take photos. It’s fun to see she’s getting taller, now she’s taller than the BE@RBRICK. Even though the market is so big now and the resale value is gonna skyrocket, at the end of the day they’re just objects. And I probably would never sell them, even though they’re super valuable. They’re still like toys, or designer toys. I let my daughter play with them. I like to just make memories with them. Of course, sometimes if they’re more valuable I put them higher up so she can’t reach them [laughs].

What do you think makes for a successful collaboration?

Working with collage was a way for me to really challenge myself. A lot of my friends that do graffiti and street art primarily work with spray paint and acrylics. I'd done that for a lot of years and I thought to myself, "I want to try a different medium." Collage just spoke to me and I just thought it would be interesting to see what I could do with this medium. Working with glue sticks and paper was something that seemed attractive to me.

Let's talk about developing your most recent style. Where was the source of inspiration for that and how long ago did you start doing that?

These days I’m slowing down a lot more. It’s just harder, there’s so many products out there. I haven’t bought Supreme for a while. I think the last item I bought was probably the Supreme bear. Now, I more or less pick and choose. I’ll see what I like and if I have room for it. I think these days I’ve learned how to appreciate something without owning it. It’s hard, but I’m trying.

I always wear the same thing everyday. So my wife always laughs at me that I don’t need that many clothes. But I get new items. I like to see what other brands are doing. I like UNDERCOVER, and WTAPS. I really like the NikeLab, the ACG line that Errolson [Hugh] was doing. But they discontinued that. Were you interested in fashion from a young age? In Taiwan you wear a uniform everyday. And the only accessory, or thing that can showcase your uniqueness, is sneakers. So everyone has different sneakers. But school is quite strict, so if you don’t wear white sneakers, if it’s too much color, you’re not allowed to wear them. So I think around that time, Jordan 12s were around. Jordan 12s have a big black panel. I would wear the Jordan 12, but I would go to school super early so that the guard won’t notice it. Going back to (multee)project. Besides the carabiner, do you have a favorite piece from the brand? My favorites usually switch from time to time, depending on what I’m wearing. One favorite I always go back to is our New Standard Trouser, and also the short. We work with Schoeller-Textiles for the water-repellant fabric for those trousers. A lot of time when I don’t want to wear our stuff and I’ll wear jeans, there will always be something like a coffee spill on them. My wife always jokes, “Oh you should wear our pants today.” But when I wear them nothing happens. But that’s always my go-to for travel. I put two invisible side pockets especially for my passport. That’s probably my favorite, other than carabiner. Besides the coffee filter, are there any projects that you’re working on at the moment that you can share? I did this whole DIY Kit. It’s like a stationary kit that has everything I need when I design the collection. The whole kit has a pencil, a sharpie, a tape measurement, a box cutter, a note pad, eraser. My wife suggested we should find a way to promote it, and it would be cool to have a tote bag to go with it, so people can DIY the tote bag. So I was designing our own tote with something different that’s made locally. Right now we’re waiting for tote.

Do you still purchase new items, like Supreme pieces?

When it comes to fashion, what brands or styles do you like to wear?

Terrence: We’re talking to other big brands for collabs. Kevin: Yeah lots of stuff in the works, and exhibition events especially. We’re really looking forward to our GORE-TEX partnership – like the event where we were worried about the experience more than the product itself was something really cool for us. So for future events we’re definitely going to throw more offline events that rely on the experience.

What kind of future projects or aspirations do you have for IISE?

Let's talk about developing your most recent style. Where was the source of inspiration for that and how long ago did you start doing that?

How were you funding materials to create your works?

Love that you asked that. Number one, things were less expensive back then and we stole everything. To be completely honest, we stole spray paint, we stole markers, all of it. We called it racking, and you'd have a big coat on and you just go into a department store and you'd steal all the paint that you needed and markers and everything. There was no money to buy anything. A little bit later, I started getting commissions to do storefront gates and car washes and little street sign jobs and things like that. That's how I earned money. Back then, that money was going towards food, it wasn't necessarily putting it back into my craft. That came much, much later.

Did your parents approve of you becoming an artist?

Did you have any other projects going on while you were working at Def Jam?

Yeah, I started designing album covers once they formed Def Jam. That was the thing that made me sort of transition out of being a fine artist. A lot of my friends went to Europe, Jean-Michel got picked up, Keith Haring got picked up by Tony Shafrazi and a lot of other people just stopped making works and got real jobs. Or got regular jobs, I should say. For me, I always had a graphic style and sensibility, so it seemed fitting that becoming a graphic designer was what I was going to do because I just always had clean lines in my blood and was always a fan of craftsmanship and sharp edges. If you look at my early graffiti paintings, all of that stuff was in the work back then.

Let’s talk about your creative director role at Def Jam. What was that experience like?

Oh my goodness, so many. Man. Certainly, Public Enemy's Fear of a Black Planet. Onyx, Montell Jordan, just EPMD, some of the stuff for Slick Rick. It was a really great time. I was fortunate enough to work with so many great artists that Def Jam and Bad Boy, but it all just seems like a blur. It was such a long time ago and we were working so hard and so fast, we never really had time to step back and smell the roses. We were just in this sort of continuous state of making work and working long, long hours. We were young and we were doing the things that we loved, so it strangely enough never felt like work.

What were some of your favorite projects that you worked on?

We had our own design firm called Drawing Board Design and then Drawing Board Pictures came later which was the video division of our company. We were just working really hard. I started off by myself and then I had a partner and then we hired another person and then two people and then three people and then four people. Before you knew it, we had a full staff, because we were working with so many different companies.

Did you have any other projects going on while you were working at Def Jam?

“My practice is built off works where there's years worth of a waitlist and they'll sell out in seconds.”

Cj Hendry

Are you very hands on with the process? Most of the pieces we make locally. So I go to LA to visit factories, see the process, usually once a week. I’d like to go more, but it’s hard with my daughter’s schedule. I like working with the local factory. A company I worked for before, a lot of things were produced overseas. And I had really bad experiences with it. A lot of people think producing in the States is more expensive, or more headache. Though I feel like if you find the right factory, it doesn’t matter where it is. It’s hard to find the right factory. Because our stuff is very different, so a lot of people don’t want to do those weird things, or like a lot of small details. They want to do basic hoodies, sweatpants.