KNOWMAG Issue 3 vol2 by KNOWSHOW

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ISSUE #3 VOL #2 SPRING / SUMMER 2014

CONTENTS

Creative Director Paul Higgins paul@knowshow.ca

30 | FASHION FEATURE - “LOC’D OUT LINGO”

Photo Editor André Paul Pinces pincesphoto.com

48 | THE MAIN ATTRACTION

Editor-in-Chief Perry Pugh perry@knowshow.ca

52 | RETAIL ASSEMBLY

Editor Kendra Jasper

54 | SHOP PROFILE - NRML SELECT

Fashion Editor Tanus Lewis tanuslewis.com

56 | ARTIST FEATURE - TODD FRANCIS

Layout and Design Paul Higgins

78 | FASHION FEATURE - “AT THE HELM”

Production Controller Nick Brown

90 | PHOTOGRAPHY FEATURE - HANA PESUT

Advertising Director Perry Pugh perry@knowshow.ca

98 | FASHION FEATURE - “VENICE ANYONE”

CONTRIBUTORS

Natas Kaupas Innovative, creative, icon of the industry and all around skate god.... Natas interviews his good friend and feature artist Todd Francis for us, and we are grateful.

Hana Pesut Vancouver-based photographer Hana Pesut has been photographing people all over the world including Mexico, Spain, France, Japan, Austria, Canada and the US. She recently published a book and will be taking it on tour this fall. sincerelyhana.com

Kendra Jasper Kendra has been known to bend words, tickle ivories and bake banana muffins from time to time. Follow her whimsy @kendrajasper and stalk her dog on Instagram @MrBarryGibb

Naj Peterson Born and bred in capital city Ottawa, Naj Peterson is the General Manager of NRML Co. by day and a freelance writer with a Peter Pan complex by night.

Contact KnowMag 303 234 5th Ave E Vancouver BC V5T 1H7 www.knowshow.ca/knowmag info@knowshow.ca

The publisher, authors and contributors reserve their rights in regards to copyright of their work. No part of this work covered by the copyright may be reproduced or copied in any form or by any means without the written consent of the publisher. © KnowShow 2013

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3 1 0 2 , h t July 30

Official

Party!

Feat. Red Bull Thre3Style World Champions

DJ Hedspin & Four Color Zack Sponsored by: Imperial Vancouver - 319 Main Street

Doors 9:00pm - Entry with KNOWSHOW Pass or RSVP at facebook.com/knowshow

MEN’S FASHION

Fashion Editor TANUS LEWIS tanuslewis.com

L O

Stylist’s Assistant BOBBY COYOTE www.bobbycoyoteart.com

Special thanks to models DOMINICK, CHRIS, SAM, DAVID, OSCAR and JULIAN

L I N G O Photography ANDRÉ PINCES pincesphoto.com

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MEN’S FASHION

BRIXTON jacket DGK shorts HUF socks and shoes DRAGON sunglasses

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MEN’S FASHION

VANS hat, shirt, jacket, shoes BRIXTON pants

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MEN’S FASHION

Dominick (left) LRG hat RDS jacket OBEY tank VANS shorts STANCE socks HUF shoes Chris (right) CROOKS & CASTLES jacket HUF shirt RDS jeans

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MEN’S FASHION

OBEY hat HUF boxers DGK denim DRAGON sunglasses VANS models own

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MEN’S FASHION

CROOKS & CASTLES t-shirt ELEMENT denim CONVERSE model’s own DRAGON sunglasses

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MEN’S FASHION

CROOKS & CASTLES tank and pants OBEY hat VANS shoes

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MEN’S FASHION

VANS shirt ELEMENT tee LIFETIME pants CROOKS & CASTLES hat DRAGON sunglasses EMERICA models own shoes

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MEN’S FASHION

DGK shirt and pants

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MEN’S FASHION

ALTAMONT shirt LIFETIME pants DRAGON sunglasses

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MEN’S FASHION

LRG jacket RDS shirt CROOKS & CASTLES hat DRAGON sunglasses model’s own denim and shoes

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MEN’S FASHION

Julian (left): CROOKS & CASTLES hat RDS tank DGK shorts HUF socks and shoes David (middle): LRG tank DGK shorts EXPEDITION 1 socks HUF shoes Oscar (right): OBEY tank VANS shorts EXPEDITION 1 socks VANS shoes

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MEN’S FASHION

LRG shirt HUF tee, socks, shoes DGK shorts

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MEN’S FASHION

LIFETIME shirt OBEY sweatshirt HUF shoes model’s own jeans

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MEN’S FASHION

LRG hat DGK tank EMERICA shirt DGK shorts HUF shoes

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MEN’S FASHION

BRIXTON cardigan and hat HUF t-shirt DGK pants DRAGON sunglasses EMERICA shoes model’s own

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MEN’S FASHION

Julian (left): CROOKS & CASTLES hat and pants HUF shirt VANS model’s own Oscar (right): OBEY hat DIAMOND shirt VANS shorts HUF shoes

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MEN’S FASHION

Sam (left): VANS shirt and hat RDS pants EMERICA model’s own shoes David (right): LIFETIME shirt BRIXTON slacks VANS hat HUF shoes

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CITY PROFILE - MAIN STREET VANCOUVER

THE MAIN ATTRACTION by Kendra Pugh Photos by Perry Pugh

Dissecting the city into east and west and travelling north to south from the Downtown Eastside through Chinatown, Strathcona, Mount Pleasant and fifty blocks beyond, is the thoroughfare of Main Street, Vancouver, BC. Having played an important role in Vancouver’s history and development into the modern metropolis it is today, Main Street remains the same hub of social commotion and commerce today as its story tells us it once was. Home to some of the city’s best cafes, restaurants, salons and retail shops, Main Street boasts an eclectic and decidedly “local” feel, rich in community and diverse in its offerings. It’s perhaps this sense of community and uniqueness that set Main Street apart from other shopping districts around the city- its pedestrian-friendly vibe and slower, neighborly pace challenge the fast-fashion retailers and chain gangs of it’s competitors downtown. Main Street is in no way immune to the change that occurs in any thriving city, however, and heritage buildings now sit amongst glass-faced storefronts making it an attractive setting for new merchants and residents. Decidedly essential to the success of Main Street are the heartfelt shop owners that occupy these spaces. Many have called Main Street ‘home’ for years, while some are just beginning to understand the dynamic of the street. Others are busy building their Main Street legacy from the ground up.

