Today we’d like to introduce you to Crystal Chan and Marc Vargas of Olivia Frankenstein.
Hi Crystal and Marc, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
We have always been artists at heart so naturally when we met that is what brought us closer together. We decided to share our visions with the rest of the world when we created our company, Olivia Frankenstein, which combines our love and appreciation of horror and beauty. We started out screen printing our designs onto t-shirts and posters in our basement and 15+ years later we haven’t looked back. Some of our first designs featured famous movie monsters enjoying Nashville landmarks. Godzilla takes a stroll through Downtown Nashville, The Creature takes a swim (and a swimmer) in The Cumberland River, and the list just gets weirder from there. We still print peculiar t-shirts but we’ve expanded to designing other clothing and accessories as well- all in the Olivia Frankenstein spirit.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
For the most part, yes, we feel incredibly lucky to have had such a smooth road thus far. There are always hurdles to overcome when you’re working on something that you care deeply about but we deal with them as quickly, efficiently and calmly as possible so we can get back to what we want to be focusing on. The Nashville Flood in 2010 wrecked our basement (our primary workspace at the time) so we paused production to deal with that issue but it gave us a fresh start and an incentive to plan out a whole new layout that was even better than the first. The ongoing pandemic has stopped us from adventuring the world (like everyone else) but it has given us more time to work on ourselves and our home. Basically, we try our best at everything we do and when there’s a snag in the road we turn it into a learning experience!
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
We love to learn and we love to create! We gather inspiration from everyday experiences and follow that wherever it may lead. We could be walking down the street and see a cool bug on the sidewalk and the next day we’re making plans to sew a bathing suit with roaches printed all over it. If there’s something that we want to wear that we can’t find we just learn how to make it and then it exists for anyone else out there who may find it and share that appreciation. In the end, we have a new skill and a new article of clothing! We specialize in designing clothing and accessories that stand out from others and tend to ride the line between offensive and clever. In addition to working for ourselves, we’ve been commissioned to illustrate for others in our style. We’ve designed several t-shirts for The Soda Parlor (temporarily taken from us by the infamous Nashville tornado outbreak of 2020). One of which features a Xenomorph alien enjoying a creamsicle float from a mason jar. We were fortunate enough to be asked to design the cover for The Nashville Film Festival Guide in 2016! We’ve even illustrated our friends as/with their favorite horror characters. You can find our goods online at OliviaFrankenstein.com but if you’re lucky you’ll see our products out in the wild at niche Nashville gift shops like Backslide Vintage and Hail Dark Aesthetics.
Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?
We built a life-sized dinosaur in our front yard and it was featured on TV!
Contact Info:
- Email: OliviaFrankenstein@gmail.com
- Website: OliviaFrankenstein.com
- Instagram: @oliviafrankenstein
