Francis Minoza and Laurence Minoza are two brothers who make up the design team Nicebleed. Hailing from Cebu in the Philippines they have racked up quite a number of t-shirts on both Threadless and Design by Humans. If you are familiar with these stores you have certainly seen a few of their t-shirts. These guys focus all their attention on creating t-shirt designs and you can tell. They had their first win on the now defunct Teextile and they never looked back. Thankfully they have since moved on to bigger and better (and more honest) contest sites.

As time goes by they are only getting better so expect to see more and more about them. Read the interview below to find out more about these graphic design masters.

— ABOUT THE PEOPLE —

Nicebleed is a collaboration between Francis Minoza and Laurence Minoza. If it’s not too personal a question; what is your relationship?
We are brothers. Sweat and Blood!

Where did the name nicebleed come from?
We played a lot of Counterstrike Source then. It was my name nosebleed then later developed to nicebleed.

I guess nosebleed was slightly brutal to have as an aka for an artist name.

How did you start designing together?
It all started four years ago in 2007. We’ve been living in the same roof top since then. We both worked in a photo editing company and discovered photoshop.

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Photo editing and designing wedding albums was our first job. After hearing from some friends about some contest sites like Teextile and DesignbuHumans, we decided to collaborate and submit a couple of artworks on those sites. Since then, we started our journey to the awesomeness world of t-shirt designing.

In the t-shirt world, it appears that you design as a team but I assume you also design separately? Am I correct in my assumption?
Yes, We were collaborating like all the artworks we had submitted. We have different styles individually but when combined, I think that’s the flavor you see on Nicebleed.

It’s always a two-way process when it comes to designing/creating stuff. We were experimenting with different styles individually, though.

Apart from creating awesome artwork for t-shirts what do you spend most of your time doing?
When we’re not making artworks, we spend time with families and friends.

— ABOUT THE ARTIST —

What percentage of your time to you devote to t-shirt design?
Right now we’re both freelance. I think 99.9% of our time will be devoted to t-shirt designing!

When and why did you first start designing for t-shirts?
Since 2007. It’s fun, exciting and expresses your creative side and the prices were inspiring.

Are you involved in other types of art? If so could you tell us a little about it?
We were inspired by almost types of art. Some of those like painting, photography, and music.

Love to express more on that types of art but not have the necessary time and money for that one. Right now all the priority is on designing tees

Where do you get your ideas or inspiration?
Internet and information are one. You can have all info in a click of a mouse. The world is open and you can see other people’s art on the internet. Through this connection, we seek and find ideas and inspiration.

Do both of you have different strengths and weaknesses when it comes to art? Could you tell us about them?
Both of us have trouble on coming up with ideas but somehow we manage along the way. Like one of us can work on concepts and the other is much more on the technical side.

Could you describe your typical design process from concept to completion?
Concept – Research the internet – Implementation – Completion

— ABOUT THE TEES —

Naked Mind was just printed at Design by Humans and it is your 10th tee to be printed there. Do you still feel the same excitement as when you got your first print?
Yeah, I think every print has different excitement level. The first print was memorable and it gave you an initial confidence towards your art direction.

The last print was like “WOOOW!!!” did we really got that far? It was an awesome cool feeling that lot of people are liking your art. Every time we have new designs printed, we were like so proud and thankful for the community that they like it.

Do you remember your first t-shirt contest win? If so, what was it and how did you feel?
It was from teextile.com (now closed). It was inspiring and like you want to do more designs.

Which of your t-shirts is your favorite? Do you both have similar tastes?
– Laurence – St. Pilot, The Time has Come, Once upon a Time

– Francis – Extinct, A Mad Beast, Life + Death, Naked Mind

Do you wear the t-shirts that you have designed?
Yes of course! We love it all!

Have you seen somebody wearing your tee in the real world?
Yes.Like saw a couple on the malls on other people here. Our friends wear it also. haha!

— ABOUT THE WORLD —

Do you have any role models, artistic or otherwise?
– Salvador Dali, Shepard Fairey, James Jean, Jeff Soto, Alex Pardee, Hydro74, Wotto, Jimiyo and many more to mention.

Were you born and raised in the Philippines? Do you still live there now?
Yes, we were born and raised in Cebu City, Philippines. An awesome place. Still here in the heart of the city living and kicking!

Where would you most like to visit outside of the Philippines?
California, Japan, Europe, places that we haven’t visited yet.

— ABOUT OTHER DESIGNERS —

Which tee designer(s) do you admire the most?
Ilovedoodle, Alexmdc, Sam Kaufman, Tang Yau Hoong, Enkel Dika, Spykeee, Dzeri29, Qetza, Mathiole, Kyle Crawford, Rob Dobi, Keaton Henson and many others.

Read Alex Solis aka Alexmdc interview on the Shirt List

Who would you like to see featured on the Shirt List next?
Anyone mentioned above.

— ABOUT TEE DESIGN —

What design trends have made you go WTF?
We’re like into visually eye-catching designs and all-over prints

Any advice for other designers/artists?
Explore and don’t be afraid to try new things. Learning is a never ending process!

— EXTRA —

Pepsi or Coca-cola?
Coca-cola, please!

Nicebleed on the Web: Website | Twitter | DeviantArt