Meet Brandon Berry of class.PHOTO in South Phoenix

Today we’d like to introduce you to Brandon Berry.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Brandon. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I was introduced to art at a very early age. I grew up with artists like my father, Kevin, a metal sculptor who does public art all over Arizona, among other states. My mother, both of my brothers, my grandma on my father’s side, and so many other people in my family are incredibly talented artists. I’ve been drawing and had artistic interests from a very young age and my older brothers actually taught me Adobe Photoshop at age six on an old Windows XP computer. I used it to do edits of my favorite video game characters and I would print them out to practice drawing. If you fast forward to Middle School, I was still doing digital art on the family computer and even decided to upload my work to online websites and earn commission on my designs. I was doing this at around age thirteen and making a decent amount of money.

Into high school, I became more interested in music, skateboarding, and the arts in general. A close friend of mine, James, who has been one of my best friends since first grade, introduced me to skating and a lot of my biggest inspirations like Jason Dill around freshman year. The following year I decided to start my own clothing company. I would design tee shirts and distribute them to friends and family and I slowly started building an online following as well as connections and amazing relationships with local artists. I would send free packages with my clothing to kids who were good at skateboarding around the country. I even have a sizable amount of customers who live in Memphis simply because I’ve sponsored a couple of skaters there.

Grassroots support is incredibly important. Now, after around three years of running my company, I’m incredibly proud to have a respectable customer base and online base of people who buy and appreciate my work. I send packages all over the country and even internationally, quite regularly through my website. I also taught myself to screen print my own tee shirts and garments about a year ago. I now print and sew all of my own designs and woven labels. I put a tremendous amount of effort into editing, photography, and marketing my work on social media and on my website, and I do 100% of the media management and design for my store and look-books. I take pride in being an independent one-man-band of sorts, but I wouldn’t be where I am if it weren’t for my friends and my family.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
The largest struggle in starting a business is to learn patience. After three years, I still feel restless for progress sometimes. Competition can be incredibly intimidating. Every single person I’ve spoken to who’s been successful in clothing has told me to be patient. Brands can take years to even decades to grow. Building something from nothing feels dorky and awkward at first, but as you water a garden, it grows. Businesses and names grow with a tremendous amount of patience and hard work. Respect comes from being genuine.

Please tell us about class.PHOTO.
My business is a local clothing company called class.PHOTO. It’s the brand I self-release my clothing and art under. I design, sew, screenprint, photograph, market, and distribute all of my clothes. I do bulk releases on social media as well as my website, www.classphotoaz.com of original graphic tee shirts, hoodies, long-sleeves, and other casual wear. I often use my platform to take nods to social movements like environmentalism and other progressive political topics and figures. I have also vended at a decent amount of music shows, markets, and trade shows. I’ve collaborated with many local artists and musicians to do commission work, merchandise, and cover designs.

I’ve even done a decent amount of work with bigger artists like RiFF RAFF and had the opportunity to design merchandise for Lil QWERTY, opening up for Injury Reserve at the Van Buren. I’m incredibly proud of the friends and artists I work and collaborate with. My brand would be nothing without the diverse community of creative people in the Phoenix valley. What I would like to set me apart from others is quality. I put a great amount of detail and care into every aspect of my product and brand, whether it be the photography or the quality of the fabric or the tags. I want people to see my brand as being high-end without being pretentious or out of reach.

If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
If I had to start over, I would tell myself not to stress so much about how myself and my brand are perceived. Confidence projects legitimacy.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.classphotoaz.com
• Email: classphotomgmt@gmail.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/classphotoarizona
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/classphotoent

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