The goal of the business’ co-owners, Chris Dock, Kyle Carter and Jen Rachid, is to help other artists.
“One of our main theses here is, ‘How do you make a living as an artist and balance what you need to do to exist in the market and society in general, [with] what you need to do to maintain the essence of being an artist,” Dock said.
How it started
Dock was a graphic design student at The University of Texas in the late 2000s when a professor introduced him to Carter, who was also in art school studying printmaking. He met Rachid, a photographer, who introduced him to more young artists and musicians.
Before Raw Paw was a printing business, Dock said they experimented with different art forms.
“We did so many things,” Dock said. “We would throw art shows and music shows, and then we put together a record label with some of our music friends and tried that out. Then we did a newspaper, we made books—we made all kinds of products.”
After they graduated, they eventually landed on screen printing and ran a small operation out of their house’s garage in Del Valle.
What they offer
Today, the screen printing shop occupies a suite in The Yard in South Austin and creates clothing and merchandise for other creatives and brands.
Dock said their core products are apparel like shirts, totes and bandanas. Raw Paw also hosts Design Challenges a few times a year, which are open calls for art where artists can submit a design and market it on a T-shirt for a chance to have it printed and sold on Raw Paw’s website.
“It’s a really nice feeling to create something and be like, ‘I’m passionate about this thing,’ and then, ‘Oh, now there’s more of it and other people have it,’” Dock said.
Looking ahead
Dock said their goals right now are to keep improving on their screen printing process to create quality products for their customers.
“Printing is a commodified thing where you could keep just going cheaper and cheaper … and I think that what we’re trying to do is have a sense of meaning and a sense of purpose for it existing,” Dock said. “It’s like there’s an inherent quality to it that’s considered.”
