Multitalented artist Acheekybuddhist is known for her ability to create colorful pieces and patterns under the scrupulous direction of her revered mentor Allen McNeil, a legendary R&B Singer and music producer who is the founder of a new and iconic clothing brand 67KINGS. The two decided to collaborate on the fashion project in 2022, and she now designs the graphics for his company. Although she is foremost a designer, her creativity extends far beyond graphics. She creates music, is an author of more than seven books, and is currently a junior year film student. Her dedication to her craft and her willingness to learn from her mentor have led her to become a popular artist and stylist behind the scenes.
Seeing A Feeling On Paper
Gifted with a rare condition called synesthesia that allows her to sometimes see sound as colors, this unique sensory perceptional phenomenon has led her to explore new avenues of creativity when designing art templates. These rare perceptual occurrences are what helps formulate the distinctive shapes and color patterns that she uses to create the one of a kind artwork exclusively produced for 67KINGS.COM.
In 2014 she began testing out her designs on t-shirts that she sold on e-commerce sites like Etsy only to find that such marketplaces were oversaturated with hundreds and thousands of talented creators which made the chances of someone noticing your products or your shop as slim locating a needle in a haystack. “My last tango with those marketplaces ended with a product that I created with a very juvenile looking pastiche drawing of a popular movie character. That particular item boomed with sales out of nowhere and suddenly I was receiving emails for more sizes and colors. I didn’t expect it to sell at all! I just kind of threw the product on there (the marketplace) just because it was a design that I wasn’t pleased with that was taking up space in my computer. So rather than delete it I figured what the heck, let’s upload it and see what happens.” She quickly gained a following and began to receive requests for custom designs. “I felt kind of special at that point! All I had was my tiny cellphone screen to work with and my left thumb. In that case I never attempted to make any intricate or magnificent artworks because I didn’t have the means or proper equipment to do so. So imagine how befuddled I was to see that people liked a drawing on shirt that I considered to be one of the worst pieces of chicken scratch I had ever created. But we all have different tastes and our own individual definitions of excellence I suppose.”
A Crown For A King
“Everything on the website (with the exception of the ladies sections) has to do with the mien and aura of Allen. There’s a significance to the crown logo as well as there being symbols of prosperity and even inspirational quotes- Allen. If not wholly his idea he’s always the muse and base for the sauce. He’s very meticulous about personal expression and presentation so the artwork you see aren’t just my ideas, they’re things that he approved based on his own aesthetic moods of the moment which is subject to change and then change again. But overall he’s honestly very easy to work with, I enjoy it very much.”
Despite her many successes, Acheekybuddhist remains humble and continues to learn from McNeil and highly reveres his opinions. “I’m always so nervous that he won’t like it. Like, oh my god I hope he’s happy with this one or just oh my god in general. After all of these years I’m still nervous whenever I show him anything new. I look up to him so there’s always this huge big babyish pout and thick tears I’m trying to hide and hold back when he doesn’t want to go with a particular design. He’s usually pleased with the finished products that I present to him though, however there are times where he hits me with soft criticisms which in essence means he doesn’t like it do it over. So there are moments when I’m pulling my hair out wanting to give up altogether. And pouting. Because it typically takes more than four hours to concoct one piece of art. But you know, I’m grateful for the encouragement and reassurance he gives me to do everything until I personally feel it’s the best I’ve ever done before. That’s the only way he’ll accept anything from me. He’ll like something and then ask me if I really like it. If my answer is anything other than simply “yes”, he’ll tell me to change it until I feel it’s my best work. He’s the king here, so we do things the way the king requires they’re done. So he of course was the inspiration for the brand’s crown logo.”
One of her favorite products to work on are the sneakers. “I love sneakers! They’re my favorite product to ornate,” she says. Noting that their signature print sneakers were the first product created and the first product to bear the company’s crown logo. Her designs have globally caught the attention of sneakerheads and fashion enthusiasts alike, even being featured in several fashion blog publications immediately after the site’s launch. “I was so floored! I was like wow! We just launched the site two weeks ago and already people are mentioning 67KINGS in their blog posts! Mentioning products that I drew! There’s no way to describe how that felt. I was speechless, I didn’t think it would attract that much attention that quickly. King told me it would be a hit and he was right.”
Acheekybuddhist has her own separate lanes that she’s procured for herself as she sometimes sells her own branded products on marketplaces like Amazon and eBay and then removes them after a short period so as not to devalue the product’s artwork. “Anything that’s always available begins to gradually lose it’s value over time because the comfortably of knowing it’s there makes you forget about it completely. Like something collecting dust on the top shelf in your closet or moreover like something collecting dust with the other five hundred items we all have just sitting in our online shopping carts for the past six months now. Selling on marketplaces is an entirely different hustle than having your own website. Your product is a mere tiny minnow swimming through a sea thousands of merchants. There’s no exclusivity. Marketplace customers need to say “hey what happened to that thing I liked? I don’t see it now!” So at the moment that you relist it the mindset of the customer is to buy it immediately before it’s gone again. I find it much more worthwhile to focus on the 67KINGS brand, creating very swish items that are sought instead spending large amounts of time creating graphics only for them to be tossed into a retail bingo cage.”
This is absolutely a brand that should not be overlooked. More than just impressive for its standalone style, the company so far remains unparalleled with their distinctive imagery and eye-catching presentation.
Be sure to visit 67KINGS.COM by Allen McNeil. They have pretty cool socks. Socks matter.
All Images Credit: 67KINGS.com