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CITY PROFILE - MAIN STREET VANCOUVER

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CITY PROFILE - MAIN STREET VANCOUVER

We headed to Main Street and sat down with three different retailers in three different stages of their stay on the streetgetting their take on the developing popularity of Main Street and the importance it plays to their business. EUGENE CHOO 3683 Main Street Named after a childhood friend of owner and operator Kildare Curtis, Eugene Choo has been a staple Mount Pleasant destination since 2000. Its trademark blue exterior and quirky storefront mantra ‘Welcome Home, Eugene Choo’ are hard to miss as you make your way up Main Street. Once inside, you’ll find a masterfully selected mix of unisex apparel, footwear, and accessories complimented by an array of books, prints, candles, and design objects (Kildare’s impeccable taste makes it difficult to leave empty handed). Brands run the gamut, from RVCA to A.P.C and Converse to N.D.C, and sit artfully beside each other reflecting a high/low price point mix that can often be hard to pull off. Kildare successfully achieves this balance with the precision of a man well versed in his business and the community that surrounds it. What does Main St. mean to you? Kildare Curtis: Well Main Street has been my hood for nearly 20 years so I have a real affinity for the street and obviously I’ve witnessed a lot of changes. The nice thing about Main is that its growth has been very organic, old Mom and Pop shops still sit nicely beside new boutiques, you can’t accuse anyone of gentrification. It’s also bookended by Chinatown and Little India, which speaks to its diversity as well as being the dividing line between the city’s Eastside and Westside. Why did you choose Main St. for your business? KC: I feel like Main Street chose me. Circumstances presented themselves, I had a business venture in mind a friend had a storefront they wanted to rent, it was affordable, close to home and felt like the community would support my first foray into entrepreneurship. What is different about Main St. & the community that surrounds it? KC: I think Main Street benefits from having a very supportive community and that is reflected in the stores and restaurants. They’re mostly independents started by young folks with a mind to support other local producers/ artisans/suppliers. We like keepin’ it in the hood.

Last year, Kildare expanded upon his expertly edited shoe and accessory selection at Eugene Choo with the opening of Eugene Choo Annex directly next door (3897 Main Street). The bookcase-like wall display of footwear includes brands such as Converse, Clae, Armanda Cabral and La Botte Gardiane (one’s personal shoe collection in a dream scenario) and cozy up alongside befitting accessory brands such as Archival Bags and local heroes Erin Templeton purses and Apartment Five leather goods. THE CORNER STORE 2601 Main Street This past March, retail aficionados Miles Wishlow and Jason Tuttle of Complex (Vancouver and Victoria) and Four Horsemen Shop (Victoria), packed up their Gastown Complex location of eight years and moved it to the heart of Mount Pleasant (aptly renamed The Corner Store for its locale at the busy corner of Main Street and 10th Avenue). Where the outward façade is reminiscent of a mom and pop shop from era’s gone by, inside is a modern man’s candy shop filled with covetable labels such as Naked and Famous, Reigning Champ, 10 Deep, Penfield, Black Scale, Reason, Rascalz, Stussy, Acapulco Gold and more. Centralized at the back of the shop, the footwear wall is a sneaker freaks wet dream, boasting the latest in originals from Nike, Jordan, New Balance, Red Wing, and Clarks. Not wanting to be categorized, Miles and Jason have impressively curated their selection so that core streetwear brands sit successfully alongside contemporary menswear labels. Their appreciation for fashion and original product is visibly evident, making The Corner Store a dynamic business you will definitely want to keep your eyes on. What encouraged the move from the Gastown area to Main Street? Miles Wishlow: Main Street was somewhere that had been in our scope for years. We had been keeping a close eye on the potential retail opportunities since I lived in the area four years ago. We have seen the average potential customer for our type of products getting more consistent, but were very aware of the risks involved with bringing niche retail to an emerging neighborhood. Although there was a lot of stylish people walking around and populating the coffee shops, we knew this didn’t necessarily mean retail success. So we were patient. We finally decided to make the move to Main Street because it represented the opportunity to expand our lines and really introduce footwear. How has Main Street differed from your previous location? MW: Since opening these doors in March the differences

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CITY PROFILE - MAIN STREET VANCOUVER

from our last location are very apparent. We are getting in a much broader customer base, expanding daily. Where as our last location had a very destination feel this door gets a lot more curious walk-by traffic as well as the destination shopper. We are seeing a lot of familiar faces that live in this neighborhood as well. Community would be a great word to describe the area.

Rains, Shipley & Halmos, Tellason, Stronghold Denim and more. Vancouverites can rejoice, as the city location will continue to favor this tradition of quality and design with it’s inclusive men’s and women’s shop set to open in August. Expect custom wood build outs inside (done by Matt himself) along with a tasty assortment of goods so tempting you’ll easily fill your closet and empty your wallet.

Has the Main Street demographic affected your brand mix?

Welcome to Main Street, Still Life!

