A T-shirt by Labscraft

Bhubaneswar, Oct. 28: Monotony can make fashion designers out of rock stars.

Members of rock band Shabd started designing and selling their own brand of customised T-shirts after some of its members left for other cities because of professional commitments.

The prospect of starting such a venture had always been in the pipeline ever since the band was formed in 2007. But things started materialising only after 2011. While in Calcutta for a gig, they visited a printing unit and understood the procedure and estimated the expenditure.

Accumulating the money they earned from various performances and financial help taken from their parents, the idea finally came to life in form of Labscraft, short for laboratory of the abstract art, in April. Their manufacturing unit is located at Khandagiri.

Lead vocalist Sidharth Sahu, rhythm guitarist Jyotir Aditya and drummer Soumyarajan Dixit, along with another musician Onkar Das are managing the day-to-day affairs. Lead guitarist Ayushman Dash and bassist Anubhav Satpathy, who live in other cities, have taken the responsibility of promoting the brand on social networking sites.

“Labscraft Creations is a venture by childhood friends and musicians. Our band was doing perfectly fine till we had to stop performing as some of our members left for other cities for studies or jobs. Though we are still producing music online, the ones who were still in Bhubaneswar were bored to death. It was then that we decided to finally start work on this project,” said Sidharth.

The youngsters also take pride in the fact that they have sought no professional help and build the whole project on their own. The group takes orders online. One can visit their website to place orders. “When people in the city came to know that we have our own manufacturing unit, we got bulk orders from the corporate sector. After our website started, we have received orders from Pune, Ahmedabad and Hyderabad, among other places,” said Aditya.

The group sells V-neck, polos and round-neck T-shirts with images of Lord Shiv, symbolic prints and quotes printed on them.