Dopamin

Dopamin


Carsten
The story of DOPAMIN is, more than anything, the story of my very good friend. A boy who is, sadly, no longer alive. At 17, he was signed at a famous model agency. At 18, he died in a car crash. He had been dreaming of creating his own fashion brand that was to be different from all the other fashion brands in the world. A brand designed by life in the streets. I want to make his dream come true in DOPAMIN: the idea of fashion being designed by those for whom it is made. The big designer labels usually have a head designer in charge of their collections and then whole designer teams working under that person. And yet none of them usually ever crosses paths with a single customer. Many of these brands are just one division within large corporations or have been bought out by private investors. Other large vendors and labels making clothing for young people or for the mainstream often turn to market research and trend scouts to keep abreast of new developments and trends all over the world and then try to work this third-hand information into their products.

We take a completely different approach. All our designers, who are at the same time also our models, are still young themselves – currently 18 to 24 years old. I used online social networks to assemble the team. None of these kids have a degree in design or any other formal training like that. I’m not about degrees or diplomas. The best certifications say nothing about ability. If all we cared about was producing huge lots of uniform clothing, then yes, we would need the mainstream people. But the goal for DOPAMIN was finding youths who are themselves both distinctive as well as unique, brimming with new ideas that others simply don’t have. These guys have tons of self-esteem, enough that they don’t need to inflate it or copy others. Plus they have a natural talent, a gifted eye for style and design, and how they look is very important to them. Uniqueness is, after all, one of the core values of DOPAMIN, expressed most distinctively by our designers. That’s why we feel the need to show you the faces and personalities behind DOPAMIN. And because unique items are not designed for the masses, one can’t just walk into a store and buy DOPAMIN. To qualify, you first have to apply. I myself studied business and technology management and am employed days at a financial company. I spend my free time organising the DOPAMIN network, that includes narrowing down and negotiating with manufacturers, organising the infrastructure, bookkeeping tasks, etc. But first and foremost, I’m having so much fun – and that’s definitely what it’s all about. All I could therefore ever ask of anyone: If you believe in something unconditionally and you want it with all your heart, fight for it. There’s no such thing as a free lunch, but if your will is strong and you commit yourself 100%, virtually anything is possible!

Laurids
Let’s see, what brilliant gems can be said about a simple boy from a big city in Germany? I think I’ll start with the basics: my name is Laurids, I’m 21 years old, and I live in Neuss, Germany. I’m 1.87m tall (6’1”), I’ve got brown hair and brown eyes and of course have other interests apart from modelling and designing. First would be my two best friends Lorenz and David, who have always had my back. They’ve been right there for me even in the worst of times. I also love to play sports, unfortunately I haven’t had much time for anything recently because my apprenticeship program takes up so much of my time and energy right now. And, of course, last but not least, I love going to parties and making up for it by spending the next day in bed, much to the chagrin of my mother. As I said, I’m currently in an apprenticeship program so that in 2½ years I can call myself a banker. Obviously 13 years of school was not enough! This training program is still a lot of fun and I’m also hoping that once it’s over, I can also fit in some college as well. Okay, so now I’ll try to describe my character. I think it’s always hard to get an objective view of yourself, but I also think I have a pretty good general idea of who I am. What I hear a lot, and I can’t deny it, is that I have a big mouth. But even so, I’m also a very good listener when it really comes down to it and can put myself in someone else’s shoes and help them get a grip on their problems. As far as my attitude toward work, I tend to be on the lazy side. It’s like I have to be in the mood to get off my bum. Otherwise, I’m a loyal soul, always up for getting together with my friends or throwing around new ideas with the DOPAMIN guys or planning more or less spur-of-the-moment trips to Paris with Carsten (DOPAMIN’s manager) so we can meet DOPAMIN-minded people and party all night long (TMI!). I don’t think I can sum up “the nice boy from next door” any better than that, but I also think you’ve now at least got the general drift.

