THISWASNOBOATINGACCIDENT Issue #1 Summer/Fall 1999 Interview by: R. Jones How did Evil Design get started and has it always been you alone? It started in 94/95 with the inspiration coming from Mr. Paul Reubens' mug shot. I cut the picture out of the paper and had it on my wall. With all the hub-bub and commotion over his crime and saying what a bad person he was, I decided to mess with the picture one day and make him the devil. Which seemed only fitting. Then I just wrote 'evil' under it to just drive the point home. Then I made some stickers one day at the copy shop, gave them out to kids, then went on to making shirts just to give to my friends or whatever, and a friend of mine (sunshine boy) was working at the 'Kids Will Have Their Say' store and told me I should sell them there. They went over pretty good, so I just kept the name 'Evil' and worked on new designs. It's always been just me and still is as far as doing all the drawings and designs, but I do have help in the form of promotion (the crew over at tadpole illustrations helps us a lot). I also work with a model known as Jaime, she's done some stuff for us and also is gonna work with us on a new project. Did you go to school for design? Not really, in school I did take a couple of design classes (typography, color theory...), but I mainly concentrated in photography. Are there any particular designers that influence your work? Umm... As far as designers go, well, I like the guy who designs the packaging for Goya(tm) I'm influenced by the kinda stuff that you see everyday. As far as particular name designers, I'm not sure. What inspires you in your design? Here's a partial list of things that have inspired me and probably will continue to: Holiday in Cambodia, Geraldo getting hit with a chair, Rip Torn, that little old guy that was Benny Hill's side-kick, Mr.T, Shaft, Dolemite, Superfly, Foxy Brown, Neil Diamond, What's New Pussy Cat, Deputy Dawg, The San Diego Padre's Chicken, Marty Scorscesse, Bobby Deniro, Junk Yard Dog, J.J. Jackson, Pineapple Now'n'Laters, Kareem Abdul Jabar in the movie Airplane, Paul Reubens at the movies, Mr. Green Jeans, Dr. Hook's 'Baby Makes Her Blue Jeans Talk', The Banana Splits, Darby Crash, Public Enemy, Donald Duck swearing in duck language, Good Times, The Three Men and a Baby Boy, Grand Master Flash and the Furious Five, Edith Massey, Flounder, Mushmouth, Gary Coleman, Tootie, Jack Tripper's friend Larry, Ozzy, Lux Interior, Earth, Wind & Fire, Harvey Keitel in The Bad Lieutenant, NWA, Female Trouble, that 'Where's the Beef?' lady, Raging Bull, Prison tattoos, Larry, Daryl & Daryl, Shemp, Jeff Spicoli, Chris Farley, Ted from Mary Tyler Moore, Ol'Dirty Bastard, Bruce Lee, The Fat Boys, Car Wash, Froggy from The Little Rascals and Hot Buttered Soul. Aside from stickers and shirts what other stuff do you like to design? I like doing record covers, recently I did one for Vic Firecracker's 'Mixed not Mastered' ep that I was pretty happy with. I like doing posters for shows, laying out zines - stuff like that's cool. I've noticed that you've used the old Kiss typeface and Kiss Army logo as design elements, an homage to the 'Gods of Thunder' or purely for pop culture reference? Both really, you gotta give some respect to Ace and the boys though. One of my early comics was of a boy dreaming he was Paul Stanley. (I made a shirt of that one too.) Have you had any trouble regarding companies or individuals getting hot under the collar for you using their likeness in a design? No, I don't really do too much of that with Evil anymore (with exception to the AC/DC logo). Where do you hope to take Evil Design, what would you ultimately like to accomplish? I really don't know. I'd like it to evolve more and for more people to see my stuff. I'd also like to work with people I admire, or are a fan of. I wish I had more of a definite plan. I just wanna keep doing it and maybe make a little cash so I could do this without having to have a few part time jobs. What do you have going on outside of Evil? Outside of Evil I'm involved with a bunch of things, I publish a zine ($6.99/lb), which I do with a gentleman who goes by the name of Ken Switzer, he also does a cool zine called 'Ail'. 'Your Mother Smokes' is a comic that I do. There's been one YMS collection that's been put out, it also appears in a small zine I do on occasion called 'Spit Shack Heart Attack'. Recently, I opened a store with a friend (Corey Sominsen of Royal Tees, who also prints the Evil shirts) in allston, MA called 'Smash City' that sells local (and national) zines, artwork, music & whatever else people make. I work with Godzeero Graphiccs on occasion. They are kinda hush-hush when it comes to press though. At Evil, we're starting to work on the Carmine Collection with a designer by the name of Carmine. It's a very exciting collaberation, be on the look-out for that. I'm also working on some music projects with JMV of Role Model and members of his crew under the name 'Army of Darkeness' (be on the look-out for this also), the other is with Sumo santos, we've been working on some musical arrangements that will be released under the name 'Transistor Killer', in limited editions. Adidas or Pumas and why? I'm a big fan of sneakers. Each of those particular brands have their own personality and that's what makes you decide which pair to wear, like if I'm feeling all tougher than leather, I'll be rockin the Adidas, but if I'm feeling some Abe Vigoda, I'll be wearing the Pumas. You should have a pair of each. Any closing statements? Well, just to say thanks to the kids that support Evil Design, and that write and send me cool pictures and zines and stuff. back to press main page