Punk Masters by Patty Palazzo

Punk Masters

by: Patty Palazzo

*logo from www.punkmasters.com

Have you ever wondered who designed that awesome graphic tee you have, or that you saw one of your favorite musicians or celebs wearing? I love to do features on my blog taking the time to showcase some of my favorite new shops and designers I discover. I get lucky and come in contact with some amazing designers. Etsy and Instagram are amazing places to find some creative people. Being the graphic tee addict that I am, I'm always looking for amazing new tee shirt designers that have a style of graphics that really is relatable to my lifestyle. Sure there are lots of amazing tee shirts available in stores, sometimes you don't even realize that some of these smaller owned shops and designers have even created some of the graphics you may own on tee shirts or clothing from  higher end designers or more well known labels or shops.  Most likely you have seen this amazing designers graphics on tee shirts from Juicy Couture, Dirty English and worn on stage by members of Duran Duran. Let me introduce you to Patty Palazzo of Punk Masters. 

Photo from www.Punkmasters.com

Patty is also a tee shirt junkie (this told me right away she was going to have some cool designs because I know being the tee lover I am I dream of creating my own tees all the time). Patty was born and raised in Akron Ohio. Life was always about fashion, music and art for her, shortly after graduating from Kent State University with her degree in graphic design Patty relocated to Los Angeles, CA.  This led to her eventually working full time for John Taylor of Duran Duran, she did many things from working as a personal assistant, web designer, merchandiser, photographer, music editor, sounding board and more. She helped John create, maintain and edit his own personal website named (TTP)  Trust the Process. While working with him she had the opportunity to use more then her graphic design skills to help him create packaging for his CD's, tee shirts, stickers, along with many other cool things and a lot of other merchandise. 

Through her time working with John she was brought on to design the logo for Juicy Couture and worked closely with Pam & Gela on graphics for their women's clothing line. She did this for a span of eight years. Juicy then launched a men's clothing line, Dirty English, Patty Palazzo and John Taylor were a huge part of the direction of the line. During this time she said she really learned so much and got to experience some amazing and fun times making logos, designing graphics and clothes, it is like a dream come true for any fashion, music lover that has a passion for graphic design and tee shirts. She remained working with Duran Duran over the years designing merchandise and even their stage clothes. I was excited to learn some of my favorite Pam & Gela tees Patty had also designed. She is for sure an amazing graphic designer and creative mind. 

In the summer of 2009 Patty decided she would start her own tee shirt line, Punk Masters. She launched her line as a personal creative outlet and to further explore her love of screen printing.  While working on the men's Juicy line she loved the imagery of the great royalty and classic masters of centuries passed. She enjoyed mixing those images with a twist of punk, rock and bringing in the modern world. Her line really does have the perfect twist even if you aren't a fan of punk or rock, the images are all eye catching and then the punk and rock twist gives it that originality and edge. I own several of her tee shirts and love the designs on them along with the style of tee shirt the designs are printed on. I love how the tee shirt has the raw hem with a worn, soft, broken in feel like one of your older favorite tees. Being a lover of music, from classic rock, to rock that spans the decades and of course a bit of punk and metal her line is really appealing to me. The night I came across her page back in late Jan early Feb of this year I was drawn to many of her designs and laughed when I looked in my cart to see I had already in a matter of a few minutes managed to add at least five or six tees to my cart. I love almost every design and was even sad that some that were on sale were older designs or samples she wouldn't have more of. I look forward to new designs and being able to add more of her styles to my collection. 

I also not only love how Patty uses some amazing images and designs but also how she combines them with some of her favorite sayings or quotes that are inspiring but also sometimes something that someone may see and it will have a personal meaning to them because it was from a movie, song or maybe even something they heard someone say or read somewhere over time but you see it on a shirt and know you have to have it.  I know I love her mix of design, images and words. Below are some of my favorite designs, including a few shots of the shirts I own. 

All her tee shirts are designed and screen printed by Patty. I love the artistic and creative graphics on every shirt with such detail mixed with the punk and rock vibe. 

Some of the tees pictured are samples and only available in the one size but the rest are all available in both men and women's size tee shirts. They retail for $32 each. If you are a fan of Duran Duran some of these designs you may have seen worn by John or other members of the band. 

My tee shirts I have so far. I have a love of feathers which have a special meaning to me and I'm also a big fan of skulls. I have a deep passion for music spanning from classic rock, all spans of rock and metal, punk rock, and retro 80's music also. Thieves like Us is a song I love by New Order, add the feather with skull graphic and I feel like this tee was made for me personally.

Make sure to visit Patty's website at: www.punkmasters.com. From there you will find the link to her Etsy store where you can purchase your own favorite tees or designs. You can follow her on IG @punkmasters then you can see some more of her designs along with photos of some of her past work and be able to see the newest styles as they are created. 

Where to shop: 

PunkMasters.com