MW: With changing neighborhoods we knew that we would have to evolve and edit some of the lines that we carried to accommodate the new customer base. Working in retail we are always a season ahead so it will take a bit for our evolution to manifest on the shelves. Although we are very happy with our current brand roster we now have some experience and confidence to introduce some innovative lines to the mix. Summer drops from Flying Coffin, Junya Mafia, and Illest are about to hit the shelves, as well as our fall goods right around the corner. Custom cut and sew from our Four Horsemen line are also in the works and going to make a lot of noise this coming fall.

Why did you choose Main St. for your new Vancouver location?

What can we expect from The Corner Store in coming seasons? MW: At the Corner Store we want to bring a very concise version of what we like and would want to find in a men’s clothing store. We don’t want to be confined to one specific niche so we built a platform that can cover multiple styles. We will continue to evolve our brandlist until we reach the perfect harmony between core streetwear lines and innovative menswear. We have been and will continue to expand our Four Horsemen Supplies line with special releases each season.

Matt Jensen: We all love Main Street. When we lived in Vancouver, I lived in the area and all of us currently shop, eat and hang out on Main Street. It’s a really great neighborhood and it continues to get better. It’s going to be really nice to bring what we’ve built in Victoria back to where we once called home. We’re excited to be apart of the Main Street community. I feel that there has been a slow and steady growth in the area which started over a decade ago and its allowed the community to grow and change naturally, unlike neighborhoods that seem to blow up really quickly and offer the world, but seem to burn out a bit when the excitement of a “new” neighborhood is gone. What is different about Main Street & the community that surrounds it? MJ: It’s just that, really. Main Street is a community, not just a place to have a business. Lately it seems to draw a lot more attention- but its not because it’s the next big thing, it’s more because it’s hard to ignore what the neighborhood has to offer and how it has grown up. What can we expect from Still Life on Main Street and how will it compare to the Victoria location?

STILL LIFE 2315 Main Street. Positioned to makes its way onto the Main Street retail scene this summer is the celebrated Victoria boutique, Still Life. Since they took ownership in 2007, Matt and Kim Jensen have been providing the style-set men and women of Victoria with a meticulously chosen medley of classically designed, contemporary clothing, footwear and accessories (they even house a small selection of children’s wear for the mini fashion savvy). Not pandering to the whims of major trends and fast fashion, Still Life is well known for its emphasis on quality, function, and originality- stocking it’s shelves with brands such as Blundstone, Camper, Courtshop, Current/Elliot, D.S & Durga, Deus, Dusen Dusen, Filson, Fjallraven, Ganni, Gestuz, Gitman Bros. Vintage, Loup, Libertine Libertine, Myne, North Sea,

MJ: We are going to keep with the things that have allowed us to grow in Victoria. We will have a very similar aesthetic and brand roster. Some things will have to change to adapt to the bigger city, but really we will remain quite the same. One of the most attractive characteristics of Main Street is perhaps its testament to the strength of the local business and the sense of community that is built by the faces behind them. As Vancouver continues to flourish and major international retailers present themselves to the marketplace, the value of this community is increasingly important to the livelihood of our industry and the blueprints of our streets. The next time you find yourself on Main Street, be sure to stop in, shop in, and support these dynamic local businesses that keep the integrity and community of the street alive.

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RETAIL ASSEMBLY

R: So? do better JP: “I was for their listening to customers, this interview their business, with Pharrell, etc. and he was saying it couldn’t be a better R: How do you get so clear? year because its 2013 and JP: I LOVE wading everything is completely through the mess to get there. different - and things are not in a Sometimes I spend too much time box. And then he went on to say, there [in the mess]. ‘and if they are, it’s like please don’t talk to me - I don’t want to catch your R: Yeah, the mess is key - its kinda how you guys mentality’ [laughs]. I love it - don’t ever give run the content meetings I’ve been to. Everyone me or show me the same old, don’t ever show throws everything on the table, edits, and then finds me a box. There’s a good base inside [the box], so the links between this person’s story and that person’s idea. use it, but add to it and show me something new and And then it gets edited and organized some more. interesting.” JP: Actually, that’s how I used to buy Written by Wendi Chang and Rahul Bajaj [for retailers] too. Show me everything That is the challenge Retail Assembly and let me narrow it down to get the Interview with Jennifer Pilkington is tackling on two different levels: customer -and the business- a great 1. Within RA, it’s how to present the content in an delivery. If it makes you feel better, I used to ask my vendors interesting way and ensure that it’s great, innovative content for as much as I ask from all of you. from people at the top of their game. Aside from learning about a particular aspect of the retail industry, RA wants R: You push everyone farther and they like it. you to walk away with sparks, ideas, which you can use in JP: [laughs] Most of the time. your own business. LIFESTYLE - WORKSTYLE 2. Provide the user a platform to get out of their box. We’re at this great place where technology has given us a “Ultimately what we want is to allow you to get a really freedom and a flexibility where we can accomplish more good, really clear understanding of each of the factors almost anywhere. For example, I’m working and sitting on affecting your business - and once you’ve got that, you’re a park bench on a sunny Sunday. It’s rumored that part golden. You can do whatever you want, because you’ll know of a RA course was written on a beach in the Caribbean. the implications of everything you want to do. It’s powerful I’ve been to many fully functional meetings at the Retail stuff.” Assembly offices on their patio and I’m going to finish up the Retail Math workshop I’m taking on the couch with my R: Even so, there are a lot of boxes on the site. dog and girlfriend tonight on the couch. JP: Visually, I love boxes, squares, spheres- symmetrical and clean. That’s what a foundation should be: stable, balanced, Although they work long and hard, and are fueled by craft simple. Strategically, I like things still clear, but freeform coffee like any good big-city-based organization, flexibility not boxed - individual, but still clear. That’s what everyone and ease of use accent almost every conversation. They should walk away with - an individual idea of what they can seem to understand that people - their users - are busy, that