James
Hey, people! My name is James! I’m a happy, always-smiling 18-year-old, forever looking for adventure and life’s crazy surprises like the Dopamin fashion label. I’ve always been into fashion. I’m constantly checking out the new styles in magazines and have recently been going to some of the UK’s fashion shows. They’re amazing – you get a lot of inspiration and fresh new ideas for the future. I got to know Dopamin by talking to the manager Carsten from Germany who liked my style and ideas and, most importantly, me as a friend. He introduced me to a whole new exciting fashion label where we can create a style all our own and get to know our customers and what brings out their personality the best and most of all, what will look great, hot, cool and damn sexy on them! We all know how difficult it is to get the exact product we want, but DOPAMIN has a different kind of customer service. So I became one of the designers and models for DOPAMIN and did a great photo shoot wearing the products. But fashion is not all of my life. I also have dual nationality: half-English and half-Finnish. People always ask me, “So what are you? More English or more Finnish?” I can’t really answer that because I’ve lived and done so much in both countries, although for now I’m living in England. I also have a great love for music, I sing and produce and have my own little recording studio in my house busting beats and songs loud, so TURN IT UP! I took one year of catering in college. It was good but I quickly learned that the pressure of cooking in a kitchen was not for me. But never say never – and I do love cooking for my family and in my free time. In sports, I would say I love golf and play it on an okay level, my handicap is 9.0, but I love other sports like basketball, too. And of all the extreme sports, especially skateboarding. I did skateboard the whole time I was growing up, but I never got that good. I was more on my bum than pulling off tricks haha. People also ask me what I am scared of. Hmmm, that’s a hard one, I’m a brave guy ….NOT! Seriously though, I’m a little scared of the future. I guess you just don’t know what’s around the corner, but I guess that’s what makes life exciting, too.

Thomas
Hi, I’m Thomas, I’m 24 years old and currently living in beautiful Osnabrück in Germany. I’ve been a part of DOPAMIN from the very start, mainly doing the graphic design. That could mean cool new fliers for our fabulous DOPAMIN parties or when we want to impress our business contacts with snazzy business cards or when we need a certain look for our website. Anything like that, that’s all my job. It actually all started for me more than 10 years ago. Back then, I really didn’t know much about graphics and the new media, but I slowly started to immerse myself more and more in this world. By having an absolute will to break into this field later on and educating myself all I could, I was able to consistently develop my talents. Everything paid off at the beginning of 2005 when I finally started up my own business: “Farbmuseum – New Media Design” (www.farbmuseum.de). Luckily it wasn’t too long before I started getting orders and started making a name for myself in this field. The big adventure with DOPAMIN started in 2006. It opened new doors for me because fashion design then became another great new creative outlet for me. It was an exciting year, not only because of designing the layouts for the shirts and the pullovers, but there was a lot going on behind the scenes as well. That was the only way we could achieve the individuality and thus the uniqueness that defines us today, that we place so much value on. But we also had to go down some roads which had previously been off limits to us or were filled with obstacles. But all the fun we had, coupled with a huge dose of ambition, allowed us to create what we have up to this point. That just made it all the more sweeter later on when we saw how the fashion world took to our designs. What I hope for the future is to continue coming up with more great designs for DOPAMIN so that the fashionistas of this world can keep looking to the DOPAMIN name to help them express their individuality.I personally am proud to be a member of this strong team and also to have had a hand in DOPAMIN becoming internationally established.

Tim
Hi, I’m Tim and I live in Berlin. At the moment, I’m studying Theatre Arts and working as a waiter. I love going to the theatre because the stage is my true love. I think that being able to play different characters and yet still be myself is the biggest challenge of each role. Also, you can do things on stage that would never be possible or allowed in real life. I hope that someday I can make my living at this, although that probably won’t be so easy. But school is showing me how multi-faceted acting can be, the courses I’m taking are giving me a very good over view. In the end, though, the most important thing to me is simply being happy in whatever profession I end up in. At the same time, I’m also into voice acting, it really intrigues me how you can give an entire personality to an “inanimate” figure. Generally speaking, I am constantly out and about, sometimes meeting up with friends or tackling new projects like DOPAMIN. The main thing for me is never coming to a standstill. In my free time, I like going to the cool clubs and bars with my friends. And even though Berlin is a big city, we have a lot of parks here. It’s so great to hang around a park at the height of summer, have a barbecue with your friends and meet new people. I love Berlin, there’s so many great opportunities here. Berlin is so diverse, also in all the styles of clothing. As a young adult in this hopping city, I’m very into fashion and lifestyle, because there’s a huge scene for that here in Berlin. There’s all types here: from Fashion Victim all the way to Nerd. For me, a clothing style is a certain expression of individuality and in that respect, I’m not interested in which brands I wear – the main thing is that they give you that “extra something”. That’s why I find the idea behind DOPAMIN great, that the people for whom the clothes are made are also designed by them. And as a glaring contrast to that, every now and then I like to go to “Bad Taste” parties where they play awful music and wear outrageous clothes. These kinds of parties are always a blast because it doesn’t matter at all what you look like, the main thing is just having fun. Here in Berlin especially, the people are super-tolerant, they just make it so much fun to express yourself completely.