IMAGINE.

I recently had an interview with the designer of The Imaginary Zebra, Benson Chou. I have known Benson since 2005 but never got the chance to sit down and discuss his success.

1) How did you come up with the idea The Imaginary Zebra?

I had a graffiti crew called "TIZ" back in high school. People asked me frequently on what the letters stood for; I never had an answer because they didn't stand for anything. With a graffiti artist point of view, I just thought the letters look really well balanced placing together. When I got to college, I wanted to pursue my passion for design by starting a clothing brand, so I decided to bring back "TIZ". However, I needed a name that people can visualize, hence, I chose Zebra for the letter "Z". I also wanted to have a range of possibilities for design, so there goes Imaginary for "I". Eventually, I got "The Imaginary Zebra".

2) What has been your greatest accomplishment with your brand and yourself?
Starting TIZ has been the greatest accomplishment of my life. Not by the aspect of it being a clothing brand/business, but the lifestyle that I have with TIZ. TIZ is a tangible reflection of my passion. Through it, I met so many talented and phenomenal people that I might not ever have otherwise, I was able to brainstorm and collaborate with creative people over projects on various types of media (videos, packaging, graphic design, crafts, web sites, and industrial designs), and I can measure the feedback to improve myself and the brand for the future.

3) Where do you see yourself going with the brand or in life?

I would like to have my own store for TIZ. And I would like to have a network/agency to help push people pursuing their passion. Don't just have a dream, dream like you mean it, right?

4) What message are you trying to convey through your designs

I don't have a particular message that I'd like to convey through my designs. I suppose they are better described as reflections of my inspirations and encounters, from popcorn to quotes to lenses, which is why TIZ is a series based clothing brand. It means that there are no actual seasonal deadlines for new shirts and it'll take as long as it takes for the fresh idea to come for new shirts to drop.

5) How do you find inspiration?

It's hard to say, sometimes it can be the packaging of a cookie and sometimes it can be a photograph. I do save all the cool pictures I stumble across online in a folder and I do buy quite a few books just judging by their covers.

6) How can you describe yourself in 3 words?
Passionate. Asian. Typo.

7) What's your average work routine (if you have one)
I've recently started a 365 (make something cool everyday) project, so I'd do that first thing in the morning. Then I'd blog. The rest of the day I would kind of just go with the flowwww.

8) Who do you look up too?

My dad, he's a true entrepreneur. Really business oriented, but less on passion. So I also find Gary Vaynerchuck, Ze Frank, and Shepard Fairey, who pursued their passion as career, to be very inspirational as well.

9) Why did you not major in design?

I wanted to expand my horizon, so I took business (Managerial Economics), instead. And I also felt that if I were to major in design, the workload would've taken a lot more of my time and left less for TIZ.

10) Out of all the animals, why a zebra?

I had the restriction of the letter "Z". Zebra's the only animal I know that starts with Z, haha. Zebras got cool characteristics, too: They have distinctive strips, like our fingerprints. They're the only specie from the horse family that cannot be ridden; they're way too aggressive. Majority of the injury cases in zoos are caused by Zebras. They're black and white. How bad ass is that.