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RETAIL ASSEMBLY

they work, they get out of town, they need downtime with friends and family. The RA team wants to facilitate job/ career advancement without letting go of any freedom in life. FOUNDATION - FUNDAMENTALS In one of my earliest conversations with Jennifer, she retold this story about about a football coach who held, “like, a dozen” practises without a football. The coach emphasized that in a game, you only have the ball for a very small percentage of the time, and that the team would spend most of their time practising the foundational and fundamental skills of the game. Jennifer was quick to say she believed in practising with the ball, but wanted the foundational info in the workshops to be just as solid as those players’ skills. CONNECTIONS - NETWORKS Things get a bit wild at RA when you ask them about connections. They have these mind maps where the foundational concepts are laid out for any course. Floating outside of that are more detailed ways to execute each concept, and out from that is another layer of innovation. It seems easy enough - three layers. Then you notice the lines drawn connecting foundations to executions to innovations and it just looks like a mess.

The crazy thing is, when you’re going through the content at RA, they are making all these connections for you, but it doesn’t seem at all like the maps. It’s simple, one small idea carries over to three other areas. Allocating 200 square feet to something means ‘x’ for your sales plans, ‘y’ for your customer’s experience, ‘z’ for your purchases, etc. It’s seamless, easy. COMING TOGETHER “People like people. We like people. And the best part about retail and fashion is that there is no shortage of really stellar people and ideas”. Bringing together fashion and retail’s best to offer up a case study, a story, a contribution, is really important to the organization who values, not just learning the business, but applying it to the future. Insights, a peek into what other businesses are doing, and what’s coming down the pipeline are attacked with the same fervour as the fundamentals.

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Each time I visit the Retail Assembly offices, I feel like the retail industry is full of opportunity, and I’ve probably met someone new. Every time I speak with Jennifer I have a greater sense of freedom than I had before. All this is despite the fact that I have more work to do than before I arrived, and probably another online retail workshop I want to go through- but that is the power of inspiration.

SHOP PROFILE - NRML SELECT

SITUATION NRML Words and photos by Raj Peterson

American inventor Thomas Edison was a scientific prophet and commercial visionary whose creations helped shape the physical and cultural make-up of modern civilization. In his legendary Menlo Park, New Jersey workshop, Edison’s imagination gave birth to technological wonders such as the phonograph, motion picture camera and long-lasting electric light bulb. These innovations ushered society from one age to the next, evolving mankind through invention while blurring the lines of science and sorcery. It was this era of evolution through innovation which served as both a conceptual metaphor and design inspiration in the creation of NRML Select. Before NRML Select opened its doors in the vibrant Westboro Village sector of the nation’s capital, owners Yann and Rocio Darevic peered beyond the precipice of a proverbial conservatism so often self-imposed by the people of Ottawa. Beleaguered by the sheer size and populus of its big city brothers; Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver, Ottawa should be complacent with its firm position behind the times, a slow and steady turtle in the race of culture, entertainment and the arts. However, it was seventeen years ago, Ottawa gave birth to the little shop that could, NRML, the city’s first authentic street wear retailer. As the years passed, and the urban elements continued to strengthen streetwear culture at an anabolic rate, NRML outgrew

the preconceived limitations of the city to become one of the country’s largest and most commercially successful independent streetwear retailers. It was this affirmation that fueled the Darevic’s desire to once again create an entity reflective of the current shift in culture. The times, as they say, were ‘a changing’ and the lines between high-end luxury and traditional streetwear had become marred as the runway began canoodling with the streets. The meticulous task of hand-picking a selection of brands which would appeal to a sophisticated client base which included men, women and children had begun. Sartorial style would co-mingle with street wear grit in a space which evoked the curiosity and wonderment of the patrons who entered. The arduous task of conceptualizing this vision fell upon the shoulders of the Belgian born, Montreal –based design duo of Oliver and Mer Van Roost. The multi-talented twins drew design inspiration from the American Industrial Era and more specifically the aforementioned workshop of Mr. Thomas Edison. Oliver Van Roost explains; “Edison was one of the first inventors to apply the principles of large scale production and team work to his inventions and his lab is often regarded as the first industrial research

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SHOP PROFILE - NRML SELECT

laboratory. We took this lab as our starting point. We achieved the look and feel of this by mixing glass, metal and reclaimed wood with rich patina, but most of all by keeping uniformity across the store. Like with most of our projects, setting a proper mood and atmosphere is the number one goal. To accomplish this against a cold industrial setting we filled the space with handpicked pieces from the industrial era to add personality and warmth to the space.” Each piece in the composition of NRML Select’s design was chosen for its story, and the Van Roost brothers looked at the details which spoke volumes about the life and times of that piece. Color, design and labels paint a vivid portrait of the era and provide hints as to where the item may have lived and what it had lived through. “We feel that these details tell stories and today more than ever, we want the story. Most of the items were found through extensive searches visiting numerous warehouses, reuse centers, and most of all by connecting with all our contacts in the antique business. Through years of buying industrial antiques we have built some strong relationships which give us access to treasures not so readily available to most. Visiting these places and meeting these antique veterans is the best part of my job. We wanted customers to feel at home. We wanted them to feel comfortable, to trust the space and most of all we wanted to fuel their curiosity. Patrons are transported back to a time when you shopped locally and everything about style and design was carefully considered.” While creating a space that was equally welcoming and luxurious proved critical to the boutique’s rich atmosphere, the ability to provide hospitalities which matched this luxury was paramount. A level of personalized service meant to satisfy the most discerning of tastes offers courtesies such as personal shopping appointments, freshly brewed cappuccinos and hand-written thank you notes. NRML Select successfully bridges a gap between the old world and the new. The harmonization between décor and service captures the essence of a time long past, while the eclectic mix of traditional and luxury fashion brings the people a step into the future.

