Russell Lee
My weird wish is to sing Whitney Houston and hope that the signage in Tokyo’s subways slightly improve.
Vintage Supply
Australian Disability Rights Network
My weird wish is to sing Whitney Houston and hope that the signage in Tokyo’s subways slightly improve.
Vintage Supply
Australian Disability Rights Network
Vintage Supply
Self-Run Business
Why
Wanted to sell cool, quality t-shirts to encourage less fast fasion waste
Credits
Russell Lee
Timi Akindoyeni, Nikhil Ninan, & Hayden Wong (photographers)
What I did
Naming & brand identity
General graphic design
Brand campaign
Art direction & experimentation
Photography & videography
Copywriting & tone of voice
Social media
Marketing & EDM
Website design
Product & packaging design
Supplier sourcing & logistics
Selling at Glebe Markets & Sneakerland ‘23
When
Started 2021
After seeing badly designed (subjective, I know) t-shirts left unsold in big retail stores, I had an itching desire to create shirts so cool they’d never be a waste of cotton—shirts too good to throw out. And on that day, the idea for Vintage Supply was born.
Vintage Supply is my small business selling bootleg-style t-shirts. Its aim was to give people a shirt that represents who they are and what they like—an extension of themselves. By creating well-designed shirts that become a part of them, they’re less likely to throw them away, helping to combat the wastefulness of fast fashion.
I needed a visual identity to unify all the experimental work within the brand. Rudimentary design elements—like a neutral colour palette, retro photo filters, and a modernised Y2K-inspired logo—helped tie everything together visually. This identity was applied across digital, social, email, and print media.
Other parts of the process included researching design trends, storyboarding for art direction, and cutting up garments for size measurements. Unfortunately, as a young designer, I didn’t document my storyboards or sketches.
To reach my ideal customer, I organised and set up a store at the Sneakerland 2023 convention, making over $6,500 in sales that day. Influencer OlanTekkers wore my Kobe t-shirt, and a stranger in America offered to buy my Chicago Bulls t-shirt off my friend on the spot.