scyfilove
The good people of scyfilove.com asked us for an interview…
I’m not much of a one for fashion, but I make an exception when it comes to Last Exit To Nowhere.
In the past four years they have become the geek’s clothing supplier of choice, attracting patronage from Simon Pegg among others and bringing out designs inspired by and paying homage to films like Total Recall, Blade Runner and Alien, to name but three.
The awesomest thing is you can look all day and never find the name of a film on their clothes. Instead they take it to the next level by pulling out the name of a place, a person or company from your favourite film and going to town with that.
It’s like a special badge of honour or a hidden code that only the cool kids will understand, the geeks like you.
What’s more it means I can pretend I’ve been on holiday to Amity Island, work for Skynet or shipped out on the Nostromo (obviously before it blew up) – and I do!
I’m a long-time fan and was delighted when founder of Last Exit To Nowhere, Mike Ford, took time out from thinking up more genius designs to answer my questions.
When did you set up and where did the original idea come from? Where does the name Last Exit To Nowhere come from?
My brother is a screen printer by trade so I’ve always been able to produce one-off T-shirts from various references in film, music, tv, computer games – you name it.
In 2006 I decided to focus on this area in a commercial sense and began the idea of Last Exit to Nowhere.
The ‘Nowhere’ aspect of the name represents the fictional companies, places etc that we feature in our range of T-shirts and the ‘Last Exit to’ was inspired by the film title ‘Last Exit to Brooklyn’ which I always liked as a name.
What is your background – i.e did you work in graphic art? What were your influences?
Last Exit to Nowhere is a team effort all round. I’m from a graphic design background so I tend to work on the designs and advertising mostly. Influences come from all cultural areas.
Are you geeks?
It has been said, although I like to think of myself more of a film/design enthusiast!
What was the first T-Shirt you did? Any reason why?
The first ever T-shirt I created was a band T-shirt when I was about 14. I designed it, my brother printed it. The band was called Desecrator and the T-shirt design featured a skeleton warrior king sat on a throne (actually lifted from an Ian Livington/Steve Jackson fighting fantasy book I was into at the time)
Awesome image. I’d wear it today if I still had it!
How pleased have you been with the reaction to LETN and how important is that feedback to you? And what has your reaction been to other similar t-shirt companies that have set up in your wake?
It’s a great to be part of a wider community that offer such positive and supportive comments. The interaction is probably the best thing about what we do.
We’ve had positive support and encouragement from lots of great people including actor Simon Pegg and legendary director Andrew Stanton.
We also support any company that is willing to offer their own unique take on the film reference T-shirt.
What has been the most popular T-shirt design?
Our Nostromo T-shirt goes down well.
How do you come up with the ideas for T-shirts, and how much work does it take to turn the idea into the finished product? Can people contact you with T-shirt ideas?
The T-shirt designs develop over a period of time. Once an idea is set in stone I begin sketch it up, normally on paper and then work it up digitally until I’m happy with how it works.
I like the design to be sympathetic with the feel/era of the fictional company, place, etc. We’re always happy to hear people’s suggestions for T-shirts.
What are your plans for the future of LETN?
Our plans are to build an army of followers and eventually conquer a small country.
