| 2012 Interview with the Creative Director at Think and Lowcard |
Ivan Brizuela isn't one to go home and submerge himself into the cushions of his couch after work. He walks down the stairs of his sunbathed workspace, grabs his board and skates through concrete hallways until he reaches his forest colored van. Inside the rectangular transportation device lies an orange bench tattooed with a variety of stickers and grind marks. On most days of the week, Ivan will drag it over to San Francisco’s DMV parking lot so that he and some friends can inhale beers and passionately skate until the sun dips below downtown’s skyscrapers. If it's a weekday he'll go home and start doodling in his giant sketchbook; if it's a weekend you'll find him all over town.
In an industry whose entire foundation and history is based around dudes in skateboard ads, it’s often easy to forget about the passionate people behind the scenes designing the brands that support the pros. Ivan, the only resident artist within Strangebird Distribution, holds a ton of the visual responsibilities pertaining to the brands involved. It’s a tough job, but one he’s wanted ever since he was a beardless teenager.
For this particular feature, I had the pleasure of hanging out with Ivan for a boozy conversation involving stories of San Francisco’s Think skateboard team, how he “thinks” up concepts for decks [hah get it?}, what’s up next for the wide array of companies he designs for and much more.
After that we embarked on a night filled with loads of laughs, gaggles of memories long forgotten and a trip to the Knockout for our friend Josh’s Smith-fits DJ night.
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GC: Hey Ivan. Can you tell us what Lowcard Magazine and Strangebird distribution are and what exactly your is job there?
IB: Lowcard is a skate magazine started in 03’ in San Francisco. It wasn’t really.. Well there was no plan for what it was going to be. It evolved and ended up with street corner distribution, which at the time was linked to Think skateboards, lucky bearings, Hubba wheels and venture trucks. Whoever owned it before was basically trying to sell it, so they sold it to Rob Collinson [Current Owner], while Venture went to Dlx. Somewhere around then was when it became Strange Bird Distribution. My job title there is creative director. I design everything for the company and if there’s another artist helping out I’ll direct them and work with the art.
GC: You graduated from FIDM a while ago and I’m sure you learned a lot there. Did most of your artistic skill set come from school or personal projects?
IB: Actually, most of it came from skateboarding. I mean I always drew when I was a kid. I started skating many years ago and as a kid always looked at the graphics for boards and hoped I could do it one day.
GC: Since finishing school, is working as a creative director for a skateboard company what you expected it would be?
IB: It’s definitely more laid back than anything corporate. When I was going to school I knew I wanted to design skateboards. Or just be in the skateboard industry. It took a while after school. I took a couple of shitty jobs here and there.
GC: How’d you originally hear about Lowcard?
IB: I already knew about it for a while, just from skating. When Rob bought the company I went over and designed some shit for the Strangebird logo and Rob liked it and things went from there.
GC: When your first set of Think decks came out and they were selling. Where were you at mentally and emotionally? Can you describe how the whole thing came together?
IB: First I was really nervous cause i’ve never done it and I really wanted the first boards to be a big deal. I started with a bunch of scratch ideas and nothing was really working out. But since the change over from the company being sold, it was a while since any new graphics came out. I think I started doing the wolf first and really had no direction. I don’t really know why I started doing a wolf, but after a while I finally incorporated the light bulb that’s always been associated with think. Next came the smoke and the spirit animals. After that I tried to pick an animal for each rider.
GC: How’d you decide on the animals?
IB: For Cody. He’s a texan so I wanted to give him a Cobra. Adrian Williams is from Alaska so i tried to do a Polar Bear, but it looked stupid so I ended up doing a regular bear. The Polar bear looked like the bear from Coca Cola. Danny Fuenzalida talked to me and wanted a Fox cause he wanted something feminine, but still strong and… Was there an eagle? Who was the eagle?
GC: [After a long pause I stood up and walked into Ivan’s living room to look for whose name was on the board]
IB: Dave Bachinsky! For Dave I hadn’t met him yet and I think, he was from... Maine? Don’t put that in. Well I hadn’t met him yet, but everyone already decided he should be an Eagle. Maybe cause he’d have to fly all the way over here to meet us.
