[HA for DROKU] In Character : RadisRad

What do you get when you combine cartoons, popular YouTube artists and “random artistic designs”?

The answer: RADisRAD, a graphic t-shirt company founded by Randy Andre De Jesus in 2007. The Southern California-based business is dedicated to appealing to their customers’ random likes and unique personalities. Whether that means secretly nerdy elephants, zombie pandas or skating turtles – they have something for everyone.

“Drawing has always been my passion,” says De Jesus. “Everything roots back to my love for Saturday morning cartoons, and all the Disney movies.”

De Jesus’ artwork took off when he got an opportunity to work on VANS slip-on shoes.  His designs became increasingly popular amongst the local community and landed him a job at clothing company GRN Appletree.  After about a year, he moved on to start his own company, Random Artistic Design.

“From there, the brand evolved into RADisRAD,” says De Jesus. “Now, there are over a dozen of us on the team pushing for RAD to be internationally known.  And we’re shooting for the top!”

RADisRAD’s designs focus mainly on characters, and they’ve even created shirts to cheer on the Lakers, American Idol contestant Andrew Garcia and several of Youtube’s top Asian American artists.

In fact, AJ Rafael, Cathy Nguyen, Jeremy Manongdo (Passion), Gerald Ko (Singindork), Jennifer Chung and Gabe Bondoc each have their own t-shirts, complete with cute, artist-inspired, neon-colored animal characters.

De Jesus’s vision for RADisRAD also includes promoting worthy causes and getting involved in the local community.

A portion of the proceeds from Andrew Garcia’s RADisRAD shirts, for example, goes to support advocacy group Autism Speaks as well as the relief efforts in Haiti.  They also have a collaborative project with the Mahal Foundation, an organization geared towards alleviating poverty in the Philippines.

“It is my goal as a Filipino to help give back any way I can,” says De Jesus.

Whether it’s tanks or t-shirts, RADisRAD take pride in their ability to turn random ideas into fun, 80’s-cool gear with an attitude.  And that’s RAD.

Photos courtesy of RadisRad