Get to know the real Brian Famous (Brian Gallarello)

When You Wasn't Famous - The Streets

Brian Gallarello has taken a concept and branded it into an international success.  His line "Brian Famous" uses a simple hair parted mystery man to create an adventurous jack of all trades.  For all intents and purposes, they are novelty shirts but the character and life out of the varying icons is comical and genius.  Based out of New York, he recently released his second version of BF with a greater focus on the face.  Check out the interview below and be sure to check out the site.

Never having seen a picture of you, how much is Brian Famous a physical and/or personality self portrait?
If BrianFamous resembles me at all, it is coincidental. I consider myself to be a pretty good looking guy but BrianFamous is extremely suave. Being that Brianfamous is a 2-dimensional silhouette he can hang-out with 3-dimentional things like Magnum P.I. or 2-dimensional things like Magnum's iconic mustache. However, I think that when you are looking at BrianFamous, he represents a piece of what we all want to be. A characteristic that you probably believe about yourself, but that characteristic may or may not ever manifest itself.  He's part of the everyman. The part that gets along with everyone and anything and has a good time while doing it. He's also been linked to beauties such as the Chiquita Banana Lady and the St Pauli Girl, so it's safe to say he is out of my league.
 
Who do you think is revolutionizing the t-shirt design and graphics industry?  How are they doing it and what makes them stand out?
Designers with the ability to print on demand or in short print runs. Being able to produce unique and contemporary ideas that I can associate with the BrianFamous brand in a timely manner is really where the entire t-shirt industry is headed. There is a lot of really great work out there. If you search google on "tiger tee" you'll encounter some really great tigers. To stand out though those tigers need to be paired with a brand name to get the public to trust you. With BrianFamous, it is about his relationship to the tiger, either taking on their stripes or just hanging with the big cat.  Either way, it is incorporating the brand idea into the theme of the t-shirt.  it's great to have a tiger on your t-shirt, but how is that conveying the image of what you think your brand should represent to the public?  It's how the designer answers that question, i think, that ultimately dictates whether that brand will be successful or not.
 
Could you guide me through the timeline of your brand?  When did you have the first BF design and how did it progress from there?  What were the biggest obstacles you had to overcome?
I first captured BrianFamous in the summer of 2007. I wanted to find a brand that would be instantly recognizable almost subtle like a small crest or something. I introduced him to a Manga character, a martial arts legend and the world's favorite animated corpse. Two years later and I'm just trying to keep up with him. Now with the large face designs the brand has become bolder.
 
What have been the greatest challenges for online branding and have you had a success offline?
So far BrianFamous is an online venture. I think the biggest challenge is acting as curator to the life of this brand. As I said before, I think everyone has a piece of BrianFamous and vice versa, but how do you get
people to recognize that?  Additionally, how do you get your message to the mass public in a world that is dominated by larger corporate brands and if successful there, still continue to maintain the integrity that it had when it was created?  I think that like most art, this is a struggle that is an ongoing process and how you navigate your way through that and the answers that you arrive at are, ultimately, going to determine the final message of your brand, whether intended or not.  BrianFamous is a prism of pop culture.   Sometimes culture can be ugly and sometimes it can be beautiful. I want to show BrianFamous merging with a wide variety of visual elements so everybody can relate to some piece of his trajectory.

Where do you see the brand going in the next year and the next 5 years?
A boutique serving as a base of operations here in New York. A sort of living catalog serving to capture BrianFamous' jaunts through the world's cultural icons and visual elements. Wherever the brand goes, I'll be there. If Brianfamous travels to galaxies far far away, I have a light saber and a notebook.

Is there anything that you would like to tell our readers about BF or about you personally?
Yes. Embrace the Everyman.