\u201cMy expectations were very low,\u201d he said, laughing. \u201cI remember spending about two weeks wondering if it was even worth listing the tee on Everpress. I was expecting a maximum of 20 sales \u2013 family members and a few good friends I\u2019d begged to buy the tees.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n I was able to pay my rent through the pandemic<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n He ended up selling close to 1000 of his Allergic Club T-shirts, and the income from his tees has proved a vital source of funds now especially. \u201cThanks to the few successful campaigns I\u2019ve run, I was able to pay my rent through the pandemic, even when I was fired from my work,\u201d he says. \u201cPlus, I found a new creative outlet that I\u2019m not easily bored by.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Despite not having a huge community himself, right from his first campaign Matou\u0161\u2019 designs have been strong enough to attract a cult following of audience and clients alike. London institution NTS even reached out off the back of one of his designs to ask him to work with them on some of their garments. (The initial email went into his inbox spam folder \u2013\u00a0a lesson in always checking your spam if ever we heard one!) \u201cI was honoured when I was asked to create new merchandise for NTS Radio,\u201d says Matou\u0161. \u201cUnfortunately the project has been put on hold due to the pandemic, but hopefully after these weird days we will finish this awesome collaboration.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cBetween paid commercial projects, I am trying to take a moment and create my own personal project,\u201d says Matou\u0161, getting to the heart of one of the big themes in the life of a freelance creative. Whatever field you\u2019re in, creative working can sometimes feel like a never-ending balancing act: well-paying, but often less fulfilling, commercial work vying for attention against the projects you really want to put your heart into. There\u2019s no right or wrong way to approach this, and as we explore in our interview with <\/span>Jor Ros<\/span><\/a> and<\/span> Merijn Hos<\/span><\/a> on how they <\/span>handle creative compromise<\/span><\/a>, part of creative working is finding the balance and trade off that works for you.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n I am trying to take a moment and create my own personal project<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Matou\u0161\u2019 sentiment echoes that of Jor and Merijn, in that often finding this balance comes down to creating breathing space for yourself. Being comfortable enough in your finances that you don\u2019t feel cornered into accepting commercial projects that feel totally wrong, and buying yourself the time to work on things which aren\u2019t necessarily about the money too.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n For Matou\u0161, T-shirts have proved to be a way of combining the commercial side with a passion project (and one that\u2019s free of client input at that.) He found the design freedom, lack of back and forth, and ability to make money via the risk-free pre-order model a much-needed respite from his other work. \u201cI was bored of doing long-term projects or creating graphics strictly via brand manuals,\u201d he says. \u201cI wanted a rest and to give something new, that felt quick and immediate, a go. Something that would make me happy and the client wouldn’t want to \u2018burn\u2019 it. At that time doing T-shirts just felt like the right choice for me.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhat I really love about T-shirts is, it’s like a walking poster,” Matous mused. “When you’re wearing T-shirts you can meet probably hundreds of people during the day (if it’s not quarantine…) and you can talk with them about what you are wearing, why you like it, what’s the story behind this T-shirt.” It’s a sentiment we hear again and again, but it bears repeating: T-shirts can serve as a whole new medium for your practice, and one that helps get the word out about what you do beyond the confines of the gallery walls.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Sometimes the best inspiration can come from the least likely of sources. For Matou\u0161, it was his celiac disease. \u201cI started to become upset every single time I looked in the fridge,\u201d as he put it. \u201cSo I felt I needed to switch this frustration into something positive and make fun of it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n And looking outside the box for inspiration doesn\u2019t have to end at your T-shirt design either. Taking a little extra time to make sure you capture beautiful shots of your T-shirts can really swing a campaign. Matou\u0161 decided to play to theme or his campaign photos, with a supermarket location. \u201cOn our street there\u2019s a Vietnamese grocery store with this photo background and I realized how much going shopping and in-store searching is connected with my life of allergies; plus a supermarket is a great outdoor studio,\u201d he said. \u201cAlso I am lucky I have a great photographer as a roommate so it was really helpful. Shout out to <\/span>Filip Taufer<\/span><\/a>!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n![\"matous-martak-everpress-blog\"](\"https:\/\/everpress.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/matous-martak-everpress-blog.jpg\")
You Never Know Where It Might Lead<\/h3>\n
![\"matous-martak-allergic-club-yellow-everpress-blog\"](\"https:\/\/everpress.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/matous-martak-allergic-club-yellow-everpress-blog.jpg\")
Creating Breathing Space<\/h3>\n
![\"matous-martak-covers-everpress-blog\"](\"https:\/\/everpress.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/matous-martak-covers-everpress-blog.jpg\")
Profit From A Passion Project<\/h3>\n
![\"matous-martak-supermarket-allergic-club-edit-everpress-blog\"](\"https:\/\/everpress.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/matous-martak-supermarket-allergic-club-edit-everpress-blog.jpg\")
Trying New Formats<\/h3>\n
![\"matous-martak-scarf-everpress-blog\"](\"https:\/\/everpress.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/matous-martak-scarf-everpress-blog.jpg\")
Turning It Into Something Positive<\/h3>\n
![\"matous-martak-outside-supermarket-everpress-blog\"](\"https:\/\/everpress.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/matous-martak-outside-supermarket-everpress-blog.jpg\")