Premium Roast: A Fresh Kaufee Interview

My name is Joonbug aka Colonel Macchiato and I am the creative and owner of Fresh Kaufee. I live in Dallas, TX but I’m from a small town in Jamaica, called Harmony Vale. I am a freelance Illustrator and Graphic Designer with a splash of photography. I’m usually drawing but I also like riding my bicycle, single speed. 

I saw that you have gone to school for multiple things including; Graphic Design and Fashion Merchandising. Tell me a little bit about why you chose these majors. What made you want to get into this field? Graphic design was honestly chosen to make money, but going through the course, I discovered that the industry can suck the creative life out of you and I wasn’t keen on that aspect. So I chose to focus on getting the degree in order to be my own boss and ultimate creative freedom, then Fresh Kaufee came into the scene and it fit like a puzzle. I chose to pursue my MFA in Fashion Merchandise because I wanted a store for Fresh Kaufee that wasn’t like anyone else and this degree would help.

I was really digging the stuff I saw on the Fresh Kaufee site. Tell me a little about your company. 

Fresh Kaufee is more about motivating the inner creative inside all of us to “wake up” and go pursue your dream and to express yourself in whatever it is that makes you happy. It stemmed from watching so many talented individuals let their talent diminish because of obstacles or that they were too fearful of failing. I figured the magic of coffee is the caffeine property it hosts; gives you this natural energy to create. Making a long story short, I was working at McDonald’s in 2008 and after getting consecutive customers asking for fresh coffee, the snowball began rolling.

I read a little bit about the reason behind "Fresh Kaufee", but I'd love to hear the whole thing! 

All the shirts smell like coffee and…sike..I can’t give out all the secrets buddaaay! :D

Haha alright, alright. I hear you! What are your hopes for the future as far as Fresh Kaufee and your personal art career? The ultimate goal for Fresh Kaufee is my very own store and my personal career is to live comfortably off my art and travel the world to meet all my online friends, I’ve made a lot.

What’s the best reward so far from having your brand? 

Inspiring people, especially those in the younger bracket, by instilling in them the confidence that they can be successful doing what they love.

*sips coffee* 

Check out everything Fresh Kaufee here!

Strategy for Success

I have been doing quite a lot of interviews lately, so I decided to take a step back from that and write something on my own. A lot has been going on lately with work, school, running a clothing line/this blog and trying to stay decently social, so I deciding to share my strategy.. It's pretty much five easy steps.

1) Do what you love to do. I know some people might say "Well I'm in school.." or "I have to work to provide.." What I mean by "Do what you love" is that there needs to be some aspect of what you do that brings you joy. If your occupation is your dream job, congrats! You made it! If your job is a stepping stone to something greater, make it worth your while. Find a part of your work that brings you happiness. You wouldn't believe how fulfilling it is just to make someone smile. If you are a waitress, try to get to know the regulars. If you're a bank teller, ask people how there day is.. and mean it. The littlest things can make the biggest impact.

2) Set goals. Like I said in the previous point.. If you aren't living out your dream, strive to accomplish it. Three years ago, all I had was a little spitball of any idea for a clothing line and now I have my own line! Is it exactly where I want it to be right now? No, but it's on its way! There is nothing in the world like the feeling you get when you accomplish something you set out to do. I found that writing down my goals and looking at them roughly 4 times a year helps keep me focused and encouraged. I used Art of Manliness' post on Creating a Blueprint for your Future (Ladies, it may as "manliness", but setting goals isn't just for men.)

3) Follow Through. You need to have a firm foundation. If you have great goals in place, but never follow through on them you won't get anywhere. Try to take baby steps with goals. If you dive right into things, you can drown and that'll leave you worse off than before. Set small goals and work your way up.

4) Relax. You always need to take time to unwind every now and again. There is always something to worry about so what's the point of getting worked up over something. Even if you worry about something so much that it magically fixes itself, you'll just move on to the next thing. This doesn't mean we should put off everything because we have an excuse too. I am far to guilty of this. I use relaxing from work as an excuse to put off school work.. Not good.

5) Surround yourself with good people. I wouldn't be nearly close to where I am today if it wasn't for the people around me. I have such a supportive, creative group of friends that push me to be the best in what I do. You can't do things by yourself, you need to be around people who will make you the best you.

That's pretty much my strategy in everything. Feel free to respond and tell me what you think. I'd love to here your strategy. Don't forget to link us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

NY. Photog. Enough Said.: Adam Weinberg

Editor's Note: All Photographs by Adam Weinberg

Hey, Adam! I know a little about you through Jena, who we recently interviewed, but tell me a bit about yourself! I'm Adam, a freelance filmmaker / photographer living in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. It's hard to narrow down my list of hobbies, but they include recording ambient dance music, tracing concentrated watercolors with the finest tipped micron pens, and scavenging eBay for 1950s Russian M39 lenses.

How did you get involved in photography/video? How long have you been doing it? Was there a significant person or thing that got you doing this? I realized I wanted to be a filmmaker when I went to see "The Score" with Robert DeNiro and Ed Norton; while watching it all I could think about was that this piece of trash had a $68,000,000 budget and I could make a better film with none. Near the end of the movie the film negative caught on fire due to a projector malfunction and I took it as a sign from God I should pursue a career in movie making.

That’s an incredible story! Most people’s story tends to have a blurred transition; I like how straight forward yours is. So you left the theater and became a movie maker . Now what kind of work do you do? It changes every week. I've worked as an editor on TV shows for BBC America and A&E, shot internal-use corporate videos for clients as varied as Starbucks and pharmaceutical companies, and have shot photos for large concert blogs and weddings. Over the past year I've spent a lot of time working with ironic T-shirt models as the photographer for BustedTees.com.

Sounds like a pretty successful start to me! Being the nerd that I am, I’m always interested in the technology people use. What kind of gear do you use? I've made my living for the past 4 years mostly with the Canon 5D MKII, it's a beast. You can get better still cameras and you can get better video cameras, but it's tough to find a better hybrid still and video camera. The RAW files have incredible latitude at ISO 100 and the high ISO low-light performance is great for someone who prefers the aesthetic of natural light.

Well, Adam, thanks for taking time to sit down with us! Keep us in the loop when you release new projects, we are always looking for more art!