For the average Auburn student, this past week was full of classes, studying and settling into the new semester after coming back from winter break. However, for Kaiyah King, a sophomore majoring in graphic design, last week was a bit different: she went viral.
King posted a picture of a denim jacket on which she had painted Samford Hall and the War Eagle Wall on Twitter, which went viral overnight.
“The tweet now has around 1,500 or 1,600 favorites — it happened overnight,” King said.
She said she had not intended for the tweet to get as much attention as it did.
“I had been posting them on my personal Instagram, but I decided to take a leap of faith and post it on Twitter,” King said. “And that tweet started to build.”
Since posting the tweet, King said she has received over 50 messages from people interested in purchasing a jacket from her. She has already done a few custom orders and usually sells the jackets for $60 to $125 depending on the level of detail required for the design, she said.
King said that since she was young, she has always had “side hustles” and hobbies. Painting the jackets seemed interesting to her.
She used to work in a T-shirt shop while in high school, which taught her design skills that she incorporates when painting her jackets.
She said she painted the Samford-themed jacket for herself over the summer, and it took her 15 hours to finish.
When she wore it to a football game, she says it caught a lot of attention.
While King did not intend to make this into a business, she said she has had a lot of interest from people wanting her to paint a jacket for them, and it seems like it could turn into something more.
King is now working on her own website and is exploring the idea of selling the jackets through the website. For now, she is only doing custom orders.
King’s mother gave her tissue paper with her logo on it for Christmas.
She said she uses it to package jackets that she ships to her customers.
While King is a graphic design student and intends to stay in that career path, she says she would be open to working and collaborating with a fashion designer or boutique in the future.
Students interested in King's work can reach her at kmkgraphicdesigns@gmail.com.
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Kara Mautz, senior in human development and family studies with a minor in journalism, is a culture writer at The Auburn Plainsman.
