We’d like to welcome Neil Chopra to our team here are EC/DC & We Are the Process. Neil will be interning with us throughout the summer and beyond. He is about to begin his last year in the communication arts/design program at SCAD Atlanta while simultaneously working at Nike Running at Lenox Mall, and helping us #GrowTheBrand. Needless to say, he’s a busy cat, but he relishes in keeping things moving. Neil is a huge sports fan (like myself) and his allegiances lie with the Los Angeles Lakers, Baltimore Ravens, Arsenal, Atlanta Braves, and the Atlanta Hawks “when they aren’t totally embarrassing”. Follow him at @NeilChopz.

What up We Are the Process / EC Design Co. family, the name is Keenan Kellett and I’m here to learn. About what you ask? Well, about your city and what it has to offer to the streetwear game as a whole. Larry Luk and Georgios Saliaris were kind enough to hook me up with the spring internship here in their new studio at Good Work. I’ll be here Monday to Friday till around 5:00 if anyone ever wants to stop by and check anything out. I really love what We Are The Process is doing with their clothing by keeping it real and not losing their Southern roots.

I’m really stoked about staying in The A for awhile. This isn’t the first time I’ve visited Atlanta but it is the first time I’ll be “living” here. I’m coming here from Charleston, SC, where I serve hangry (hungry/angry) overweight tourist BBQ. I’ve been into We Are the Process for about a year now since I heard about it from some friends at Permanent Vacation. I’m looking forward to helping these guys #GrowTheBrand.

While I’m here I’m trying to dine on some of the delicious grub that Atlanta has to offer, which I know hardly anything about, but I’m sure exists. I want to also see some cool art galleries and possibly check out some of the dope music venues. I’m sure there are also some pretty good looking ladies but sadly for them I am very unavailable… Either way I know this is going to be a great experience all around.

Follow me on Twitter: @hi5keenan

We’d like to introduce our intern for the summer, Eden Weingart. Unlike most of our recent applicants, she was able to successfully navigate our extensive internship application. Although some of her sports-related answers weren’t exactly what we were looking for (she’s a Yankee fan), her talents outweighed our fanatical bias.

She studies Communication Design at Carnegie Mellon University, is a recent recipient of the Design Merit Award on campus, and is the PR director of the on-campus radio station WRCT. She’ll be our resident indie-rocker for the summer, learning about web design, and helping us devise a smarter inventory system for our back stock of We Are the Process items. Also, you may have noticed some of our recent music reviews were written by her. Wish her well, and leave her a nice comment!

Yesterday, Georgios and I dropped by The Center for Design study to say hello to our friend Rick Anwyl. Many of you will remember Rick as the guy who gave our company a home in his building immediately after we graduated from Portfolio Center in 2007. During our visit yesterday, we met fashion designer Caroline Mae, creator of the line Mae Couture. Upon seeing her work from across the room, we thought her dresses looked amazing.

After talking to her for 2 minutes, we realized that her clothes are constructed out of old military parachutes! Whaaaat?!? Take a second to think about that. These soft, beautifully crafted pieces once existed to provide a soft landing for military men and were made to withstand the elements. Now, I wouldn’t call myself a fashion designer (because what Georgios & I do have more to do with graphic design and visual communication on the canvas of a tee or cap) but I will say that I haven’t seen anything this interesting or exciting come out of the world of fashion in quite some time. Mae Couture is truly cool. Now if only we can get her to create some stuff for the bros…

More photos after the jump.

This stamp appears somewhere along the draping of the orange dress shown above.

Here, Caroline shows us this sweet jacket fit for your next music video.

Some of you know that I’ve been teaching a class at Portfolio Center over the past few months. This has been a new experience for me, as I’ve never taught before and it was only a few years ago that I was a student at PC. In my time away from the academic world, I started to miss it. Not only is teaching a chance to “drop-knowledge”, but I find it invigorating and refreshing. Perhaps I’m a huge design geek, but I enjoy talking about design with people who aren’t jaded with the industry. Rather, they are eager to excel at visual communication.

