Lick-Wilmerding High School attracts many students with entrepreneurial aspirations whose small businesses cover a wide range of products, but most have an artistic quality.
Mateus Kim ’24 started his clothing business “What’s Good Dawg (WGD)” during the COVID-19 quarantine period of his freshman year. To fill the time he spent at home, he began watching countless skateboarding videos, which later inspired him to create his brand. “[I remember thinking], wow, that’s so cool that you can just hang out with your friends and make clothes for them,” Kim said. Kim’s brand has allowed him to create a product while spending time with his friends making promotional content similar to the skating videos that had inspired him.
His sweatshirts and beanies all feature a logo that Kim created based off of his dog. Kim began the business as a way to make clothing for his friend group and others who were interested, but the goal has changed over time. He said he is now more focused on building community through his brand. “Even if I don’t make any money, I would still like to make some clothes for anyone who’d want [them] and give it to them for a fair price,” he said. His brand can be found on Instagram (@wgd.brand) and online at wgd.bigcartel.com.
photo courtesy of wgd.bigcartel.com
Andrew Chou-Belden ’24 combined his love of music and graphic design to create his business — Havoc Posters — which sells original album posters. He began Havoc Posters in his freshman year after he uploaded his original posters on Instagram and received a message from a follower suggesting he turn his poster making hobby into something more. Originally, Chou-Belden started small, using the LWHS printers. Now he uses more professional grade printers at office supply stores.
His poster making process starts by selecting a musical album he likes, then listening to it repeatedly and doing research on the album’s context, meanings, branding and the artist’s background. After the research phase, he pulls professional photos and stills from music videos, bringing them all together on Canva. “It’s this messy bunch of images, kind of like a mood board,” he said. He will often include specific objects or concepts that people associate with the album.
Even though he started selling posters to make a profit, money is not what motivates Havoc Posters anymore. “I was very business-oriented when I was setting up and, over time, I was like, ‘you know what, I’m just doing this because I enjoy it and not to make money’,” he said. To date, Chou-Belden has sold 82 posters. Chou-Belden has also started designing art for albums his friends have made, free of charge. “I would love to have one of my posters be the posters that the artists sell in a merch booth on tour. That’s an all time goal of mine,” he said. Havoc Posters can be found on Instagram @havocposters and on Depop @andrewcb.
photo by Andrew Chou-Belden
Siblings James and Frances Park ’25 turned their mutual love of art into a zine (homemade magazine) business in elementary school. “We started when we were eight years old because we were getting a lot of official magazines and [thought] we should do this ourselves,” James said. The zine included the best aspects of their favorite magazines, including games, puzzles and comics based on their two pet guinea pigs named Rumple and Granola. Each of the magazines they were subscribed to had animal names, which inspired the name of their zine, Snake, chosen because they thought it would be easy to draw. Each issue has a theme that connects each of its elements; past themes have included growth, outer space and imagination. Over the years, they have built up a subscriber base through the display of their magazine at Bay Area zine fests and posting on their website snakezine.com.
However, the Parks have declined their publishing rate recently as they have become busier in high school. “We used to publish every few months. And so, we’d maybe have three or four a year. And now it’s more like one or two,” James said. Each issue is around 20 pages long and costs about $10.00. The two have different roles with James creating the games, planning the comic and doing the lettering while Frances creates the comics. As for future goals, James says they want to keep going down the same path. “It’s always kind of been centered around what we want to make and trying to make something good. Just kind of the creative process because we’ve always loved being creative,” he said. “It’s never really been about selling it or making money.”
photo courtesy of snakezine.com
