[This originally appeared in Neck Pain #3 but was edited due to space. I wanted to show the full interview since Richard took the time to go deep into some questions]
Richard is a multi faceted artist with a history in skateboarding. We connected over board designs via the time waster known as social media. Through our discussion I got to see just how varied his design work is and I thought it would be a good fit to showcase his work and talk about how he gets his idea.
- Why don’t we start off with a little introduction - who you are, talk a little about your background and what creative endeavors you're behind.
Richard E. Jones, 48, San Diego native and Portland local since ‘96. I am a graphic designer, curator, and life long skateboarder. Man, I have been lucky enough to work with all kinds of rad people and companies both in and out of the skate industry. You’ve seen my work on boards for Foundation, Warco, Pig Wood and most recently Adored (Corey Duffel’s kick ass new project, Corey rules). I designed all the graphics for Pig Wheels for 10 years or so and have done different things for Spitfire, Circa, Sessions, Savier, DuFFS and Globe to name a few.
- What brought you into the creative world?
My mom. The three earliest things I remember are all visual icons of the ‘70’s. KISS was (and is) a huge influence as a 5 year old kid. In ‘78 they were (and are) real life superheroes! I was obsessed immediately after watching KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park (Oct 30th on ABC tv in ‘78). The poster for JAWS (which is a perfect piece of design work and the greatest movie poster ever made) made a huge impact. From the bold blood red type to the, is she or isn’t she naked swimmer and of course the shark. Terrifying but captivating. Finally 1970’s Marvel comics especially The Amazing Spiderman. I learned to love reading early on from comics and my first goal was to be a comic book artist (which I would chase for years).
Also growing up in an open minded inclusive environment was huge. My mom ran and owned La Jolla’s first high end contemporary art gallery for many years so I got to meet and was exposed to people and artists of all types.
- How would you describe your art/design style?
That’s a tough one, I have never really thought of that. I would say versatile. I have had to be a Swiss army knife, designing for all kinds of clients. One time I remember designing a series of angelic cherubic themed t-shirts for X-mas in the middle of summer. The other end of the spectrum is getting to do gig posters for bands like Dead Cross and Napalm Death with a little of everything in between.
- How do you come up with new ideas or designs? What would you say is your creative process?
I am traditionally trained so everything starts as sketches and notes before it even gets to the computer. It really depends, swimming helps a lot. I tend to come up with ideas and design solutions while getting my laps. Doing the dishes as well, anything that frees the mind to kind of go its own way. Inspiration (good and bad) is everywhere lately, nature and flowers especially have been very inspirational, oh and a proper cuppa always helps.
- I met you through the skateboarding community, how did you start skating and do you think this had a strong influence on you? On your artwork?
I owe everything to skating. Art came first but skating gave me direction and focus, before skating I was super introverted listening to shitty metal and obsessively collecting comic books. I had some friend around ‘87 who came to visit and had a Neil blender coffee break board, we didn’t skate a lot that summer (boogie boarded mostly). We did buy Thrashers and Vision shirts and would spend days redrawing graphics off of boards. I did a custom bottom on my boogie board of the Steve Stedham ace graphic. I goofed around just pushing for awhile but eventually fell in with some dudes that, like me, liked comics but had better taste in music and all had skateboards. One of them ripped and we started to split off and skate. I learned a ton from that dude and that was the nucleus of my first skate crew which had a good two and a half year run (as far as I know I am the only one who didn’t stop pushing).
Things had stalled out with the dream of being a comic artist and I started paying more attention to graphics and started taking silk screening, photography, commercial arts, all those classes. Through skating I discovered graffiti, through graffiti I discovered Vaughn Bode’s work and I realized I didn't have to be able to draw like the people I admired, I could design graphics as well. Up to this point I had never had something that I wanted as badly as to land my tricks, to land the gap at UCSD or the enormous stairs at PB middle school. It took years of slams to get to the level of moderate skill I achieved before my accident.
Aside from Bode and designers like Reid Miles, Saul Bass, Lester Beal skating and people like Jenkins, Swank, Blender, Cliver and Mckee have been huge sources of inspiration.
- What else influences you, where do you get inspiration from?
Music, so much of it comes from music. Films like Harold and Maude, the written words of Fante and Bukowski, my best friend and heterosexual life partner Chad.
- Does your artwork help you in dealing with life and the world?
Yeah, it can for sure. It can be a great way to work shit out, more importantly a non violent means of protesting and presenting your opinions and ideas. As long as I do one thing a day creatively that I am proud of and that can be a beautifully made cuppa or a flier for a show, whatever, then it’s a good day! The flipside being I can be a real shit to be around when stuff isn’t working.
- How do you think creativity can help the world today?
Art is always therapeutic and any kind of creative expression is a worthwhile undertaking. Anytime you can separate yourself from the day to day grind and get lost in art making it or enjoying it, gives you a chance to breathe, step back for a minute and sort some shit out.
- How would you pass on the lessons you learned to an aspiring artist?
By teaching them the traditional ways of design and layout, by hand, and to temper their expectations with the reality of pursuing a career in the arts. This shit isn’t easy and you have to pay your dues.
- What is up next for you? Where do you want to see your art heading or taking you?
I will continue to work with Corey Duffel on his new brand Adored, which has been a blast to get to help out with. There’s a new brand/project that is photographer/photo driven named Foto Skateboards that I am working on with Blue Rodela that is super neat and dropping soon, including an awesome Phil Shao tribute deck. I have my own brand in the works that will hopefully debut early next year which will be called Spiel, cause every skateboarder has a story….
- How can people find out more about you and your artwork?