You run a business, correct?

Mhm, yeah.

 

Tell me a little bit about what you do, what it’s about.

I’ve always been interested in art and fashion; I just never really found a genre of art that I liked. Then, just happenstance of whenever I was in college taking an art class, I rediscovered block printing, and I really, really enjoyed it. At the time, Frank Ocean hadn’t ever released any merchandise for his album Blonde, so I decided to make that album artwork within a print and printed it on clothing. A couple people wanted some, so I started selling them, and then it started evolving into my own works and different types of clothing and different prints. It’s still evolving now. 

 

What is the significance of the name bylovette?

The reason why I named it bylovette was because–it was sort of like–there's a blank space before bylovette, so it's “art” bylovette, it's “prints” bylovette, it’s “clothing” bylovette, it’s whatever realm I’m in; I can adapt it to that based around that ethos of my last name being Lovette, sort of a play on words. I feel like the overarching story and just mantra of love is something that’s lost today, so it keeps it on your mind. 

 

So the business is more than just clothing then; it’s kind of whatever you want to make it at the time?

Kind of, yeah. I draw inspiration from a zillion different things, and it’s constantly been an evolution. I think if I find something that's super, super profitable, I’ll probably stay in that lane for a while. I’m really expanding with digital artwork and NFTs right now.

 

Going off of inspiration, where do you get inspiration from? Who are your biggest inspirations, either creatively or personally?

From a creative standpoint, I gather stuff everywhere. I’ll see something and draw a little bit of inspiration from it, put it in the back of my head, and then see something else and try to combine those two ideas into something. In terms of personal influences that I follow, there’s this really cool guy named @moodydarkroom on Instagram, and he’s just a fantastic photographer. The way he poses people is amazing. Frank Ocean has always been a huge inspiration for me. I really love architects. Pretty much anyone who came out of the Bauhaus. Post World War II, from like 1946 to 1956, is huge. Think Frank Lloyd Wrightesque people. That’s probably like my top list, I would say.

 

How would you describe yourself? Would you say you’re a designer, a creator, a businessman?

I definitely wouldn't say I'm a businessman. I would say I’m less of a designer and more of an idea person. The term that I’ve always used for myself is–I like to think of myself as the glue; I can bring certain people together. I’d say that I’m mostly like a creative director. I love bringing people together and seeing what they can create and do and play some sort of a part in that.

 

My last question then–we’ll end it with a good one–what is your favorite medium to work with?

I mean, the one that I'm most comfortable with is block prints. The way that I design in my head is I find inspiration from something somewhere; I typically design it digitally, then I print the reverse of that image out and trace it onto this piece of wood and then physically carve it out. I roll ink onto it and physically put it onto paper, or clothing, or whatever. Aside from that, I really love oil painting. Charcoal drawing is something that I’ve always been interested in, and I think the other one that I don't study as much but want to get into would be typography.