T-shirt designer Mata Decha interview that I promised in previous post Amazing t-shirt design. I met Meta on Free Range 2008 in London. I really like his work and he is very talented designer. I thought it would be nice to have interview with him and find out more about him.

Tell us more about yourself?
I graduated from photography degree in Thailand and i was working as a photographer for 3 years. It was “room magazine”. You can check this out! I decided to come here (UK) for a further education. Its quite lucky for me to become a designer.

What did your first t-shirt design looks like and what is your favorite t-shirt design at the moment?
My very first design was so embarrassing. They failed to sell. So far I quite like my latest collection the most. It is my experiment of printing. I used a household material to made a block screen. It gave a very interesting effect.

What inspires you the most?
Colour! photographs! and everything around me!

Could you tell us more about how you print t-shirts and what materials you use. How long does it take from the first idea to printed t-shirt?
When I design a t-shirt, it’s always come like a series of idea and sometime I spend 2 days to finish or sometime nearly a month. The material is cotton, but we still experiment about this. To find the very good one is quite difficult. Even there are the same type of cotton and come from the same factory they are still a little different in quality. This task is quite complicated.

About printing process… very simple. Hand only I don’t have any machine to make any convenience so every complex design it take me a lot of time to finish one even a simple design, it still need sometime to dry.

What did you find the most challenging or difficult about t-shirt design?
Yeah the thing is  t-shirt is an extremely competitive market and the cost of making hand print t-shirt is quite high but I have to sell it as high street competitor’s price. That is tough.

Do you do all designs by yourself and your partner or do yo cooperate with other designers and artists as well?
Yeah I got one younger brother, he is incredibly talented… ha ha… I am really proud of him. We work together.

Where can we see your work or buy your t-shirts?
Stable Market at Camden Town, SHOP NO. 561 (Mon.- Sun.), a stall in Back Yard Market at Brick Lane (only sat. and sun.) and also in Portobello Green Street market ( only Sat.)