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ARTIST FEATURE - TODD FRANCIS

TODD FRANCIS

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ARTIST FEATURE - TODD FRANCIS

Todd Francis is an artist best known for doing skateboard graphics since the mid 1990’s. Responsible for many of the most memorable graphics for Antihero Skateboards during that company’s history, Todd has also created iconic work for Element, Real, Oakley, Vans and many others. If you have to ask who Natas Kaupas is, you might be in the wrong industry. Todd and Natas, who have worked together on graphics work over the years, have been friends since their high school days in Santa Monica, California, and they met up over drinks at Natas’ house to discuss stuff. A Conversation Between Todd Francis and Natas Kaupas NK: So what have you been working on lately?

or they’ll have expected I was going to write something instead. Who knows…

TF: I’ve been working on this series of silkscreen prints for this show in the beginning of August at the Fifty PDX Gallery in Portland. Jeremy Fish is putting the show together, and its pretty funny because its all these well known screen print artists like Mike Giant, Jeremy Fish, Michael Sieben, Travis Millard…people like that, artists with these huge followings who’ve always done screen prints of their work. Fish hit me up and asked if I could contribute something to the show, and I said “but I don’t do screen prints!” But then I thought about it and thought it might be fun to create that kind of thing, try something new, so I’ve just finished a series of three of those, which was fun. NK: Where are they getting printed? TF: They’re getting printed at this place in Berkeley, CA called Bloom Press, which is the place where Fish gets his screen prints made, and they do really cool stuff, and the owner comes from skateboarding, so it all makes sense. Its funny though, and you probably get this thrown at you sometimes, where all the instructions on a project you’re handed are: “hey, do something.” There are some size restrictions and color limits and stuff, but there’s no group theme or any confines because you’re not doing it for a specific company with an established look….so it takes you a couple days to zero in. NK: Its even worse with me, because with you the expectation is for a pigeon or an animal doing something, and for me they say “do anything,” and they go “oh….that thing....” after I’ve sent a photo,

TF: It seems like with that you’re saying look, I’m going to do something I’m interested in, I’m not doing something just for you, its gotta be something that I’m interested in… NK: Oh yeah. TF: Otherwise you get lazy, and you draw a poop or something. So anyways, I’ve been working on that, which has been interesting. Plus I recently did a set of decks and a tee for Atlas in San Mateo which are now available, those came out pretty good, a fun project with a good group of people. And then I’m always doing Antihero graphics, which is an ongoing thing where I always need to be thinking about it or working on new graphics for them, which is always funny to think about. NK: And then there’s that book project? Did you ever figure out the intro? TF: Yep, that book project is pretty much completed, the intro might be the best part of the book now. The book is a history of my work, it’s a collection of new stuff, old stuff, and never before seen stuff, was real fun and real challenging to work on. Its being published by Winston Tseng’s company, Wins Publishing, and is being curated by Seb Carayol (of Memory Screened). That comes out in November, so it releases in time for holiday sales and that

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ARTIST FEATURE - TODD FRANCIS

sort of thing. I had to do a spread for the book showing all the tee shirts I’ve done over the years, which is a mountain of tees, and I didn’t want to do the lazy ass grid that you would expect, I wanted to do something different. So I went down to the Venice boardwalk, and I went looking for a shop down there that would let me shoot thirty of forty tees in their shop, hanging on the walls, I was going to hand them fifty bucks for about fifteen minutes of their time. Oh my god, between the language barrier down there, because most of the shops I hit were run by people who barely understood English, and just the standoffish nature of some people, I couldn’t find a place that would agree to it. So I got sick of asking around and getting turned down, so I did it homeless garage sale style instead, where I hung up about thirty tees on a dirty fence and did it that way. I’m so bad at shooting photos though, it sucked…the wind, the sun….i’m so used to be able to control things with my work,

invites me because I’m such a Howard Stern nut. The thing gets broadcast on Sirius satellite radio, and it’s a roomful of celebrities who are all obsessed with the Stern show, people like Jason Alexander, Johnny Knoxville, Andy Richter…they all sit around and talk about the show and laugh and swap theories and stories and stuff, its super entertaining and kind of a trip to be there watching. I think the highlight for me was meeting Sarah Silverman one time, she’s such an amazing comedian and I was so stoked to meet her in person. Man she’s great. Anyhow, I got up to go to the bathroom and walked in there and saw the whole skate deck wall in there and suddenly remembered “hey wait, Natas did all this stuff!” It looked really good. NK: Haha, thanks! TF: Oh shoot, I almost forgot to tell you about this tee shirt project I’m starting with Equal Distribution in San

“Its gotta be something that I’m interested in… Otherwise you get lazy, and you draw a poop or something.” and there were a bunch of things I had no control over, it was super frustrating….all for one photo! God. What about you, what’ve you been working on for fun? NK: Well, its been an ongoing project working with Sonos on their La Brea location…it was deemed a success after the initial creation, so now that’s expanding and I need to redo some more aspects of it. Andy Jenkins from the Art Dump and I will be figuring that out. I started that out thinking it’d be fun to work with Marc Johnson and that crew, because I don’t really know those guys and I thought we’d enjoy hanging out and kicking ideas around, but it got a little too busy for that, so we’ll see. Also doing a little tee shirt design trade for surfboards with Channel Islands, which is always good….. and just the usual hustle, people wanting better stuff for marketing. Plus I’ve got a project coming up in Florida with Jamie Brisick and Thomas Campbell, a workshop for surf movies, which is something the three of us all have all worked on in the past. People get to go to this seminar, and there’s a skate park nearby and a surf spot nearby, so it should be fun. We’re trying to work out now how much we’ll be able to work together on something, but I’m looking forward to that. TF: I was actually over at that Sonos space a month or two ago for a funny event, the Howard Stern Celebrity Superfan Round Table….I’m friends with one of the hosts for the show, Jeff Probst, the host from Survivor, and he always

