Link Out: Books About Skate Art

If you want to explore more about the art found in the skate world, or just want to learn more about skateboarding itself, visit your local book store and look for these following books. I’ve included a link to their Amazon page if you’d like to know more about them.

Disposable: A History of Skateboard Art by Sean Cliver

The Disposable Skateboard Bible by Sean Cliver

Surf, Skate, and Rock Art of Jim Phillips by Jim Phillips

Boards: The Art and Design of the Skateboard by MTV

New Skateboard Graphics by J. Namdev Hardisty

Concrete to Canvas: Skateboarders’ Art by Jo Waterhouse

Vans “Off The Wall”: Stories of Sole from Vans Originals by Doug Palladini

Thrasher Skate and Destroy: The First 25 Years of Thrasher Magazine by High Speed Productions

As an additional resource, you may want to hunt down these magazines (or just visit their websites). They shouldn’t be too hard to find.

Transworld Skateboarding

Thrasher Skateboard Magazine

Skateboarder Magazine

The Skateboard Mag

Artist Profile: Andy Howell

A few years after high school, when I really started to get into graphic design and the art of skateboard culture, I made a trip to my local Barnes & Noble to see if I could find any books that incorporated both of my new found interests. Lucky for me, there were quite a few to choose from, but one in particular caught my attention: Art, Skateboarding & Life by Andy Howell. Now, before seeing this behemoth of a book, I had never heard of Mr. Howell, but I was immediately attached to the art inside and decided to make the purchase. Little did I know, Andy was not only an artist, but a very versatile entrepreneur.

Andy Howell grew up living and breathing action sports. In 1988, Andy began touring the globe as a professional skateboarder. During this time, Howell was also furthering his education at an art school in Atlanta. After receiving his Visual Communications degree, he went on to co-found New Deal Skateboards, Giant Distribution, 411 Video Magazine, and the very well known Element Skateboards. He spent most of his time at New Deal in the form of Creative Director, developing art for his products that were heavily influenced by graffiti and cartoons. Howell has also done art direction for a slew of other companies, including the likes of Casio G-Shock and Vans.

These days, Howell is Co-President and Creative Director for Imagewerks, Inc. According to their website, the company’s focus is to “create, recondition, and adapt brand identity for the cutting edge youth market”. The San Diego-based company has worked on branding and promotional material for companies such as Activision, McDonald’s, Converse, and DC Shoes. If you’d like to read more info about Andy Howell, visit some of the links below for a taste of what he’s about. Art, Skateboarding & Life can be found at most major bookstores or on Amazon.com.

Source:

Andy Howell (Official Page)
Imagewerks, Inc. (Corporate Portfolio)
Art, Skateboarding & Life (Amazon.com) 

Link Out: A Studio Visit with Jim Phillips

I found this article online that highlights a trip to the studio of Jim Phillips, one of the most recognizable names in skate art. He is most know for his work with Santa Cruz skateboards, and is responsible for creating thousands of memorable pieces, including t-shirts, posters, and stickers. His artwork of a screaming hand is one of the most widely known designs in the skateboarding community.

Studio Visit: Jim Phillips

The Origin Story

Back in 1990, my parents bought me my first skateboard from the Toys R Us store just down the street from us in Hollywood, FL. It had plastic trucks and plastic wheels, both of which are not that good for the actual act of skateboarding. The “pièce de résistance” was the skate deck itself, which had Bart Simpson’s face plastered over it and was rightly titled the “Official Bart Simpson Vehicle of Destruction”. I rode on it quite a bit, but not as you would imagine. Most of my adventures with the skateboard involved lying face-down on the board and scooting myself across the sidewalk (I was only 6 years old at the time). The only other thing I really remember about the board is that I put a lot of Kid Cuisine stickers all over it, and they were very difficult to remove. My memory fails me after that point.

Flash forward to 1999, and my sophomore year in high school, where a friend of mine re-introduced me to skateboarding. He got me hooked on a mail-order catalog called CCS, which sold everything you could possibly need for a skateboard. Every month, I would sit down with the latest issue and flip through the large variety of skateboard decks from brands such as Element, Enjoi, Blind, and my favorite, Birdhouse (the house that Tony Hawk built). It was during this time that I started to become infatuated with all of the different designs that graced the decks and t-shirts from these companies.

This blog will focus on the art aspect of skateboarding. When people think of skateboard art, they usually only think of the illustration on the bottom of the deck. While this is a large part of it, we’ll also discover that there is much more to this ever growing popular art form.

Off we go…

-Kevin