Harlem is the brainchild of Shimpei Saito. This is his 5th year running his screen printing business. Deep in the heart of Kitahorie in Osaka.

I always try to keep things as local as possible, and with people who posses a great attention to detail. Our first project together is this skull design I worked up a few months ago with a brush-pen and a piece of paper. It is incredibly exciting to see my sketches turn into a print. Moreover, it’s really cool to see them on a t-shirt.

The first color we worked on is a rust-red color. Trying to find that dirty beni red. Even though I am working with modern equipment and techniques the colors are incredibly important to get right. The idea was an oxidized rusty lipstick. Similar to a traditional Japanese stamp color.

Time consuming process. Each printed one-by-one. These will be available for sale soon so please keep an eye out for that news on the new Goods page.