Back in 1997, Jeff Staple made a T-shirt in silkscreening class during his sophomore year at Parsons School of Design in New York City. As the legend goes, he walked into a boutique wearing the shirt and unintentionally walked out with an order for 12 others like it. That triggered a cascade of events that saw him drop out of school to start Staple Design Studio, launch his own streetwear line called Staple Pigeon, and by 2001, open his first retail store in New York called Reed Space.
In 2005, Staple landed in the sneaker hall of fame for his Nike collaboration, the Staple Pigeon Dunk SB, currently available on Stock X for more than $23,300.
Now the designer and marketer is rebranding Staple Design Studio as Reed Art Department, aimed at making a clear distinction between the agency—which has worked with brands such as Nike, Kia, Beats by Dre, Sprite, and Shake Shack—and his own brand, as well as help point the way forward for his future creative marketing work.
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“I wanted to have a clear separation and delineation of those businesses, and this is actually the first, formal announcement of our creative studio,” says Staple. “We’ve worked with many brands over the last two decades, but it has all been through networking and word-of-mouth. A lot of the work we do and are known for doing is based on knowing what youth culture is all about. It’s about being authentic to what they want, what they’re looking for, and then helping be the translator for companies that want to attract that audience.”
“In 48 hours we raised $250,000 for the ACLU, Equal Justice Initiative, and Art Start,” says Staple. “To me that’s the perfect example of taking what commercialism and marketing taught us and giving it back. And I want to do a lot more of that.”
Part of the agency’s evolution involves branching out beyond just its commercial work. Staple says recent events such as the Black Lives Matter protests have inspired him to put more of his money and time where his mouth is. The agency rebrand process began back in September 2019, but between COVID-19 and the anti-racism protest movement, they had to decide whether to hold off or not.
“Many companies wouldn’t choose this time to do something aggressive like a rebrand, most want to lay in the weeds for a minute and wait for the storm to pass,” says Staple.”We said let’s go for it. And there were things we wanted to do in the past that—and I hate to say this—we just hadn’t got around to it. Things that went beyond marketing and churning the consumerist engine, but giving back to the community. One thing protests do is light fires under asses like mine, and say it’s time to get up and do something.”
“I firmly believe that art and design are one of the most effective ways to break down color lines,” says Staples. “I’ve seen it with myself and my friends. If you’re on stage with a band, or painting graffiti, a person’s color doesn’t matter. That’s what I’m trying to pass on.”
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