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Art for Change

Saeed Ferguson, Streetwear Spiritualist

The founder of All Caps talks about his start on South Street, his current mantra, and his silent but visible business partner

Art for Change

Saeed Ferguson, Streetwear Spiritualist

The founder of All Caps talks about his start on South Street, his current mantra, and his silent but visible business partner

Picture this: A frog hops softly onto a lily pad. A stack of rocks catches the rising sunlight, and overhead, a bird slowly swirls in wide circles. In this moment the words come to you, “Expect nothing, appreciate everything.” This type of serene imagery is the essence of Philadelphia-based streetwear brand, All Caps Studio. Saeed Ferguson is the founder of All Caps Studio, which launched in 2019. Equipped with a creative mind and a soft soul, Ferguson produces refined t-shirts, jackets, pants and streetwear accessories that meld style with spirituality. It’s no wonder that thousands of fans follow the brand with fervent devotion.

The journey to starting All Caps was a wandering one. Ferguson began as an amateur fashion photographer and, after switching majors five times, eventually dropped out of college and began focusing on his creative career. Despite never being formally trained in graphic design, fashion design or screen printing, Ferguson slowly learned how to turn his visions into reality. His distinct aesthetic has made All Caps Studio a coveted collaborator for organizations big and small, including Cereal and Such, Making Time, Room Shop and the retail giant, Zara.

Saeed Ferguson, a Black man with a sparse beard, backwards baseball cap, t-shirt with an illustration of Earth, black pants with a white design holds up the peace sign on both hands and smiles in a wooded area.
Photo by Scott Furkay.

Ferguson does not automatically gravitate towards the spotlight, and his creative partner, Andrew Sun, is even less interested in public attention. Ferguson prefers connection over admiration. All Caps Studio is located in the Bok Building, where visitors are welcome to stop by and converse with Ferguson and whoever else happens to be working in the studio. It’s the right place for those looking for advice on how to start their own creative business. Ferguson is more than happy to share all that he’s learned.

As part of a partnership with Forman Arts Initiative, The Citizen caught up with Ferguson. The interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

Logan Cryer: Where did your love of photography come from?

Saeed Ferguson: I got a camera from my brother when I was 15 or 16. I used to be in the house all day, so he was just like, “Here, take the camera outside and do something.” That was my escape from the house and from playing video games all day. I would just hang out downtown, it was the Tumblr-era, so I would take my camera and just take photos of my friends. There was all these brands, The Hundreds, Supreme, 10 Deep, Stüssy, Mishka that my friends were wearing. I was taking photos of them and posting them on Tumblr and getting a lot of likes.

Then I started working at Atticus, which was the store before P’s & Q’s. I started taking photos for them and that became a job from there. I was the social media photographer for P’s and Q’s and that led to me trying to figure out how to do it freelance.

Photo by Saeed Ferguson.

With so many stores closing, are there many places that carry the torch for Philly streetwear?

I feel like it’s definitely not as strong with the loss of Ubiq and Atmos. P’s and Q’s is still doing a pretty good job with that. Lapstone does, and YOWIE does a great job. I think Ulises does a good job. It’s not streetwear, but I feel like there’s some crossover with the communities there. I feel like there’s more people organizing community rather than organizations, which I think is kind of an interesting shift. That’s what I’ve been noticing recently, less shops and stores feeling like the hub and more these events and specific spaces.

Does the name All Caps Studio come from the MF Doom track, “All Caps?”

No, not at all. I actually found out about that song afterwards. Everyone asks all the time if it’s connected. The name All Caps came about because I was trying to make it happen in the freelance fashion space and I felt like my work wasn’t being taken seriously. I was like, we’re going to start yelling and screaming.

How often do people ] come up to your studio?

Oh my god, every day. I get visitors all the time.

Are they people who know about All Caps?

We get a lot of interesting visitors for sure. I also share a studio with a friend of mine, Anthony, who’s a photographer. So he comes in, my partner in All Caps, Andrew , comes in, so there’s people always coming in and out. I do have these moments where I specifically come super early to the studio to have this moment of this locked-in time until noon. Then after that, I start to socialize, take meetings and stuff like that.

How often do you have encounters with people who are fans of your work?

A few times. It doesn’t happen to me too often, but I do like that it does happen. I want to experience that more and I am trying to put myself in spaces that can happen more. I think I’m a very lucky individual to be able to do this as my career. I want to be that person who can help guide and help people, whether they need inspiration or advice. I want to be more accessible and not be this closed-off person.

