I was drawing as early as I can remember but I had undiagnosed dyslexia and I didn’t learn to read until I was 10 years old. This lead me to be a very visual thinker. Shapes, lines, textures, composition, were all as important (or even more important) then the text on the page. Drawings, illustrations and comics were the first language I learned to read.

As I entered Jr. High I started skateboarding and I got introduced to skateboarding magazines, skate deck graphics, skate videos, photos, catalogs and advertisements. It all had its own visual language that had very little to do with text but visually, it had everything to do with culture, attitude, stoke, and art.

It was watching a 411VM skate video in Jr. High that featured a graphic designer where I learned that it was someones job to create the graphics, videos, photos for all of these skateboard companies and magazines that I obsessed over.

It seemed like a pipe dream to ever do a single skateboard graphic but now I’ve done 24 different skateboard graphics, plus wheels, T-shirts, and posters for some of my favorite companies. Its not much of a career or a living but it means everything to me.