Name?
Evan Hecox

Location?
San Francisco, USA

URL's?
www.evanhecox.com

Tell us a little bit about your background?
I moved to San Francisco in 1993 and began working for a company that made clothing for snowboarding. I designed logos, ads, t-shirt graphics, and I also did a bit of clothing design. I started working independently in 1997 and at first I struggled to get work doing graphics and illustration, but business picked up after the first couple of years. I started doing work regularly for Chocolate Skateboards which I continue to do today. Many of my clients have been in the world of skateboarding, snowboarding, music or sports, I've also been involved with exhibiting my artwork in group exhibitions and solo shows starting around 1997. I had a solo show in Tokyo in April, and another solo show in September of 2000 in Seattle.

Have you had any formal education or are you self taught?
Both. I grew up in Colorado and went to college at Colorado State University where I studied art and graphic design. The fine art program there was fairly good but my graphic design classes were really bad. I really liked my drawing, painting and printmaking classes the most. I was raised by artist parents. My dad is a painter, sculptor and retired designer and my mom was a weaver and painter. They took me to a lot of art museums at an early age. They had a lot of art books around the house and they were always very supportive of my interest in art. I've also just taught myself, or by observing how other people do things. All my computer skills were learned through books and by trial and error.

You have quite a unique illustrative style, what factors do you think went into developing it?
It developed from a very low-tech approach and then I slowly introduced the computer into my way of working. For years I only did things by hand with pen and ink or paint, even logos were done with pens and drafing tools. I didn't really start to learn to use Photoshop and Illustrator until around 1999, but at that point I was so used to doing things the old-fashioned way that I just began to integrate to two, I think this has a strong effect on how my work looks. I think my work also looks also different because it's fairly plain, even a bit boring actually, which is intentional. I don't want my work to be too stylized, I want it to be a bit more subtle, so that it will hopefully adapt easily over time and from one project to another. I think that simple work is more enduring. I intend to do this for the rest of my life so I want my work to be clear and straighforward and hopefully move gracefully through differnt stylistic trends.

What are your preferred mediums? Paint, charcoal, pencil etc?
I use gouache quite a bit. I like doing pencil drawings. Linoleum prints or woodcuts are fun. I love using Illustrator because you can change things around as much as you like, and try things in different colors without much effort.

Your work for clients such as Carhart is well known, do you enjoy working your style for clients?
Sure, yes. Doing personal work is always fun, but doing work for clients adds a certain problem-solving aspect to it that I really like. It's also nice to do something fun and get paid for it too, it makes me feel sorry for other people who don't enjoy their jobs. I also appreciate typography so I like to see my work used with type. There is also something nice about having work printed and availible for thousands of people to see.

Do you think there is more of a place for art like your own in the corporate world or do you think it is best to keep art/corporate work separated?
Well, it depends on what you mean by corporate. I don't think there is any shame in doing work for commercial clients, but I want ot try to generally work on quality projects for smaller clients and keep the work personal and expressive. Much of the work I do, like album covers and skateboard graphics, are commercial but I feel good about doing them because it's stuff that I like. You won't be seeing my work on a Pepsi can. I have done some work for Nike, but it was portraits of basketball players and I like basketball so I was pleased to do it.

You have done a lot of work for skateboard companies, are you a skater yourself?
Yes, I come from a background in skateboarding, but I don't skateboard as much anymore, I still like it though. The skateboard company that I wok for, Girl/Chocolate, is all run by skaters so I'm in contact with what is going on in skateboarding.

If so how do you think this has influenced your work?
The world of skatebording has always cultivated a lot of creativity for some reason, probably because it's such a free, creative activity. There are an amazing amount of talented, creative people involved with skateboarding. There is a book, Dysfunctioanal that traces the whole artisic phenomenon within skateboarding, definately worth checking out. I'm not sure how to express exactly how this has influenced me, but it definately has. At a younger age, like 14 or 15, skateboarding definately led me to discover a lot of new styles of music and different ways of life that have effected me ever since.

Are you working on any new projects that you can tell us about?
I don't really like talking about most projects until after they are finished. I'm hoping to have an art show in Paris and possibly Chicago in the near future, but those are still in the works.

What do you know about Australian artists/designers?
I saw a really cool website by an Australian designer/graffiti artist, I think he calls himself Merda, really talented guy. I correspond by e-mail with an artist named Rhys Lee who does some very cool painting. That's about it, I'd like to know more.

Thanks Evan!