Francisco. Equal Dist is run by Yong-Ki Chang, the same guy who ran the 3131 Gallery up there. We are calling it Special Crud, and its just a small signature brand where we release a few tees at a time, where the tees are wearable instead of these huge ink hits. Its mostly pigeon-based art, but its small artwork on nice, wearable tee shirts, nothing huge and obnoxious. NK: It could be the next Polo! TF: Oh yeah, right. Its every bit as lovable as Polo. “Is that an embroidered horse? Is that an alligator? Wait… a pigeon?” NK: “Wait, is that poop under that pigeon?” TF: Yeah, exactly. A real crowd pleaser. The art is really light though, trying to make something we would actually want to wear instead of these huge annoying tee shirts with large hits that make you sweat and feel like an asshole. So tell me something, I saw a picture on Instagram and I was thinking about this the other day… I saw a pic of a couple famous local chefs you’re friends with that we went to high school with, are there people who you’ve known for a long time that you are surprised never became successful at something they seemed destined to succeed at?

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NK: I guess so. I think as I got older, knowing what it takes to actually be successful, then I was less surprised. All these things need to fall into place, plus there needs to be a little timing, plus you need a little luck…. and then of course the whole hard work part. TF: I think about it sometimes, some of the people I grew up with around here, who seemed to have so much talent, and had a great mind, but they were missing that one thing. Usually they were missing that one important ingredient: mental stability… NK: That’s super helpful… So do you have any bright ideas for your tape recorder here?

TF: Nope, not really. I guess I liked the idea of us just talking, recording a conversation….plus, I really liked the idea of you, someone who is known for disliking interviews, interviewing me, I thought that was funny. NK: I thought you were going to interview me! TF: Haha…yeah, maybe I should’ve. That’d be funny, an interview article with all my artwork and the article is me interviewing you. And we submit it too late for them to do anything about it! NK: Well hey, we should probably focus here, we should try and move some units… TF: Well, I already talked about the Special Crud tee shirt thing, plus the screen prints….

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NK: Is doing screen prints any different from doing board graphics? TF: It feels pretty familiar, you’d recognize it, it’s the same process and setup as board graphics, you just have a much better shape to fit it into, you don’t have to cram it into this strange shape… NK: Long skinny? TF: Exactly, it’s a much easier shape. Since I’ve been setting stuff up for silk screening for the last twenty years, that’s the

easy part. Its just coming up with an idea that people would be interested in, because its not for a company…. when doing stuff for Element or for Antihero, there’s a brand behind it, so there are these expectations already in place… when its your own work, its blue sky, and sometimes that limitlessness can be an issue. NK: So what are the screen prints for, what’s the idea behind them? TF: It’s a series of three prints with a shared theme: earth without the people. The city is abandoned, the cars are abandoned, the gas is gone…. its a theme I’ve been using for a long time, but now I get to fit it into a rectangle instead of a board shape. I didn’t want to do just one, so it’s a small run of 50 of each. I’m creating them for this Portland show, but I’ll be in there alongside a bunch of art gods like Jeremy Fish and Mike Giant, so I figure I’ll probably be lost

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in the shuffle a little bit…so I figure I may as well make something I like, because I’ll have a bunch left over to sell after the shows over. I’ll just sell them through my website and through Equal Distribution. The hardest part about them was the colors, because I wanted them to look good alongside each but to be distinct at the same time….. colors are always my biggest struggle. The drawing is the easy part, and the idea behind them came to me pretty easily, because it’s an idea I’ve been using for a long time now… NK: The apocalypse is a theme that’s pretty hot right now…. TF: Haha, yeah…its funny because I’ve always liked that theme, and I’ve been using it since you and I were working on Element graphics (in 1999), its always something I’ve grabbed onto and it feel natural, but I start second guessing myself with it….will it seem like I’m being lazy in sticking to my old shit? Will people who don’t know my work think I’m borrowing the idea from elsewhere? Or will people give me a pass because it might be recognized as my idea? NK: How did it feel putting the book together, did you have any sense of that redundancy? TF: The whole goal of the book was to have it not just be a trip down memory lane and have it not seem lazy, like your best work is behind you….. you know, you don’t want to feel that way…. NK: One would hope not…. TF: And if the only thing anyone wanted to talk to you about was a skate part from 1989, that’s not the only thing you want to talk about, is it? A fire hydrant?

NK: It still happens! TF: I’m sure it does! But is that really what you want to talk about? You might have to talk about it sometimes, but is that really what you want, to talk about a fire hydrant yet again? You don’t just want to talk about that, you’d hope that you’re more talented and interesting now than you were then…. NK: You’d hope so… TF: So I tried to put as much new stuff in there and stuff that nobody’s ever seen to offset the old…. NK: Did you have enough stuff to do that? TF: The advantage of being so old is, having done skateboard graphics for so long, there’s a ton of stuff…the challenge is boiling it down. NK: How did you feel about the body of work by time you reached the back cover, were you feeling good about it? TF: Yeah, I was feeling good about it, because I was able to keep all the stinkers out! There’s nothing in there I think of as being bad…Seb was the book’s curator, and he had a lot of thoughts, and he’s a big Antihero fan from the 90’s, so I had to balance his passions about that with what I know I’ve done since then. The nice thing about that is my work with Antihero has come full circle with me returning to work for them last year, so that’s kind of nice. Plus with the cover, the title page, the introduction…its all stuff nobody’s seen

