22/11/2016Eric Elms is a name you may have heard of over the years, having designed graphics for brands like Supreme, aNYthing and Pricele$$. During high school, Eric started assisting Shepard Fairey screen printing in his garage, and in college was assisting Kevin Lyons and KAWS in New York. Now he runs his own creative studio Partners & Others, which has continued working with a roster of clients such as colette, Carhartt-WIP and OHWOW, while also running book publisher AndNow and recently POWERS.

POWERS  is an extension of Eric Elms' design process and creative output, filtered through the lens of his studio on Powers Street in Brooklyn. Not following any one overarching theme, his designs are not tied to a set of boundaries, yet as a collection are cohesive in vibe. Not focusing solely on t-shirts, he is able to provide a unique and broad range of items that embody the energetic spirit of his studio and his art.

Below, we asked Eric about the background of POWERS...

How did POWERS start?

I've been doing graphics for 10+ years for a lot of different companies. I feel like I have seen a few different eras come and go and to be honest over the last couple years I have been a little burnt out by everything in the industry. It kind of just stopped intriguing me for awhile. A little bit of that spontaneous energy had been sucked out of it. What got me excited again was seeing what my friends were putting out. It was less about what big brands were doing and more about individual artists putting out whatever they wanted. It captured that same spirit that i remember from the early 2000's. People like Peter Sutherland, The OhBlood brothers from Tokyo, Cali Dewitt and the Braindead guys. Originally I was just going to create a few graphics to put on my AndPress site but it kinda of grew into something more substantial. The name POWERS comes from the street that my studio is on; Powers Street. 

The  character "Kilroy" appears throughout your personal work and can be seen within the POWERS catalogue. Is this something you have consciously crossed over?

I started using Kilroy just because I was attracted to its backstory and all of the OG products that it spawned in the 60's & 70's. It has popped up in various projects over the years but as time went on it didn't really fit into the type of paintings and art I was making in my studio. It is such a fun character to work with though it just seems natural to have it be a secondary theme in the POWERS line. 

Before POWERS, you had designed a lot of graphic t-shirts for different brands over the years, from Supreme, aNYthing, Pricele$$…has your approach to designing graphics changed at all?

The overall approach doesn't change. It is much easier to make stuff for a brand I run because I feel like most companies leave the best stuff on the cutting room floor anyways. It is nice to have full control. Mashing up interesting references in cool ways is always the goal for me. 

Has the current social media climate influenced the way you think about POWERS ?

Not at all. I guess it is an easier way to get things out into the world, but it really hasn't affected the way I produce anything. 

Who are your inspirations recently?

I'm constantly buying books and looking at ones I bought years ago. I rarely come across something fresh that becomes a goldmine for a bunch of new graphics. Sometimes its funny with graphics, you can pick up a new book and see two seasons of a company's graphics back to back in there. For me it is almost the opposite. As my interests change and expand I see totally different inspiration in a book that I have already flipped through a dozen times over the years.   

Do you have an album or song you've been into lately? 

Sinéad O'Connor's "I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got" has been on a good repeat in the studio lately. Pretty good from start to finish.   

Photos from Eric Elms  and POWERS