What´s the deal with the Ivite board you might ask. Well, our idea is pretty simple: To let creative and talented people that skate do a graphic that represents what they think a skateboard graphic should look like. Below you will find some Q&A with the artists behind our Invite boards.
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Let´s start out with how long you have been skating?
I started skating in 2000 when I inherited my older brother’s skateboard. It was a really small and lousy one but I rode that board until it looked like crap. Just playing around with simple tricks and going down hills most of the time. The following year I got my first “real” board and I’ve been skating constantly ever since.
What are you studying right now?
Right now I’m studying at Nacka Gymnasium, taking the combined art and social science program. I am painting quite a lot, but I also take most of the regular courses for the social science program.
What are you going to do after you graduate?
I graduate in may. After that I’m going to apply to different art schools, so we’ll see what happens. I’m also going to skate a lot during the summer of course.
Tell us about how it was decided that you were going to do the Invite deck for this series.
Actually this is a part of my final project for my degree at Nacka Gymnasium. For the project I wanted to do something related to skateboarding, and this was a perfect opportunity to combine it with the art program, and my interest in art. I talked to Love and he invited me to have a look at their previous graphics. I did some rough sketches, and later I had a small meeting with Love and Martin where we decided on one of the sketches for a graphic.
Have you always been interested in painting and drawing?
Yes I have. I think I started drawing when I was about two or three years old.
Are skateboard graphics something you have been interested in for a long time?
Yeah, I’ve been interested in skateboard graphics since I started skating and I’ve also thought about designing one before. Actually, in eighth grade a friend and I hand painted an old deck. It was part of an assignment in school and turned out pretty good. Apart from that I’ve been experimenting with stickers and some occasional inscriptions to change the deck from time to time, but I never had anything printed on a board until now though.
How did the idea for your Invite board come about?
I had this idea about doing a character surrounded by ribbons. The ribbons were something that I had been working on in another drawing, and I wanted to develop them a little further. I have always been a fan of the details in vegetation, so I made the character, which actually looks like a combination of some of my friend’s faces rise from the plants with ribbons going all through the picture. For the colours I originally thought of something dark. First I wanted the board to feel a bit anxiety-ridden but later we decided to make it more colourful, and I’m satisfied with the result.
Do you have any favorite skateboard artist, or a favorite board graphic?
It’s very hard to select anyone specific ones because there are so many great graphics and artists. I don’t really want to exclude anyone, but if I have to mention something that I like it has to be the Powell graphics by VCJ, Jim Phillips work and Gary Frayers Alva graphics. I also like the early stuff from Powell, World industries, 101 and Blind by Sean Cliver, and Marc McKee. I also have to mention John Keesters work for Powell, and Evan Hecox’ Chocolate graphics, Chocolate really have some sick graphics. I think I’ll have to stop at that, because this could go on for hours.
Do you have any other projects that you want to share with us?
I’m about to finish some paintings at school but I don’t really see them as “projects” in that way. It would be fun to get the chance to have a skateboard graphic done once again though. It has been great to work with you guys and I would like to thank everyone at Bellows, especially Love and Martin for the opportunity. Thanks!
Do you have a website where people can view your work?
No unfortunately I don’t, but maybe in the future.
Thank you Fredrik
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Andreas Glad
Ok, let´s start out with how long you have been skating?
I bought my first board back in 83´or 84´. It was a plastic board that had a granulated top instead of griptape. I skated on and off up until 1990. Then, thanks to my friends Erik Lidquist and Marcus Ragnarsson i got my motivation to skate again in 92´and have been rolling steadily ever since.
What is your day to day job?
I work as a self-dependent artist in a studio in Bergen, Norway.
Have you always been interested in painting and drawing?
Yeah, i think you could say that, in one way or the other. But i didn´t start art school until 98´.
Is designing a Skateboard graphic something you have been wanting to do before?
Yes, absolutely. I have been cheating by painting on blanks though, with various results.
How did the idea for your Invite board come about?
I wanted to do something that covered the whole board, something warm and playful. At the same time i wanted it to show that it was a painting, not something done in a computer, kind of like if i had been painting straight on to the deck.
Do you have any favorite Skateboard artists or a favorite board graphic?
Wow, there are so many! I used to like all the old Alva and Powell&Peralta boards. These days i really like Chocolate´s graphics. I do remember a Jeron Wilson board that my friend Micke Petterson bought in L.A. It had a spacerocket on it, that was a nice one.
Do you have any other projects that you want to share with us?
There´s a new Skatepark here in Bergen that resently opened and one of my paintings is hanging in the entrance on assignment from the city of Bergen. I´ve been working in my studio and started a couple of new paintings, but they are still kind of secret.
Do you have a website where people can view your work?
No i don´t, but there is more info about my art on www.gallerikronstadhovedgaard.no
Thanks Andreas
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Martin Ander
Ok, lets start off with how long you have been skating?
Well, i got my first board on my ninth birthday from my grandmother, this was in 85´. A skateboard had been on my wishlist since i was five though. Two years later i bought a Santa Cruz, Rob Roskopp board which was my first ”real” Skateboard. So, from 85´-98´, then i lost interest a little but found it again in 2003, so all in all it´s about 17 years.
What is your day to day job?
I´m a graphic designer and an illustrator.
Have you always been interested in illustrations and painting?
Yes, i´ve always been drawing and painting since i was a kid, and i´ve had parents that encouraged me to do so.
Is Skateboard graphics something you´ve been interested in doing before?
Absolutely, ever since i sat foot in Rip City skateshop, Santa Monica with my family in 87´to buy my first real board.
I was so stoked on all the graphics, i could´ve stayed there the whole day just staring at the boards. I basically started to draw sketches of boardgraphics emediatly when we got back to our hotel.
Skateboarding and my artistry has always gone hand in hand. I learned typography by doing griptape graphics for my friends and laying out skate fanzines taught me how to make magazines.
My graffiti career in the early 90´s had a clear connection to the skate scene, and in the work i do today i think of classic skate-logos and graphics as templates for how i want my illustrations to communicate.
But i think my goal has always been to get something printed on a Skateboard.
How did you come up with the idea for your Invite board?
It was kind of a coincidence that it happened. I had been working on a graphic for Washed up Skateboards but that never happened since they don´t exist any more. Martin asked me if i wanted to do something for you guys´s new thing so i met with him and Love to discuss ideas. I adapted the original Washed up idea to Bellows, it turned out completely different but has the same thought process, sort of.
Do you have a favorite Skateboard illustrator or a special boargraphic that you really like?
I think anyone who´s interested in Skate graphics would answer Jim Pillips on this one. He made the first board i bought, and i bought it because of the graphic. I couldn´t belive that my brother bought a Dogtown board with a graphic done by Michael Sieff.
Otherwise i like the ideas of Sean Cliver, the style of John Lucero and Black Label, i used to love Barry McGees older work, Pushead did some sick graphics, i like Evan Hecox a lot, VCJ of course, Stereo, Blockhead, There are so many good ones. They all have their own style in their own time so what looked cool in 87´-92´might not look so cool today but when i saw them back then it was the coolest thing i´d ever seen.
Do you have any other projects that you want to talk about?
Yeah, i have some things going, i will most definitley work with you guys again. I´ve sent out some stuff that i hope will turn into something. I´m also involved in a Skate related book project together with Martin Karlsson and Jens Andersson that i think will turn out really cool. And i´m drawing a cartoon that i hope will be published if i ever get the time to finish it.
Nice, Do you have a website?
www.mander.nu
Thanks Mander