Describing itself as a “full-service design, printing and production house,” Krank Empire’s roots trace back about eight years, when Andrew and Manrodt started talking about forming an art magazine (much like IPaintMyMind.org) upon finishing high school. Years later, after going to college and continuing to foster their love of the arts, their collective interest came to fruition around September 2011 when they formed Krank Empire as an LLC, launched their website, and put their creative talents and 4-color silkscreen printing press to work, soon producing quality clothing, design, and branding.

This brings us to a rainy Monday night this past January, when IPMM was welcomed into the Krank Empire workspace. Andrew and Christian were on assignment to produce a Limited Edition run of T-Shirts featuring the new IPaintMyMind Mandala Logo, a task that they happily carried out before our camera lens.

The process begins with either a concept or an image — Andrew points out that for the IPaintMyMind shirts, the IPMM Mandala was prepared by a Iain Macarthur and sent to Krank by IPMM Founder, Evan La Ruffa — and that while it’s a common practice for a customer to approach Krank Empire with design work already completed, Krank Empire are also gifted enough and eager to take a customer’s concept and produce any necessary imagery in-house. This versatility and ability to accommodate a customer’s specifications lends Krank Empire a sharp edge in their industry.

Once the client is committed to the image, it’s manipulated digitally to make sure that the specifications of the image will translate to an aesthetically pleasing result on fabric. Andrew described for us the precision that must be achieved before the image is burned onto the transparency for silk screening, but also reflects the laborious nature of the printing itself. Once the image is prepared and installed onto the silkscreen printing press, production of the actual materials takes place, as they then physically press the ink into the fabric. When we showed up to their studio, Andrew was completing this last step. Shortly thereafter, Krank Empire has a product that is ready to be packed and distributed.

In addition to projects that center around a customer’s specific needs or desires such as a band or company ordering a run of shirts to be sold as merchandise, Krank have also been hard at work creating what they call Locals Only, a home-made line of apparel that not only is made of upcycled or re-used materials, but that also features artwork created by the owners of Krank Empire themselves. With materials gathered from thrift shops and images created and printed by the hands of the artists themselves, the clothing featured in Locals Only pairs unique design work with one-of-a-kind materials.

This aspect of Krank Empire’s production cuts to the heart of what makes Krank Empire so important both to the art world, and to the world at large. Take the meaning of the word ‘manufacture:’ its Latin roots  loosely translate to “to make by hand”,  although the the common meaning of the word in today’s post-industrial society connotes, that which is produced by machine. By painstakingly producing the images themselves, and then committing their design work to upcycled and reused clothing that was picked by hand, Krank Empire’s work with Locals Only!  literally reclaims the original meaning of the word “manufacture,” and and at the same time produces some truly awesome clothing.

So where does Krank Empire go from here? It grows, it sets its own goals, it collaborates with other creative forces, it brands itself. Krank Empire has a lot of room to take off, though the sky isn’t necessarily the limit. “Eventually it’ll become our full income,” predicts Manrodt, and his determination is not without merit. IPaintMyMind wishes the best for Krank Empire and are confident that they have the talent and gumption to find success.