The name of the class is Entertainment Design (a broad name for “The Album Cover Class”). We focus on concept, branding, and typography for artists in the music industry; with the deliverables being album covers, packaging, posters, and various other marketing items. In the 1.5 quarters I’ve taught so far, we’ve had a live project for a major label artist and several guest presentations from my friends who work in the design industry.

I’m putting myself in the mindset of a student (which isn’t hard considering I used to go to school there) and trying to make this class-scenario a “dream class” for anyone with an open mind. If my homework assignments consisted of listening to music, going to the record store, and sketching (sober of course), I would have been more than happy to go above and beyond the call.

I don’t have many examples of student work coming out of my class because most students choose to photograph their packaging towards the end of their student careers. I was able to get one of my students (and new EC web-intern), Eric Dewyngaert, to send me a photo of his album packaging. It’s a new approach to The Deftones, titled “The Acoustic Experiment”. He asked himself, “What would happen if one of the hardest bands out there created an acoustic album?” He was able to track down live-acoustic performances of some of their most popular songs which were sonically peculiar and very intense. As you can see, Eric’s visual-reveal is what I envision being the result of many long recording sessions. Very cool.

Given that the name of the class is Entertainment Design, we may shift our focus in coming quarters to film and other performance arts, although I have a feeling that most of my students get a kick out of discovering new bands and listening to music as homework.

Also, there’s always an open invite to my buddies who want to drop in and give honest feedback! C’mon down…

Yesterday, a special package came in the mail from Quintin, a new hat company owned by some of our friends on the west coast. What sets them apart from the norm is that they specialize in fitted 5 panel caps, thus eliminating the need for a pesky adjustable strap and delivering some class to the 5 panel category. Their first wave of releases will take place on May 2nd, kicking off a summer of weekly releases bearing collaborations with many heavy-hitting design teams (the line sheet looks amazing). We’re honored to be included in this succession of releases and are currently tweaking the final details on the first PROCESS x Quintin collaboration set for later this summer.

Take a good look at Melissa Cullens and Reena Karia. They are the superpowers behind Relish, Atlanta’s newest and creative events company. Currently, they are students at our post-grad alma mater(s), Portfolio Center, and they’ve had the knack for throwing kick-ass parties over the past year. They soon realized that they could turn their talents into a reality. Not only are they great at working with 3D spaces, but they also have an amazing talent for strategy and design. They have been carefully planning our local events for the 03.06.09 launch of the PROCESS line and I can’t say enough about how their efforts. Make sure you remember these ladies as they’ll be the ones in the know for complimentary drinks and getting on the guest list at El Bar on 03.06.09. More event details coming soon. Relish’s website should be up soon at thisisrelish.com. Stay on it.

We have a new friend posting up at the EC studio in downtown Atlanta. Meet Kevin Blackwell. Kevin and I have been hustling all week to get our screen printing setup going again. Epidemik Coalition is rediscovering our roots from the days of Portfolio Center when we use to print tees and posters out of a walk-in closet at the school. Kevin has an art show coming up, so we’ve been printing with every given opportunity. We’ve got some new supplies and some great ideas. Like always, we’ve made do with what we have. We have converted Ted’s tub into a wash out station (sorry Ted, we’ll try to keep it clean) and are printing on an architect’s table that Uncle Rick gave us. Take a look at the photos of us screen printing after the jump.

Erin is a recent graduate of Auburn University and has brought her graphic design skills to Atlanta. We’ve invited to her to post-up in our studio while she learns more about the creative culture of the city. She’s been helping us design the PROCESS online store that is slated to launch in mid-February. Also, we’ve added some of her choice pieces to the EC Portfolio.

Jessica reminds me a lot of how Georgios and I went about our careers at Portfolio Center. She takes on as much as she can to gain valuable experiences. This past week, she took on freelance gigs, participated in two workshops, heard two speakers, made a paper dress for the MA 08 Launch Party, did homework for school, and helped us keep our operation afloat. She’ll be with us all summer with our weekly scheduling & concepting our apparel lookbook. Knowing her, she’ll probably take on more than that. Welcome Jessica!

If you want to find out more about Jessica Tillyer aka Violet Tiger, check out her blog at http://jessicatillyer.wordpress.com/

In other news, keep an eye out for music related updates coming from our boy, Yuri Majic (resident music curator), really soon.