DENVER — Social media feeds are roaring with prehistoric T-shirt designs from ArtFair Apparel, a Colorado company dedicated to elevating local artists and sharing their unique stories to audiences across the world.
The business came to life in the summer of 2024, when Lydia Kramer and her partner set out on a mission to work with artists and use social media to bring their stories to life.
"So, it's kind of like the idea of when you go into a small town, you meet an artist in a small art gallery or something like that, and it's a really cool experience, but if you're somewhere else in the world, you might not have that opportunity," Kramer explained.
With her social media marketing expertise, Kramer saw an opportunity to elevate local artists, knowing that social platforms had the unique power to help people connect with creators on a personal level and feel inspired to wear their designs. On Instagram, ArtFair Apparel has more than 50,000 followers, and on TikTok has 41,000 followers.
"It's giving people a chance to feel like they're supporting someone's story and mission by wearing the art, but also to give these artists more coverage that I think they deserve," Kramer said. "Clearly, other people also think that as well, with how excited they get about learning, their stories. So with different artists, I'll ask them about themselves, and they'll share with the audience on social media, but they're also experts in what they do."
Right now, ArtFair Apparel is currently with six different artists based in Colorado and Wyoming and gets their merchandise printed in Denver at Lab Seven. Every three weeks, there is a limited edition T-shirt drop, and the most popular designs turn into classics for sale online.
"We've hit a couple million videos, which has been really cool," said Kramer. "It's really cool to see the sales come in after that, it's very correlated to people seeing their stories, artist stories and then connecting with them and wanting to support them."
Among the featured designs is Gary Raham, a seasoned graphic artist who spent 27 years at a printing company and focuses his work on natural history and paleontology.
His prehistoric masterpieces are currently roaring to life at Laporte's Sanderosa Art Gallery, where visitors can step back into the age of dinosaurs.
"It's kind of an ongoing passion. I never figured I could make a living doing art entirely," Raham said. "So I went to school to study biology and then got a master's degree in biology and ended up teaching in high school and middle school for a couple of years."
His talents extend beyond the gallery into northern Colorado, where he has created the entrance signs for the natural areas in Fort Collins. Over the decades, his work has welcomed visitors with Raham estimating he has completed an impressive 45 to 50 signs.
Watch Gary Raham explain more about his collection of signs for Fort Collins' natural areas in the video below.
Kramer first discovered Raham's talents when she visited the Sanderosa Art Gallery. Now, his work is on a new type of medium as his designs are featured and sold through ArtFair Apparel.
"I never knew that the T-shirt part of the business would be as good as it has been," Raham said. "Of course, I've had my designs in books and publications and different things like that, but T-shirts — I wouldn't have expected them."
There is a unique business model for ArtFair Apparel, where 10% of every single sale goes directly to the artist, and at the end of the year, the business donates 10% of the total company profits to a nonprofit that each artist chooses.
"I've had some 'This is too good to be true' kind of responses, because the way that our model works is that we license the art from the artists at no cost to them, of course and then we basically just start taking videos with them and printing the shirts, and then they receive... profit from the sales," Kramer said.
Raham explained he chose the nonprofit associated with the Sanderosa Art Gallery, which is known as the Northern Colorado Artist Community, to donate proceeds to.
Nancy Sander Irwin, founder of Northern Colorado Artist Community, expressed her appreciation for Raham and his efforts to support the arts.
"Impossible to do it without people like Gary [Raham] willing to spend their time and give of what they have," she said. "You couldn't keep the doors open."
Having just over a year in business, ArtFair Apparel has built an impressive following while bringing artists like Raham's talents far and wide.
"I've always enjoyed combining my interest in science and art for education, but one of the nice things about Lydia's business plan is that people get to see the artwork that never would otherwise, and so it reaches a much bigger audience. So, that's a lot of fun," Raham said.