Interview by Rachel Gottesman

Hey guys, congratulations on a super successful collaboration! What was your inspiration for "Autumn Chameleons"?

Eric: It was autumn and I was walking down to the beach with my brother Devin and my five-year-old nephew, Napoleon. The trees were starting to look pretty beautiful - this glowing canopy of gold and red above us. I pointed out the trees to Napoleon and started talking about how the leaves changed colour in the fall. He looked at them for a moment and said, "The trees are like chameleons," which kind of floored me because it was such a cool connection and not one I would have immediately made on my own.

For the rest of the walk I just kept seeing chameleon trees in my head and when I got home I couldn't get the image out of my head until I had sketched it out on paper. From the first drawing I knew it could potentially be kind of a cool t-shirt design.

It developed from there with Terry really fleshing out the final piece. So the short answer is I owe all my inspiration to my awesome nephew. Thanks, Napoleon!



Terry: For the collaboration, my contribution was re-drawing the chameleon trees and adding some additional elements. The idea for adding the old sage and backdrop of the mountains came about because I wanted to add a mythical element into the design and thought of a little story around it that was like an old Chinese folk-tale. This really helped me to visualize the kind of atmosphere I wanted to create.

I haven't seen a design score that high in a long time. Did you feel it in your bones that this design was going to be such a huge hit?

Eric:
To be honest I had a good feeling about it, but I didn't anticipate what a huge score it was going to get. It's always difficult to gauge how people will react to a design but obviously you know some will score better than others. This was one I felt had the potential to be something special.

Terry: Thank you Rachel! Yes, I did feel in my bones that it would do really well because the response we received beforehand in the blogs as we developed it was incredibly positive and we got a ton of comments and suggestions. To me the response in the blogs is generally a pretty good indication of how well a design is going to be received. However I have to say I was pretty surprised by the final score!

Do you two often work together, or do you tend to work on your own? Is working together easy? Do your ideas mesh well, or does being brothers plus working together equal some sibling bickering?

Eric: Autumn Chameleons was our first artistic collaboration and I'd say overall it was a lot of fun with very little strife. People are always asking if we're twins so I guess we share a certain similarity in our outlook, which makes communication easy.

Terry: I'm working on my own quite a bit these days but in the past we've worked together on many creative endeavors.



We went to art college together and worked on a few film projects. Also during the 90's we were involved with screenwriting and had a literary agent in L.A. Eric and I as well as our younger brother, Devin, worked on a number of projects together and eventually ended up co-writing a sci-fi screenplay with Dan O'Bannon.

Two brothers with a ton of talent is a lot for one family. Is your entire family artistic, or did you two get interested on your own?

Eric: Aww, well thanks. I guess everyone in our family is pretty artistic in one way or another.

My mom is a professional harpist. My dad is a professor of philosophy but also dabbles in the arts and is a great potter. My sister is an independent filmmaker in Toronto. Devin is a really good artist, and his wife is a great pianist. My other brother Paul is also an amazing musician and was in an cool band (Grant Lee Buffalo).

Terry: Haha, thanks for the generous assessment! I often feel like I'm just trying to keep my head above water. I'd say our entire family is on the artistic side. My sister Larissa went to art college is involved in the film industry. My little sister Tanya is an aspiring singer and has a record contract in Taiwan. Actually, I'm a total underachiever compared to most of my family.

Do you think that your styles influence each other's work in any way?

Eric:: He's constantly ripping me off. Just kidding, haha. I imagine we do influence each other, just as you draw influence from lots of artists but it's probably amplified given that we're brothers. It's also just generally easier and less costly to steal from your family.

Terry: I can't speak for Eric but for sure my style is influenced by his. I like to think we both kind of push each other and inspire one another. Although of course I'm also influenced by many other artists, especially on Threadless.



Which one of you discovered Threadless first, and how did you get the other sibling involved in the community? Do you feel more comfortable in the community knowing that you've got someone there who will always back you up and support your artwork?

Eric: I discovered it first and as anyone who has joined Threadless knows, Threadless is as addictive as crack so it wasn't long before Terry started to notice I was spending a lot of time on this cool new t-shirt site. I think I got him to create an account specifically so he could vote on one of my designs. He started off as one of those faceless members with no avatar and when you visit their page it says they've been a member for one day and voted on one design with an average score of "5.0".



As for the second part of your question, I'm not so sure he has my back anymore. I think he's secretly voting all my stuff down, but I have no evidence (maybe you could dig a little and get back to me).

Terry:
Eric discovered it first. He happened to read an article about it in the newspaper and checked it out. Anyway, he got really into it and I just kind of watched pathetically from the sidelines for awhile. I eventually worked up the courage to submit something myself.

Yeah, it's cool that Eric is always there to give advice. Actually, he's really honest (translation: cruel and harsh) and always tells me straight-up if I'm doing something crappy so I guess that's valuable, even though it shatters my confidence and drives me to drink. Thankfully I've had incredible support and encouragement from many other people in the Threadless community so it's a like a ray of light against the dark influence of Eric.



Which one of you is the better dancer?

Eric: I'm a terrible dancer and if he tells you he's a better dancer he's lying.

Terry: I suspect we both suck, but he's probably slightly better because no one could be worse than me.

Is there anything you'd like to say to your fans out there?



Eric: We have fans? If you can produce a single genuine fan that is not a blood relative I'll ask them for their autograph because that would be awesome.

Terry: For all the people that have encouraged and supported me I thank you from the bottom of my heart. Knowing that there are people that appreciate my efforts for something that I love doing is really it's own greatest reward.

Thanks for taking the time to chat!

Eric: Thank you, Rachel. That was fun.

Terry: Thanks Rachel!

Interview by Rachel Gottesman



Read more interviews!