Heron Preston and Virgil Abloh Talk Origins, Creative Process and Inspiring Young Designers

Surface magazine recently ushered the 31st installment for its Design Dialogues series during Art Basel 2016. The creative discussion was held in the gorgeous Faena Art Dome in Miami beach with guest speakers Virgil Abloh and Heron Preston relaying key takeaways from their creative professions in the fashion industry. Abloh discussed OFF-WHITE, his fledgling furniture line at Design Miami, as well as revealing why it’s crucial for young designers to tackle a plethora of expressive undertakings at once. On the other hand, Preston touched upon his latest collaboration with The New York City Department of Sanitation, the stance of eco-friendly products in streetwear culture, as well as the endless opportunities that the DIY scene brings forth.

As a whole, the polymath designers/longstanding collaborators didn’t shy away from answering some of the toughest questions posed by Surface fashion editor Courtney Kenefick. Take a look at key excerpts from the panel below and head over to the publication’s official website to learn more.

How Virgil Abloh and Heron Preston met:

Heron Preston: Right. Yeah, that’s how we met: blogging. Web 2.0. I had just moved to New York from San Francisco and had learned how to make a website. I would design them on Photoshop and literally they were images—cut out images—and that was the website. But then I eventually learned html. So when I got to New York, I was like, “Man, I’ve got to get a blog.” I had a camera and I was like, “Let me show my friends back home in San Francisco what my life is like,” because I was meeting a lot of really interesting people. I was like, “Let me open up the window to my life.” And then through my connections and my relationships, Virgil and I just—I’m not sure how we …

Virgil Abloh: The best thing about that early wave of the internet is that it was literally hidden storytelling—not things like storytelling to his friends in San Francisco while I was in Chicago, like living in New York through his blog. It was basically an early version of social media, but it was so handmade that I was like, “I feel like I know this kid,” but I had obviously never met him. And then, as people are familiar in New York, when La Esquina opened up (I think you worked there), but I went there with some other friends and I was walking down the stairs while he was coming up and I was like, “Yo, Heron, what up?”

On tackling a slew of creative endeavors:

HP: I don’t think there’s necessarily pressure. It just defines the now. This is just what is at our fingertips to be creative and to express. There are so many more opportunities and so many more platforms where kids can create. You can be a photographer, you can be a DJ, you can start a band, you can start a clothing company, you can do whatever you want. That is the new definition. I don’t think kids really want to get jobs these days because they can just do it on their own. They can figure out how to make money on their own.

How do I stay serious across multiple disciplines? Get taken seriously? You just have to take yourself seriously and you have to execute at a high enough level where people will take you seriously and just know your shit. And really believe in it, really really believe in it. And get the message out as clear as possible. That’s one thing I kind of noticed is that if no one really gets your idea, then they don’t take it seriously and it just kind of flops. I think it’s also, again, writing the future. This is the future. We can do whatever we want across all disciplines, across all platforms. It’s literally grabbing culture by the hand and and walking it into this new world. This is the new serious. This is now, so take it seriously because this is really happening.

We can do whatever we want across all disciplines, across all platforms. It’s literally grabbing culture by the hand and and walking it into this new world.

On representing culture through various projects:

VA: You know, it’s ironic we’re doing the Surface magazine talk. There’s a lot of kids that create, but then I feel like if you never see this sort of approval in a magazine, or if you never see it from outside your peers, then you question if it’s credible or not. I think the social stratosphere of creatives, like Heron and I or Corey Black, represents that we’re just kids that study and then create things and we’re lucky if we have an outlet to get them out to more people than our friends. Me, my whole thing is I went—obviously, working with Kanye or working with friends is how I got to where I’m at.

My position is to open up doors for more kids of the social stratosphere to get there work outside of just their insular [group of] friends who think it’s cool. I think it’s the most important work that’s happening is this role of the creative director that works with closely with culture. My motivation is that it might not end up in the magazine or it might not end up in Art Basel. We might be just doing parties, which we’re fine with, but I think this is the highest level of contemporary thought and creative design and it should be in magazines. It should be written up in an intellectual way.

On getting ideas rejected:

VA: Literally every day. I’m the king of the cold calls, the king of the emails. You use a project to pitch one to the next. That’s what being a creative director, I think, in the modern sense is. I’ve kind of gone overboard with it. I think I have 22 different projects coming out in 2017, but it’s like a modern way to work.

HP: That’s the beauty of just having guts. You’ve got to have some stuff and just try stuff. Who cares if someone laughs at you and calls you a failure? They’re not the ones putting themselves out there. It really takes a lot of confidence to put yourself out there. We’re up here on the stage talking and I’m slightly hungover and I still came. I’m not hungover—my energy levels are really low. That’s why I have these glasses and try to come off really cool. Just this barrier; I feel safe. But yeah, you have to just do it. Guts.