www.p21.co.uk

On an industrial estate in West Hampstead, there lies a piece of T-shirt heaven. MARIAN BUCKLEY visits P21, a creative and productive powerhouse where brands are nurtured.

P21 was first formed in 1992 as a business partnership between passionate screen printer John Boak and graphic designer Paul Nicholson. Twelve years on, P21 has enjoyed masses of success from the early days handprinting 24-7 to meet the needs of German ravers, to selling a bespoke, limited edition range of Terratag T-shirts exclusive to Harvey Nichols.

Their story starts with a competition to design a logo for Knowledge, the house club based in SW1. As John remembers it: "My design was rubbished and his design won the competition. Consequently, we got together."

As luck would have it, John was winding down another business which meant that he had some printing equipment available. "We shared many ideas," says Paul. "I'd been working on clothing projects - even though I was doing a graphic design course, I went off on a bit of a tangent and ended up doing a fashion-based thing. Some of the designs were very close to the ideas John was having. I graduated in July 92 and set up with John in September."

Today P21 employs 20 people and houses 4 separate brands: Terratag (designed by co-founder Paul), Hospital Radio (designed by Will Cossy), Pure Evil (Charles Uzzell Edwards) and Subsurface, the Southend on Sea T-shirt label that has recently joined the fold.

Meet John 'The Guvnor'