That’s honestly … the reason why All Caps started to begin with. The mantra always was, “We are here to help.” The first shirt we ever released was an inspirational quote on the back that was inspiring people to do the thing, to begin. I want to stay true to that message. At the end of the day, we’re all just people. We’re all the same. No one’s above anyone. I want someone to come to me as a friend even though we haven’t met. That’s the energy I want to give off.

All Caps Studio, a streetwear design studio, has prints and sayings on two walls, a photography light, and a person standing with their back to the camera inside the historic Bok Building, a former vocational technical school converted into artist spaces in South Philadelphia. Photo by Saeed Ferguson.
All Caps Studio inside the Bok Building. Photo by Saeed Ferguson.

How do you know when you’ve created something really good?

I think there is a style that I’m attracted to that has become the All Caps style. Someone said that to me recently, “I love how you could just work on any project, but it always feels like you.” I don’t know how to describe it, but there’s definitely a thing with using inky characters and specific typefaces that feel more organic. I’m very drawn to that aesthetic, but it’s super unintentional. I don’t think about doing it. It just kind of happens.

How does spirituality play a role in your work?

More so as I got older. Post-college I just started just thinking and reading and questioning. I was always interested in learning and I stumbled upon stuff from people like Ram Dass [the late American yogi and spiritual guru]. It’s super interesting to me the way that you can tap into a deeper part of yourself and get connected and the ideas that we’re all connected. I truly believe that we are all a part of this one experience. I’m just trying to figure it out and see what I’m attached to, from my personal values, and how they relate back to me and how I was raised. I try to make sense of it in a way that makes sense to me.

Did music help you tap into those ideas as well?

100 percent. Around that time I was listening to so many different genres of music and really exploring. There’s similarities between different genres and that also connects to the idea of it’s one experience. I think one that really opened my mind was this band called Animal Collective. It was really hard to get into their music at first, but after a while I was like, This is insane. How do you create this? There’s a lot of bands, if I really thought about it, but that’s the one that always sticks out to me.

Andrew Sun (left), an Asian man with long black hair, a backwards baseball cap and white t-shirt with black lettering and dark pants stands beneath a pergola alongside Saeed Ferguson, a Black man in the same white t-shirt, a cap, and white pants in 2019.
Andrew Sun (left) and Saeed Ferguson in 2019.

I’ve read other interviews where you talk about Andrew Sun and his importance to All Caps. Who is he to the brand?

Andrew’s an interesting figure. He likes to be the behind-the-scenes guy. I see him as the ideas guy. He’s not doing the graphics, but he is, a lot of the time, coming up with the framework in which the graphics can exist. He’s creating garments on which I can place graphics. We made these removable double knee panels a couple years back. That was fully his concept. We made these mood board graphic T-shirts, that was his idea, and then I placed the graphics.

How did you meet?

We met through another friend, Sean Murray. Me and Sean had a brand before All Caps called Dylan Limbo. Sean used to also run a party called Function. Function still exists, but he’s not a part of it anymore. Back then, I used to go all the time. Andrew would pop up here and there, and I would see Andrew around. One of these parties, we were just hanging out and Andrew pops up, and then we’d just meet each other. Sean and I are just starting Dylan Limbo, and we’re like, “Dude, we’re trying to figure out how to screen print.” Andrew went to school for printmaking, so he was like, “I can help you guys. Whatever you guys need, let me know.”

Literally, the next day we started screen printing and we just started working together. Eventually Sean left for L.A. and once he left, I started to explore All Caps as a brand. I was like, “I want to make some shirts and sell them. Would you be down to help me with this?” Andrew was like, “Yeah.” It kind of snowballed from there. He started as a production kind of dude, and eventually was doing more the styling and the ideas, and he became more a part of the company. I’m glad it worked out. It’s been amazing to have him on the team.

What are your plans for the future?

We have many plans for All Caps! We want to expand our creative team and provide local creatives with opportunities to bring their dreams and passions to life. We aim to host more workshops to offer insights into creative practices, create more educational and transparent content, and develop a public case study for those looking to build their own brand. Last, but not least, we want to be more intentional with our storytelling and our releases, ensuring we tell meaningful stories and create clothing in thoughtful ways.


This story is part of a partnership between The Philadelphia Citizen and Forman Arts Initiative to highlight creatives in every neighborhood in Philadelphia. It will run on both The Citizen and FAI’s websites.

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Saeed Ferguson.

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