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before, so I’m happy about that. Plus, these books go all over the place, not to just skate shops, so its reaching people in book stores, who’ve never seen any of this stuff before, so you get to entertain people for the first time all over again. And then for those seven nerds out there who know everything you’ve ever done, there’s something in there for them too, stuff they’ve never seen before, so they won’t just flip through quickly and be disappointed. Plus I tried to tell some good stories, from working with the Stereo guys and the Antihero guys…. plus I got a lot of help from Julien (Stranger), Frank Gerwer and Andy Roy, people who aren’t normally involved in the creation of an art book project. Julien wrote the forward. Having their help really means a lot… NK: You’re almost guaranteed that’s the first forward he’s ever written…. TF: Right, exactly! “Oh great, yet another forward written by Julien Stranger! What’s he going to say this time?” So I got lucky, the guy who hates to speak on record hand wrote the forward! That might be the best part of the book! It was great…I mean, imagine if it was your book, not just your board graphics, but everything you’ve ever done. After you’ve gotten over your initial discomfort of having to review all that and edit it down…. NK: I don’t know if I’d get past that… TF: Yeah, I know…but if you had a good enough reason for it you’d get past it. But would you show mostly your old stuff? No, you’d show mostly your stuff from the last five years, right? NK: Yeah. So would you ever reissue the stuff you’ve unearthed while creating the book for the tee shirt project? TF: Well, there’s a whole pigeon section to the book, and that pigeon theme is what’s featured with this Special Crud tee shirt thing. I’ve never really thought about reissuing stuff….. I mean, I’m sure you’re in the same boat, where it feels lazy right? Where you’d rather do updates to stuff and variations of that as opposed to literal, “oh yeah, that look’s exactly like it did back then” type of work, right? NK: Yeah, that’s the whole principle with Designarium, people riffing off a pretty simple theme… TF: Exactly, but you don’t want to seem predictable or lazy, do you? Isn’t the whole idea to make people wonder what you’re going to do next, and to have them pay attention to what you’re doing and to hopefully stick around and buy into whatever you come up with next? You want to keep them guessing, right?

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What about you, do you have any blue sky projects you’re excited about? NK: I’m going to fix up my studio, that’s an important one… TF: Here’s a weird one: how often do you think about gratitude and the people who helped you get to where you are now? Or do you more often think about the work you’ve had to put in on things yourself? NK: I’ve tried to not think about the past anymore, and just move forward. As I get older, I’ve come to realize how pivotal folks were, but I was always pretty up front with being thankful and respectful….I’ve always tried anyways. But then again, I’ve gone back and apologized for being a brat when that was necessary too, but I was 19 or 20 and didn’t handle things as well as I would’ve liked to. So now I feel like I’m pretty Even Steven now…but I have gone back on current projects and tried to connect them with people I felt were doing good, and to roll good karma in that way. How about you? TF: Its funny, I think back to high school, my high school painting teacher got me into college at UC Santa Barbara, I’d have never gotten there were it not for her getting my portfolio in front of the head of the art department there… anyhow, I tried to track her down recently and struck out, she’s just impossible to find. And I really want to try and find her and thank her for what she did for me, because without that college experience I have no idea where I’d be in life, but its really frustrating because I cannot find her for the life of me. NK: Most of my stuff was skateboarding stuff, Skip Engblom mostly….looking back on it, the people he introduced me to, like C.R. Stecyk, were amazing. That was the first guy to take a photo of me, and it wound up on the cover….and now I’m still friends with him years later. The level of respect everyone in the industry had for Skip, because he always treated everyone so squarely…. everyone on all sides of the fence felt that way. And I’m still friends with him today. TF: Yeah, that’s funny….another one for me actually is you. When I walked into Deluxe in 1993 to interview with Jim (Thiebaud) and Tommy (Guerrero), they were going over my work, and they were giving me the third degree pretty good. I happened to mention to them I knew you, and they both looked at me and each other like, hmmm….that’s a good name to drop. I figure they probably called you to get a character assessment on me, to make sure I wasn’t an asshole or something…but that recommendation opened a door for me that changed my whole life. And if I’d not had that name to drop, and the recommendation you gave

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“The advantage of being so old is, having done skateboard graphics for so long, there’s a ton of stuff…the challenge is boiling it down.”

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them on my behalf…who knows what I’d be doing today. Cleaning fish? NK: Flipping burgers at Islands? TF: Yeah, wearing a tropical shirt and shorts, asking customers if they want catsup with their fries. NK: Sounds like you’ve been thinking about that more and more during the making of your book? TF: Yeah, I guess so….they wanted me to talk about my first board graphic, stuff like that, so I have to think back on that stuff. People assume I got in by being an incredible skater, so I have to explain to them “no, not so much…I’m not all that expressive on a board.” It was all about the art, plus they needed someone who didn’t care about money, who would do the dirty work in the art room and come up with ideas and draw crap. Funny thing was, it was such a small company the difference between the bottom of the ladder and the top of it was about two people.

