DISPOSABLE / SEAN CLIVER

Artist, illustrator, historian, collector Sean Cliver is making the rounds in the press right now. He's promoting the latest edition of Disposable: Skateboard Bible (above) from Ginko Press. I have had a copy of the first edition for several years, and it's extremely informative, entertaining and of course, nostalgic. I can't wait to get a copy of this new one. There's a good interview with Cliver over at (***gasp***) ESPN.

Highly recommended for any artist/designer/illustrators' reference library and/or skateboarders' collection of printed material.

BLACK SHEEP NC

You may recall that I posted a Coming Soon teaser a few weeks ago...well, Josh Frazier and his crew at Black Sheep in Charlotte, NC got it done. He also wrote a few kind words about our shared east coast skate scene...both the decks and the shirts are now available  from Black Sheep at 704.333.1423. 

I think it's a fun graphic, with a great 'tie-in' to the DIY zine thing, and a complimentary use of House Industries' (Ken Barber) Blaktur. Can't wait to get my 'samples' from the UPS. Thanks Josh!

HOW TO MAKE A ZINE

As part of their new Against the Grain webisode programming, I recently created a short tutorial on the dying art and craft of zine-making for Hurley. The whole sequence was shot at my studio, improv style, starting only with a few tools and some photocopies. The entire design was performed in front of the camera, right as you see it, without any planning or additional takes/shooting. Many thanks to the Director, Greg Roman, for making this a reality.

It's my hope that the youth of today will be inspired to continue the tradition. Have a look...

PERFECT LAUGHTER

Artist/designer Dennis Jacobs recently presented me with a brief  Q&A session for his Detroit-based blog, Perfect Laughter. Above is an alternate colorway for the Studio Number One 'Tools of the Trade' print that I designed a few years ago, and was the primary catalyst for the interview. I was happy to ponder and respond to his questionnaire and he just published it here. Enjoy.

Thanks, Dennis.

AUTOGAHN

I'm suspecting there is another reason that this YouTube clip has nearly 6 million views...

maybe it's just the Autobahn-esque, futuristic Euro techno pop, but the last 2 minutes of this film is ALMOST art. It makes me wish that today's stunt footage was still shot on 16 mm film.

I also wonder if Nikon's marketing division has really done enough research to fully expolit the niche of the turbo-rocketed-banana-colored-'78 Thunderbird-awesomeness-owners demographic.

"And for the record, my favorite part was the part where the dude crashes."

ZANY

OK....one more vintage 80's skate/surf ad and then I am changing the subject. Basically, this graphic has all of the cliched elements representative of the era: day-glo colors, angular, new wave typography, enlarged halftone dots, quasi-photocopied collage, and instead of leopard skin motif- zebra stripes. Zinka was some sorta weird, day-glo colored sunblock stuff that neo-tribal surfer dudes wore (along with their Oakley Blades) in the mid 80's.

NEW GONZ PRO MODEL

Continuing with vintage advertising theme, but going a little deeper into the archives, here is a spot-color example from the then-still-published-on-newsprint, Thrasher (June 1985). It's announcing the new Vision/Mark Gonzales pro model, one of the ALL TIME classic board graphics ever released. I rode at least four different colorways of this deck between 1985-1987.

BTW- Thrasher has been slowly scanning and posting their 25+ year collection of printed material here.