The Design Series // No. 02: Yeah Right Press
Yeah Right Press is an LA-based + women-run line of enamel pins, patches and accessories. As their site says, "we hope our line of accessories and apparel will be worn by women and supporters and lovers of women." We caught up with founder and designer Erin Berkowitz on how they nail the badass attitude of the modern cool girl.
Asymmetric Magazine: How and when did you start Yeah Right Press?
Erin Berkowitz: I started Yeah Right in April 2016 after years of doing freelance graphic design and running a screen printing business. So much of my work was restricted by client demands or fitting into a box as a print designer, so I wanted to branch out and create a line that felt like the truest expression of my style.
AM: How would you best describe your style?
EB: Clean, contemporary, accessible, bold, fun, feminine.
AM: What's your biggest inspiration?
EB: I’m a big fan of “boiled down” design and have been a collector of pins and patches, vintage and new, for many years. Design, color way, type, and other design elements are of course important, but there’s something appealing and outspoken about wearing an accessory that literally announces your style or opinion. Similarly, I’m attracted to stylized and straightforward print design (ad campaigns, packaging, album art) from the 60s and 70s.
AM: What themes do you typically pursue in your work?
EB: I don’t often pursue themes–it typically feels random and incidental–but popular culture, feminism, and general sass and irreverence run throughout my work.
Sometimes just the color of a light in a window I’m driving past is enough to inspire a feeling or pattern or color that I want to design with.
AM: What role does Los Angeles play in your work?
EB: Los Angeles is a constant stream of loud, colorful inspiration, which I like to enjoy in the background and sort of let it funnel itself into a single, saturated feeling. Or sometimes just the color of a light in a window I’m driving past is enough to inspire a feeling or pattern or color that I want to design with.
AM: What music is currently inspiring you?
EB: Kate Bush, Erykah Badu, Roxy Music, Jonathan Richman
AM: Where can our readers shop your products?
EB: On my website (yeahrightpress.com) and at a handful of boutiques (yeahrightpress.com/stockists).
AM: What can we expect to see from you next?
EB: I’m working on a line of screen printed cards and prints, and also some gold jewelry with Egyptian and esoteric/occult symbols. Ooh!
AM: What's your best advice for aspiring designers?
EB: Many designers will tell you to find your true voice, but I believe in finding a collection of voices, because it always felt daunting and impossible to hone in on just ONE direction. Find your various voices (some of which will be louder than others) and create some rad chorus where they all play a part in representing your full creative self. In other words, always be experimenting and following the next inspiring thing, and at least one avenue will lead you to create something that gives you that sacred “hell yeah” feeling.
Shop Yeah Right Press: yeahrightpress.com.
