Eventually, as merch peaked and their aesthetic became a bona fide fashion trend, they evolved Online Ceramics into something more like a multidisciplinary art platform, one that encompassed a legitimate fine art practice (Ross and Funk held their inaugural gallery show at David Kordansky in LA in 2021) and an annual horror movie festival.
As their empire grew, Ross and Funk’s creative process changed. In the early days they pored over each T-shirt and hoodie design together, with Ross coining OC’s signature far-out koans—“Finding time to play the flute to Planet Ocean,” etc.—and Funk layering on the skulls and warlocks. But in recent years Online Ceramics has felt like two individual brands, with the founders working in their own lanes, to the point where the founders noticed they had “Elijah customers” and “Alix customers.” Funk’s designs have the organic and irreverent qualities of classic Online Ceramics, while Ross’s look more like pages out of experimental zines dedicated to mushrooms, horror films, and lightly provocative spiritual humor. (Like: “If You Can’t See God In All, You Can’t See God At All.”) Funk designs fonts in Photoshop; Ross is a Times New Roman evangelist.
Somewhat poetically, Ross and Funk’s first Online Ceramics drop was for Dead & Company’s tour in the summer of 2016, when they sold their unauthorized designs in parking lots as they followed the then-fresh Grateful Dead tribute band around the country. One of their final (long-since officially sanctioned) drops together was for Dead & Co.’s Sphere residency, which marks the end of the road for the Bob Weir and John Mayer-led project, too.
A few months ago, I got a text from Ross with the image of a design he’d made for the Vegas finale. The T-shirt had a huge cartoon Pokemon hitting the classic Grateful Dead “dancing bear” pose beneath the words “Forever Grateful.” The spirit of Online Ceramics, done in a novel way. “My magnum opus Dead tee,” Ross said. “I think I have to retire.”
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