Anthony Asfour: Building Resonance by Way of Streetwear

For Anthony Asfour, a career in graphic design was never the plan. The first-generation Lebanese-Canadian’s journey in channelling his creativity began with one Photoshop class in high school, which he found so enthralling that it drove him to write a fake five-year plan in a career class. “It all happened by accident,” he recalls. Asfour went from loving math and science to discovering the strange and magnetic world of design. What started as a teenage detour, then, became a lifelong pursuit built on intuition, restlessness, and the desire to make something real.

After studying graphic design and working in a fabric warehouse, Asfour got fired from his first post-graduation job. Soon after, he joined Montreal-based label Dime, a cult favourite, where he honed his eye for texture, irony, and visual rhythm. But after three years, he felt a familiar itch to move on, to risk comfort for freedom. Leaving Dime to start his own label, Punkandyo, was the moment everything shifted. “It was the first time I fully bet on myself,” he tells Dazed MENA. “No back-up plan, just belief and work.”

Part streetwear brand, part creative experiment, and part self-portrait in motion, Punkandyo is not easily defined. Its aesthetic carries the warmth that Asfour associates with home—not a specific place, but a feeling shaped by his Lebanese roots and the vibrant, rough-edged energy of Montreal. “I’m not trying to represent culture in a forced way,” he says. “I just make things that feel like home, that mix of humour, grit, and the warmth I get from my teta.” It is this refusal to package identity for aesthetic value that makes Punkandyo feel familiar and deeply human.

Asfour’s creative process is deceptively simple. “Naps,” he grins. “If I nap, I have a crazy workflow. Everyone should take naps.” For him, rest is part of a rhythm that balances motion with stillness. The result is work that feels both spontaneous and considered, always alive with the energy of someone unafraid to experiment. But beyond design, Asfour’s practice is about something larger: independence. 

He wants to redefine what it means to build something authentic without being trapped in the myth of underground credibility. “I want to show that you can build something real without pretending to be underground forever,” he says. “Success doesn’t make you less authentic. It just proves you did it right.”

As Punkandyo continues to grow, Asfour remains resistant to overdefinition. “I still don’t know what it is,” he admits. “I’m just having fun with my friends, travelling, and working hard along the way.” It’s this melange of faith, humour, risk, and rest that anchors his work. In a culture obsessed with overexposure and speed, his story reminds us that growth doesn’t have to be loud. Sometimes, it’s quiet. Sometimes, it’s accidental. But it’s personal and meaningful every time.