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NK: One thing I’ve been noticing…I remember when those guys decided to start Deluxe, they were all sweating bullets. You think about the times and how it happened, and how skateboarding has become more significant and revered culturally, there isn’t a whole lot of “next new amazing,” total game changer moves being made anymore. Now there’s a history in place, and something that seemed less important now becomes more important as more people care about it. I mean, you probably never thought there’d ever be a book about your work, did you? TF: Oh, hell no! Hell no! NK: I think about that now, how these throwaway things are now growing to become more and more important… TF: Yeah, and it also seems like people are taking fewer chances, even within an industry like that that’s based on taking chances. Everything seems a lot safer now, and I see

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a lot of companies getting really lazy, where they grab an audience and cling to it. There are some very respectable companies with these amazing teams, and their entire visual image is just logo variations, over and over and over. Its so dull! NK: You’re not going to pick up their book? TF: Yeah, I might just read the first few chapters. Behind the scenes I doubt they feel like they’re being lazy, and its probably selling fine and all that, but on the outside looking in it just looks incredibly lazy and uninspired. It reminds me of this guy I knew, a patent lawyer I met when I was answering phones in an office building as a job in college. He always told me the reason he worked so hard was he was terrified of being homeless, that he was so badly equipped to handle living alone on the street that it scared him into working hard. Now, the guy made a great living, had a nice house and all that, yet he told me every time he saw a homeless person he would get scared because he never wanted to wind up that way. So he worked super hard and never stopped, because he deep down was terrified of being homeless….

NK: Even though he was the opposite of being homeless… TF: Yeah, he was home-full! I always think of that guy, and for me my version of that is being lazy and predictable, I’m scared of it. So those companies out there being dull, they inspire me to keep trying to mix it up and stay entertaining… I’m sure you’re the same way… NK: I have a tendency to switch entire fields instead…. TF: Right, right….switch entire fields but then change them, not switch entire fields and then get comfortable and lazy… NK: That’s true… TF: That’s one of my favorite industry stories of all time, how you went from helping define skateboarding and the look of skate, from the style to the graphics themselves, then jumped over to the surf industry about 12 years ago and turned the entire look of that monstrously huge industry on its ear! That’s like Michael Jordan winning all those rings and dominating the NBA until he’d gotten tired of it, then jumping over to Wall Street and changing the entire

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way they do business on Wall Street! I mean, that’s nuts! And that’s a story that’s never really been told, and the surf industry graphics are still borrowing from the look and feel you brought into it back then. I know that’s history and you don’t want to talk about it, but come on man, that’s nuts. NK: Yeah….i guess so. I’ve always felt a need for change in my work, but not just changing for change’s sake. I find myself settling into a couple styles that I’m comfortable with, and its not seen as being outdated or old, because some people out there still just like it, and it works for somebody out there. Its funny…you just try to keep it interesting… Okay, I have to go walk the dog and get off to a meeting pretty soon, so we should probably think about wrapping this up soon…. so tell me, what’s next for Todd Francis? Haha… TF: Haha, yeah, the best question is, who are your biggest influences? Haha, oh man, that’s the worst question… I saw a Norm Macdonald podcast the other day, and he had the great comedian Gilbert Gottfriend on there, and Norm’s co-host asked Gilbert “So coming up in comedy, who were your favorite comedians?” And that’s just like the most annoying predictable question of all time, and Gilbert just looked at him and laughed in his face until he came up with another question…it was great… Okay, so to answer your question about what’s next: hopefully a balance of work with the companies I enjoy working with and more art shows and independent work of that nature, so there’s a good mix of enjoyable work with the people I enjoy along with my own stuff that can be entirely its own thing, weird and surprising and hopefully entertaining. That’s all I can hope to be… NK: Have you been doing any paintings or anything? TF: Yeah, I’ve been doing studio work for art shows, including one that’s about to happen for a product launch for Atlas in San Mateo, I did some new paintings for that which were fun. If that is something people want, then I can do print editions of that….. a few years back, I did some studio paintings for that show at 3131 Gallery in San Francisco titled “When Animals Rape.” It just showed these questionable scenes of animals raping people, and it was pretty far from what I was doing for Element at the time… NK: Yeah, that could’ve been an Antihero / Element collabo! TF: Ha, yeah, there’s a happy medium there! So I might do some prints of those…I like stuff like that because its

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unexpected and fun and makes people laugh or wonder what’s next. Plus, the painting process is so much more risky and challenging than doing stuff for print, because you can’t just undo your mistakes when you’re painting in watercolor very easily. So I like the challenge of that as well… What about you, whats next for you? NK: Summertime! Ocean…..lets see, what have I been doing. I dusted off the letterpress a couple weeks ago, I’ve always loved graphic and letterforms, and I have a lot of fun layering it up and exploring that. I haven’t yet hit the sweet spot with that, so I’m still at it…I’m a little stuck right now, I had a theory I tested, and at the end of the process I looked at it and decided, “you know, that’s not very good!” So I had to walk away, and I’ll get back to it soon and see where to take it next. That, and the motorcycle I’ve been working on for three years. No one cares if I do it or not! TF: That’s fun man! That’s all you can hope for, right there. Keep it entertaining. See Todd’s work at toddfrancis.com Follow Todd on Instagram at toddfrancisart Buy Todd’s artwork and Special Crud at equaldist.com Find his graphics on skate decks at your local skateshop

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Fashion Editor TANUS LEWIS tanuslewis.com

AT Model KRISTY @ Rad Kids www.getradkids.com

Chief of Naval Operations JACK BAZZ

Photography IAN AZARIAH ianazariah.com

BB DAKOTA top BETH RICHARDS bottoms RAEN sunglasses

HERSCHEL backpack MAAJI top RVCA shorts RAEN sunglasses

BETH RICHARDS top BB DAKOTA skirt RAEN sunglasses

RVCA hat ROXY bandeau LIFETIME pants RAEN sunglasses

RVCA monokini RAEN sunglasses

ROXY top and bottom RVCA hat

VITAMIN A top RVCA bottom RAEN glasses

VITAMIN A top ROXY shorts RAEN sunglasses

RVCA bikini top and bottom RAEN sunglasses

ELEMENT cardigan VITAMIN A top and bottom RAEN sunglasses