GC:: What would you say inspires a typical Lowcard design? Is there ever a battle between what you would want to design for them versus what Rob wants? You know, are there a lot of drafts before a final design is put out or do they usually OK your designs on the first go?
IB: This is my Inspiration. [Ivan takes out his phone and shows me a photo of a pair of breasts his girlfriend sent him earlier in the day]
GC: [Laughs] Seriously?
IB: [Laughs] For Lowcard most of the ideas come from Rob. He’s always had the ideas. I think that’s what’s making the company successful. His not giving a fuck attitude and making the company how he wanted it. It’s about drinking, skating, and having fun. Sometimes we call this idea and we don’t discuss shit and we just pick one. And there’s other times when I’ll just draw… I mostly get my ideas when I get out of work. I come home and just start drawing. I don’t know why that happens, but I get my ideas and I draw, take photos of it, take it to work, design it and he’ll deny or approve it. Sometimes we’ll do clean stuff, usually it doesn’t have to be that perfect though. As far as Lowcard goes anyway. For Think I talk to Justin Carlson. He’s the filmer / team manager and he has a lot of ideas. We just float them around and you know just talk about things. We talk about what direction we want to go in with the company. Visually, I obviously wanted to change the identity of Think. Cause it’s a little outdated.You know the whole tagging thing. We wanted to get away from that. We just wanted to get a cleaner look. The team right now doesn’t really fit the old look. So we wanted to fit the company to them. I feel like it’s going well. I was really amazed by the last part that came out. Everybody had really good parts. I fucking loved Adrian’s part. Usually Pros will come by the HQ to get new gear and stuff, but one time Adrian came by with some donuts. After a little bit he left and somebody asked if he grabbed anything, but he didn’t. He seriously came by just to give us fucking donuts [laughs]. He’s one of the coolest dudes in skateboarding.
GC: What song/artist are you listening to a lot these days?
IB: A lot of Kate Bush, Morrissey, and Beach Boys. Yeah I always have to have music while I’m designing. Sometimes I’ll listen to the same song over and over. I always wear headphones so I don’t bother people though. At Lowcard they usually just play radio and everyone dreads real crazy cause it’s the same songs over and over. 107.7 the bone… I can’t listen to music on the way to work. I always just listen to NPR. On the way home I’ll listen to music, but I’m never in the mood for music in the morning. I just like talk radio. Some people get in my van or something and they’re like, what the fuck?
GC: Whats your favorite bar in San Francisco?
IB: [Pauses] Uh probably the alley [laughs], smoking cigarettes, just drinking at the side of bars. I almost got shot drinking at the side of a bar. I got a gun pulled out on me. That was 6th street though. 6th and Market. I try to avoid that place.
GC: What types of projects are you working on right now at Lowcard? Anything you really excited about coming out soon that you can talk about?
IB: We’re coming out with a new board series. It’s actually already finished… Just gotta wait till it gets to us. It’s not secretive or anything. It just sounds stupid. It’s... Carpets. Every time I tell someone, what’s the name of the new series? I say it’s Carpets, they’re like “What?” and I follow with, you just gotta see it. It’s just magic carpets. Like a skateboard carpet. Other than that I’m working on getting stuff made for Lowcard that’s never really been done before. Like snapbacks and 5 panels for Think. You know, stuff they’ve never really thought about doing. Like I’m trying to get socks done. New designs too, like Lowcard shirts, Think shirts. Basically as soon as I’m done with one series. I need to get work on the next thing. I just have to brainstorm ideas. By the time I finish the design and the boards are on their way we’re probably halfway through making the next one. I’m actually the only artist in there. Not just lowcard, but the entire company. There’s this one dude in LA helping us out with layouts. He’s doing a really good job. But yeah, that’s about it. I’m just always trying to brainstorm ideas everyday. Never taking breaks. Fuck
To keep up with Ivan, visit his blog
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Photos | Interview - Arthur Alvarez