Cosplayer of the Week: KnowOne’s Designs
A couple of weeks ago we interviewed Frank and Nat’s Armory about themselves and their cosplay careers. We love them and all of the work they produce, and a lot of folks responded well to it! Well, I have great news, because this week we are bringing you an interview with KnowOne’s Designs who are the other half of the collaborative group called Horsemen Of!
Enjoy!
The Geek Lyfe:Â Although I have been a fan of yours for quite some time, there may be a few Geek Lyfers who have not seen your work before, would you be alright introducing yourself?
KnowOne’s Design: Hello! We are Garrick and Jackie Backer, a married couple in Phoenix, AZ, who lives with their tiny cat Bastion. We’ve been making props and costumes since 2009 and Garrick has been doing it full time for the past year now. We’ve been able to do some cool stuff in that time: we have a Youtube series we do with friends called ST: The Night Shift a Star Trek Parody, Garrick was on Cosplay Melee, and we have gone on some incredible adventures because of cosplay this past year.
TGL:Â How long have you been into creating incredible content/cosplays and what led you down this path?
KOD: We started doing it together in 2009 because we wanted a Batman and Catwoman costume for Halloween. Little did we know we would fall down the rabbit hole of cosplay!
We really enjoyed making something ourselves and were able to use our various skills to do so. I (Jackie) went to school for art and dabbled in everything. Costumes and props filled the void to create since I could never land on one art area that I wanted to solely focus on. My nana taught me to sew at a young age and it was a way for me to expand on that.
For me (Garrick) it was something that held my attention long enough to get good at it because the challenges are constant and changing.
TGL: What has been your favorite moment?
Jackie:Â Our Final Fantasy 15 road trip photos. I love the creation process from costume to photography and seeing these costumes that were supposed to be just a silly fun costume turn into such a huge project that we are still going on adventures for is incredible.
Garrick: Getting the call to be on Tested’s contest for the Inventern with Adam Savage. It was a dream opportunity come true!
TGL: Most frustrating?
Jackie: Our Pacific Rim costumes. Don’t get me wrong I love how they came out, but we broke ourselves making them, not enough time, we had zero fun wearing them, and I did it for all the wrong reasons.
Garrick:Â Making our Tron costumes. The learning curve was high for a short deadline, they shorted out constantly, and it was the first major mold that failed catastrophically.
TGL: When you aren’t doing this, what do you do in your spare time?
Garrick:Â Playing video games and watching movies, and first person view micro drone piloting!
Jackie:Â Playing video games watching, an embarrassing amount of anime, trying to get our cat to ride our Roomba, reading an equally embarrassing amount of fanfic.
TGL: You can choose one fictional character from any universe to come to our world and be your best friend for life. Who is it and why?
Garrick:Â The genie from Aladdin because his powers are too cool
Jackie: I would say Prompto from FFXV because who doesn’t want a super up beat funny best friend but I already have this in Deb, especially since she’s my fav Prompto 
TGL: When you encounter a creative block, how do you deal with it?
Garrick: I work on another part of a project that is monotonous to let my mind wander. Or I’ll watch tv or do something totally different to solve a block.
Jackie: I usually watch, read, or play a video game to get more inspiration for something new.
TGL: What advice do you have for any aspiring content creators out there that goes beyond the normal advice of don’t give up?
Garrick: When you’re making something new for the first time, make it again. You’re learning so many new things that making it a second time will solidify the good and avoid the bad decisions. It will be a better product. My first Batman costume never left the house.
Jackie: Try to learn something from everyone you meet. Everyone has something to offer even if it’s small. Things will get frustrating at times, but if you can focus on people’s positives and learn from them, you will collect an arsenal of knowledge.
TGL: Where can we find you online?
KOD:Â Facebook, IG, Tumblr, Twitter, Etsy, YouTube
Www.knowonesdesigns.com
Www.horsemenof.com
A huge thank you again to KnowOne’s Designs for taking the time to answer our questions!
Chicano | Fighting/Writing for Diversity | DM since 08 | Anime Lover | Site: https://www.thegeeklyfe.com | info@thegeeklyfe.com | http://twitch.tv/that_deangelo | https://linktr.ee/deangelomurillo
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