Novice

Novice is a local Arizona brand that has had some exposure since their start in September. The face of the company, Kristian Garcia, sat down and talked to us about his brand and where he plans on taking it. With many designs out so far, Kristian’s favorite is the “REIGN TERROR” hoodie, which was worn on one of our models, Anna Zumbuhl, during the recent QNDP fashion show. The first design Novice released was the “FAMILY BUSINESS” tee, which received the most support and created a strong foundation for the local clothing line.

Kristian does a lot of work for his brand including: marketing, designing, and modeling alongside his girlfriend, friends, and sisters. Keeping everything homegrown is very important to Novice.

Novice started in Kristian’s former years of highschool, three years ago, as an idea. “Me and my friend Addison Miller, I don’t know where he’s at now but…. we would draw random stuff and print them out on shirts.” The beginning merchandise was sold at his high school to anyone that was willing to buy it. It was a very small start up, but it eventually led to Kristian wanting to take the business more seriously as he grew older. The name “Novice” was chosen by Kristian as he says, “this is very nerdy but, I used to play a lot of video games and there was this community that would do trick shots and their name was Novice.” He says either that, or one day in the shower he was reading the label of the shampoo bottle and stumbled upon the word. It was incredibly random and simplistic, but was definitely a word that stuck with him. Suicide Boys, FTP, and Foul Play inspires many of the designs. Kristian explains saying, “ I like how they go against normal beliefs and how things should be”. Kristian doesn’t like to follow basic trends, he normally strays outside the box which is portrayed through his work. When looking for inspiration from other brands he says he likes, “ any brand that tests the limits and are loud but in a quiet way with a big message.” The vision seen throughout Novice is heavily incorporated from designs that go against the norm.

With the new year already flying by, Kristian plans on studying more to better his skills on the technical side with photoshop, as well as the more hands-on side with learning how to embroider. His hopes are to appeal his company to a bigger audience, while keeping his own developed voice and message the same.

During the interview, Kristian describes Novice as “vulgar”, and states that his goal is to “piss old people off”. When explaining what he wants people to take away from his brand he says “make whatever you want when you want — fuck everyone else.” He doesn’t stress enough how important it is to create what you want to do and to not care so much about following trends, to be yourself.

Ever since Novice was created, Kristian has expanded personally by being able to open up and express himself creatively. This allowed him to be more social and gain more friends through the business. Novice has impacted the life of Kristian in many ways, but his hopes for the future are to stay local and eventually branch off into nearby areas. Watch our interview here: https://youtu.be/msg_VhYDG1Q