If you ask me, there’s no better way to show your devotion to a fandom than wearing it on your sleeve.
Literally.
My own closest is full of nerdy t-shirts and I’ve spent more paychecks on TeeFury and WeLoveFine than I’d like to admit. Cute gaming apparel however can be a little hard to find, so when I came across Bobsmade, a German-based custom clothing line, I thought I’d died and gone to geek heaven.
I recently had the pleasure talking to the insanely talented artist behind the studio, who also goes by the pseudonym Bobsmade, and asked her a few questions about her process, clients, and video games of choice.
How did Bobsmade get its start?
"I've been creative since a very young age. I learned media design as my job and after that I studied fine arts at the BAUHAUS University. I always enjoyed to work digitally, for layouts, logos, prepare photos, as well as analog with brush and paint.
In 2007, I uploaded the first doodled shoe I did for myself on deviantArt. It was just in black and white, because I had no other materials that would stay. That's how I developed this kind of crowed style - I had to fill with texture and thin and fat lines, instead of color."
Bobsmade's hand-painted shoes received such a positive response from the deviantArt community that she began accepting commissions. It wasn't long after that she recognized the high demand for her designs and launched Bobsmade.com.
"In 2010 my little brother joined the business, because he finished school and took a little time out for a year before starting University. We added a lot of new stuff to the shop, like different types of shoes, t-shirts, sweater, bags and eyewear - all painted by myself in the way my customers wanted it."
With Bobsmade's popularity growing, the one-woman studio was soon struggling to keep up with all the incoming orders. Additional help was necessary but so was maintaining Bobsmade's signature style.
"I found 4 great people and they tried to imitate my style the best they could. I still made all sketches so they had the usual feel the customers were looking for, and cared for the website and online presentation.
Right now, I work pretty much alone at my studio...I still have 2 painters I'm connected online with, Annatar and Pika, that take care of the international commissions."
While Bobsmade doesn’t focus solely on video game commissions, the studio's portfolio is impressive, featuring games like League of Legends, Shadow of Colossus and Halo.
With such beautiful rendering of these popular games, it’s a bit of surprise that the artist doesn’t play many video games herself.
As a teenager, I was very interested in the aesthetic of video games - a whole new dream world. But I'm no good at fighting, even if its just pixels, I'm not able to hurt someone. I'm more of a spectator.
As a spectator, the artist conducts most of her video game research in an unconventional way. She treats the medium more like movies - watching entire games online instead of playing them.
"Sometimes I watch a 'Let's Play' on YouTube while I'm painting. When I got a The Last of Us commission for a bag, I watched the the whole 'Let's Play' over days. It was very impressive.
If I [didn't] get such commissions, I wouldn't even know about the actual games on the market and what's possible today."
The artist's willingness to learn about new games has lead to a number of awesome upcoming projects.
"Yesterday I got an order about some Bioshock Infinite shoes and currently I'm working on GTA 5 Chucks. Realistic faces painted on shoes are really a challenge."
Luckily, most of her clients offer her wide artistic freedom.
Some have very precise ideas, others just give me the title of a game and I search for interesting content myself. You know, it [has] to be possible to paint. I am not able to paint very little details and get the color 100% for that specific item.
With over 40,000 Likes on Facebook and thousands of of reblogs on Tumblr, it's clear that Bobsmade has a dedicated following. But when I asked if the studio had any plans to expand?
“Oh, I think we will stay as we are. We don't want to grow up.“
To see more of Bobsmade's amazing work or to order your own custom gaming apparel, check out the official Bobsmade website.
Thank you so much for your time, Bobsmade!
You can expect my commission for a pair of Tomb Raider high tops any day now.
