Curatorialist

I have t-shirt blood running through my veins. I’m the Phil Jackson of
t-shirt design; I have seen shirts, and shirt designs, come and go. I have
had the pleasure to have a few of the absolute greats on my team. See, I
grew up in surf/skate culture (in the 70’s) and logos were everything. It
started with surfboard logos and then moved to
skateboarding. So, having the t-shirt with your brand of board, wheels,
trucks or whatever was a way of feeling like you were sponsored. T-shirts,
to me, were more than outerwear – they were about the dream of glory.
Wearing radness on your sleeve. I never got the free crap from those
companies, but I got more than my fair share of hand-outs at the contests.
The DogTown Skates and Independent Trucks shirts I owned were my early
Michael Jordan and Scotty Pippen. A perfect combination of flashy graphic
imagery and typeface perfection.

Later, concert tees came in and created a business out of the design of
t-shirts. The early ones were crazy and good, but over time the business of
t-shirts overwhelmed the artistry of t-shirt design and it was never the
same. Very few have lived up to the feeling of wearing those early marks of
well-crafted lettering and bad assery of imagery and layout. Very few have
elevated beyond just coolness of design and become something altogether
greater: the “coveted tee.” But that hasn’t kept me from looking. I have all
the graphic tee sites bookmarked and I go through them pretty regularly. I’m
happy to say, one man has risen to the top: this dude, Joshua Smith (
http://hydro74.com ), comes with it in a heavy and considered way. He
understands. All the references are there – his designs hark back to an
earlier time. He knows his typefaces and lock-ups. But he knows more… He
knows why we wear ‘em. Clearly his influences match up with the greats. Talk
of “the next Michael” is a useless conversation, although we can’t help
ourselves when we watch someone dominate a game the way Kobe does. The play
begs for the comparison. And this one fella right here, this is the play. The
fade away jump shot at the buzzer. Snake, skull, blocky scratchy letters… Game
over.  It’s the difference between saying, “oh, that’s a cool shirt” and “I need
that shirt. I must own it.” This guy is at the top of the game.