There’s a few things that a lot of BMX riders can relate to other than bikes. A large number of you have great interest in music and art. When it comes to art, it could be filming, editing, photography, graphic design, or plenty of other things that you can use to tie in with bikes. There is art all around you and all over your bikes. Even if your bike is all flat black, that’s art. We caught up with Redline and Seattle Bike Supply‘s Art Director Evan Moss to see what it takes to work in this career field.
Name: Evan Moss
Location: Seattle
Job: Art Director
Years working in the design field? 21
Years at Redline? 17
Did you go to college at all?
I went to the Art Institute of Seattle and graduated from their Communication Arts program. That was a good foundation. I actually learned a lot of real world experience from a Jr. Art Director internship at an advertising agency, Herring/Newman, after I graduated. I was able to work with other creative teams on projects for clients like Nike, HP, and United Way. I did everything there from helping with lighting at photo shoots, team brainstorming sessions, hand drawn type for ad comps, building up packaging concepts, etc. The biggest thing was learning what real deadlines were.
So you are the Art Director for Redline. How did you land that job, and is it one of those “dream jobs” you always hear people talking about?
A friend of mine from art school gave me the tip that SBS (Redline’s parent company) was hiring. The interview went good, I was hired and it’s been fun ever since! It has been a dream job and such a privilege to build the Redline brand as well as all the other SBS brands over the years. When I started I was the solo guy in the art department and there were only 5 models in the Redline line. Now we are up to 36+ bikes in BMX alone, with 5 full time guys in the marketing department and lots of freelance contractor help as well.
I’d imagine you stay pretty busy with keeping Redline looking fresh. What are your roles as the Art Director?
We do both Consumer marketing and Business-to-Business marketing here. On the Consumer side I help create magazine & web ads, brand catalogs, product design & graphics, packaging, uniform/clothing design, Redline website development, event marketing. We do a lot of B2B marketing to our dealer base with monthly sales flyers, yearly Big Bike Book catalog, website promotions, dealer specific ads. I also deal with getting quotes from printers & paper vendors, going on press checks when jobs are printing, hiring photographers & directing photo shoots (both studio and lifestyle), reviewing first sample bikes in Asia and making sure we get fresh content from the team for our website.
What’s a typical day like for you?
Roll into the office, get coffee and clear out the email inbox so I can start in on the days projects. Normally there is between 3-10 projects going at once, in various states of completion. Today I worked on finishing a 2 page ad, finalized 4 more 2011 bike graphic packages to send to the decal manufacturer, and started working on a cover concept for our Big Bike Book dealer parts catalog. It’s great because every day I get to work on something different.
What’s the hardest part about, lets say something like, coming up with the graphics that would go on the Device complete?
I wanted to play with textures on the frame and it took a while to figure how to accomplish that. I went with a satin style paint finish with transparent raised gloss water transfer decals on top. I like how the decals stand out or stay subdued depending on what light you’re in. I was also inspired by old 80’s horror movie title type and came up with my own alphabet for that project that had that slasher feel.
Do you ever find yourself doing other things to help the brand outside of your specific duties?
All the time. I’ve been doing more video editing which is new to me. Our office consists of the Marketing, Purchasing and Product Development departments. We are always collectively thinking of new product ideas, frame designs, part names, etc.
It seems like a lot of artists do some freelance from time to time. Have you ever or do you do any work for brands other than Redline/Seattle Bike Supply?
I do try to do freelance work when I have the time. I have several musician friends so there’s always club posters and CD packaging work popping up for me. I have been focusing on doing a gallery show a year. The last show I did a series of my characters painted and collaged onto old 8 track cassettes. Late summer I did a robot mural using only electrical tape at Georgetown’s all ages venue, the Slab. Tape is a fun medium to work with.
What kind of a background in BMX do you have? Did you ever think you would be able to work in the industry at all?
I rode BMX bikes for fun, either making dirt jumps behind my house or riding down with friends to the local track when it was empty. Back then I didn’t have any clue that you could actually have a career doing things you liked to do: riding bikes and drawing.
When did you realize that you wanted to have art be your career path? Was it something you always felt was an option as something you could do for a living?
It was probably my sophomore year at Kennewick High School. I started doing sharpie drawings of my friends favorite punk bands on t-shirts for $10 a pop. That was the first time I had been paid to draw. I was hooked! I then realized people were getting paid to design everything I liked in my room: all the t-shirts, posters, skateboards, bike graphics, whatever. I didn’t learn that was called graphic design until way later.
Where are some places you look for inspiration when you are beginning a new project? Who are some people you really feel do great work?
I am inspired by record cover design and I take photos of ones I find with good typography and composition. You can check out some of my favorites here: Flickr. I also collect old typography books so I usually am reaching for one of those when starting a project. In the bike industry I think Travis Collier, Harrison Boyce, Jim Bauer, Klaus Dyba, Trek’s Shane Siedschlag are all doing great work. Seattle has some amazing artists and designers: Invisible Creature , Turnstyle Studios, Heads of State, Parskid, Brian Despain. I have hundreds of blogs on my RSS reader, but here’s a few of my design favs: Scot Hanson’s ISO50, FormFiftyFive, It’s Nice That, Design Is Kinky.
What kinds of programs or tools do you use when you are coming up with something like a logo or graphics?
I like to use Micron .05 pens and Moleskin sketchbooks to start concepting ideas. With all the work we do here my computer needs to be fast: a Mac Pro tower with a Quad-core processor, 8+ gigs of RAM, and at least a 21” screen. Adobe Creative Suite is the industry standard for creating everything from logos to catalog layouts to photo retouching. I use Adobe Bridge quite a bit to quickly review files on the server and rate action photos. I also like to use Coda for CSS coding, but my favorite app is the Art Directors Toolkit. It’s great for answering design related issues like unit conversions, layout scaling, custom swatches and more.
What kind of advice do you have for the kids out there who would like to pursue a career like yours? Do you feel like a college education is always the best way to go about it?
I think college helps focus a new designer to their strengths, let’s them collaborate with other artists and gives them a good platform to grow from. That said, there’s a lot of designers out there that are mind blowing amazing and didn’t go to college. It all depends on what type of person you are. If you want to skip college and go straight into a design career, you’ll need to show that you have the skill level and ability to come up with concepts that fit the brands message.
My advice to anyone who wants to be a designer is just pay attention to how design effects the world around you. Signs, billboards, packaging, clothing, skyscrapers all have been designed in some way. Look at how colors and type work together on the street. Study the architectural grid lines on buildings. I learn new things all the time just walking around.
The next step I would suggest is to take a brand that you like and put together a full marketing campaign: ad, website, catalog, t-shirt, packaging, etc. Document everything from the early sketches to the final pieces. Blog and photograph the whole process on your website. When I hire someone I want to not only see their final work but also how they came up with those ideas. I still refer back to sketch books I’ve done over the years for ideas and inspiration.
I’m going out on a limb and guessing that you have a couple of tattoo’s. Am I right? Is there any particular story behind any of them?
Nope, no tats! My tastes are constantly changing. I haven’t found anything that I’ve wanted to have on my body forever.
What can people expect out of the art department for Redline in 2010?
Definitely ‘keeping it classy’ for 2010.
Is there anything I missed that you would like to add?
Here’s a PDF of some custom vector freebies that can be used in Adobe Illustrator. Commence downloading now…
