Pixels, PinkPantheress and Prints

Michelle Waller (aka Shelly) is a graphic designer based in Brisbane/Meanjin, Australia. Specialising in apparel and textile design, Shelly is a self described cool nintendo girl with a knack for designing with influences from gaming and tech environments. Her next venture is Charlie Boy, a new apparel line putting fun and unique designs in the forefront. We spoke to Shelly about her inspirations, what has drawn her to start her own brand and what’s next for Charlie Boy.

Hi Shelly! We’re so excited about the launch of Charlie Boy. Can you tell us about your design roots, your inspirations and what drew you to start your own brand?

Hi guys! I am so excited too! I’ve grown up around art and creative things as my Mum is an artist, so I knew I wanted to lean into something creative when choosing what to study, but knew I wasn’t quite “arty” enough for just art, so I wanted to pick something in between. I studied a bachelor of Visual Communication Design at the Queensland University of Technology, and from the moment I studied I considered to one day create my own graphic tees, as there are many cool graphic tee brands that or more targeted towards men (that women buy as well), and I thought it would be cool to create one that is more targeted towards girls in terms of the branding, but still have the cool surf/skate kind of vibe to mens graphic tees. I’ve been wanting to bring Charlie Boy into fruition for a while, as it was just a passion project to make gifts for friends, but then when you guys reached out to me for a collab & then encouraged me to bring Charlie Boy into the world, it was a sign from the universe for me to get things started! 

Can you tell us about your design process? Do you start with digital tools or hand drawn sketches? 

Of course! It honestly depends on what style I am going for. For instance, the whole thing with my current Charlie Boy drop being based around pixels, I will go straight to digital and work with squares against a grid. When I am doing apparel or textile that's not pixel style (which is most of the time), I will always hand draw first, similarly with my branding process. I honestly love experimenting with different mediums though, so I will sometimes use lino printing which I just dive into the deep end with and go straight into cutting the lino & hope for the best! 

How do you translate your artwork into something wearable? Or do you create primarily with wearability in mind?

Honestly, it’s a mix. I would say most often I create the art first and then work around translating it to something wearable if it’s something like a graphic tee. When it’s something that includes a pattern repeating through the item such as a bikini or pajamas, then things like placement and scale influence the way I design. 

If you had to describe the vibe of Charlie Boy with three songs, what would they be?

Ooo I love this question. 

• Firstly, anything by Pink Pantheress honestly but let's go with her recent song “Tonight”.
• “Drops in the Ocean” by Fatima Yamaha 
• I feel like it would be a dishonour to not put Addison because of her fun girly tech bops. Let's go with “headphones on”.

We hear you love Nintendo, if you could dress one character from the Nintendo Universe - who would it be?

I do love Nintendo hehe. Hmm that is a tough one, but I do love Zelda so I guess I’d love to dress like her, or honestly Link has some pretty cool outfits too :’)

How has your experience been working with The Print Bar in the past?

Up until now I had only ever ordered tees here and there, but the team was always lovely in the Gaythorne store. The first time I used The Print Bar was for my capstone unit in Uni, where I made merch design! From then on I have been The Print Bar for mostly same day shirts, whether its for a gift or a random spur of the moment thing. The team in Fitzroy, especially Jaevin, have helped so so much with this whole journey of bringing Charlie Boy to life. They’ve helped answer my endless questions, and even gave me feedback on which tees to print. They’ve been amazing honestly and would never have gone through with this if it hadn’t been made so easy!

How has your experience been setting up with Shopify? Do you have any tips for beginners?

It was actually quite easy, but I do have a background in web/UX/Ui design however I do think it's pretty intuitive. For beginners I’d recommend looking up short courses on youtube as there are heaps of free ones. Also, ChatGPT has helped a lot with random coding questions and bug fixes haha :’) There is also a community page on shopify where you can ask questions and people can help you there too!

What can we expect next from Charlie Boy? Do you have any dream collabs or designs you’re working on?

Well since this first drop has a very pixel vibe, I will probably try and branch out to a new style next time. I will try all different mediums; hand drawn, lino, collage and even paper cut out vibes & probably more pixels along the way! Since it is all printed on demand, I will probably come out with random drops here and there too which are just limited designs since I am the graphic designer & can just do what I want with it! I would love to collaborate with some other graphic designers such as @bypoppy or involve other smaller creatives to get their name out there too! Also I want to create merch for concerts/festivals so would love to get that happening when the next lot of festivals come to Brisbane!

Any advice for other creatives looking to start their own label?

Well if you are after a safer start to starting a brand, The Print Bar has been the perfect opportunity for that because its low risk - if you don’t sell then its fine! If you do sell then that's awesome too! I think the biggest thing is to just do it, and don’t wait for the perfect time or wait til your brand is perfect because then you might never do it - that's why I held back for so long.

Where can we follow along and shop the collection?

Instagram - @forcharlieboy. I’ll be posting all of the products and general ad stuff like that.

Tik tok - @forcharlieboy: I’ll be posting my whole journey with how I started the business, how it's going & all transparency to influence others to do the same!

Website -  https://charlieboy.com.au/

First tee I got printed with TPB for my final uni project (I even displayed the TPB thankyou card lol because I loved the branding) 

2nd Tee I got made by TPB for my partners Bday 

My dad (Charles) and I with our matching tattoos  (he is who Charlie Boy is based off hehe)

Shirts I made for my girlfriends ~ First time putting Charlie Boy on a shirt

Charlie Boy Shirts I got made for Valentines Day this year (lucky guy eh)

Charlie XCX Laneway tee I made, first time printing on the back of shirt too

Finally, fast forward to now - First Charlie Boy samples & shooting

So excited for whats to come!!!