Meet Valentino - Our Apparel Graphic Designer

Valentino! Tell us about yourself, let’s start at the top.

I’m Valentino Brunetti, born in Stoke-on-Trent, lived in Manchester for the last seven years on-and-off. I’ve lived in Sweden, I’ve lived in Venice; partly to work, partly to study - moved to London for DUKE + DEXTER to become their apparel graphics designer.

Prior to this, I was a designer for Castore back in Manchester where I worked on graphics for the F1 side of the business specifically.

This covered Red Bull, McLaren, 24 of Le Mans and Honda Repsol to name just a few big hitters. Red Bull and McLaren were big clients to deal with, both containing a lot of people and specifics to get through - so, it’s nice to have a more straight forward process where myself, Archie and the creative team can get together in one creative session and agree on a direction.

I have a lot of creative freedom to really push the boundaries of graphics within the apparel space, aspiring to be amongst the best to do it and to disrupt the normal methods with breakthrough graphics that will really stick it to the bigger brands.

Why apparel graphics design? How did you end up here, and how have you ended up in the position you are today?

I ended up here because I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I knew I wanted to be an artist, but didn’t know in what regard to ensure that I can survive.

After Uni and spending some time galivanting around Stockholm pondering my next move, I headed back to the UK, got a retail job, but kept on top of applying for different roles that interested me.

I went for a label and design intern role at Acne Studios, proved myself by completing a brief and then got the internship. There were only two designers on the team, I joined as the third and began working on woven labels. We worked alongside the print designers, and I really liked what they were doing; there was more freedom, a bit more artistic leeway and this was something I wanted to be more aligned with.

After that I worked in Selfridges on the retail floor, which was weird because I was selling Acne Studios garments with labels I had designed inside. 

I then managed to get a role at Footasylum, where I really learned a lot from guys who had been in the industry for 20+ years. So good at what they did. Quite literally Godfathers of apparel graphic design.

It was another side of the consumer market that I couldn’t massively relate too, but I sponged up the knowledge from my seniors and learned how to forecast new colours, graphic narratives and different methods when approaching graphics. I moved to Castore - again, a bit more freedom came with this role, however I soon realised that this sense of freedom didn’t really exist. I was getting knocked back because of the complications in print and third-party restrictions. It became apparent that I wasn’t going to achieve the standard I had set for myself due to restrictions for the sake of margins, and that’s when I met Archie, showed him my portfolio with everything I’d been doing and it just clicked. A few independent jobs for him later, and we got on so well that we just made it happen.

Then, I moved to London soon after.

How was the transition from motorsport into fashion?

As I said before, for a year and a half before joining DUKE + DEXTER I’d been working with Red Bull and McLaren. This actually created a really nice segway into creating motorsports themed works for a more luxury brand, which is exactly what I wanted.

I didn’t necessarily want to stick with motorsports, but I can dive into it confidently. Knowing all sorts about archive graphics that people aren’t really aware of or even have access to.

This is F1 central, England has too much history with F1 and motorsports in general. So, it really does make sense for more local references to contribute to this craze that’s surrounding the sport right now. Jump on it, make it our own. 

At what point did it make sense to develop an apparel line with DUKE + DEXTER?

There’s an enormous market for apparel graphics right now, and I don’t feel as though we’ve even touched the tip of the iceberg in London when exploring it. 

In general, there’s a lot of pressure when it comes to margins, third parties and keeping everyone on the team happy. Sometimes we stick to the first idea, but the best ideas grow from spontaneous drops of thought. Here, we get to see more personal and imaginative approaches that spark the “hell yeah” moment we’re all chasing.

Obviously, the big brands that we’ve collaborated with recently are absolutely smashing it, but we all have our own styles and ways of approaching projects. By fate, the stars have aligned here at DUKE + DEXTER and we know what needs to happen in this space. Something I saw when applying for the role in January of this year. It was the perfect fit.

And of course, why motorsports?

We saw an opportunity. Motorsport is timeless, it’s not just a trend, it’s something that has always been there and always will be. It has such a high energy and visual identity.

It’s also been a big part of my career, so it made perfect sense to combine my experience in motorsport and my passion for apparel graphic design. Hence the birth of Duke Racing and everything else that may follow.