about
A guy in his mid-30ies, that starts pretty boring. The good thing though: in all the subcultures that I’m involved with, age is not the important thing anymore, and the group of people I skate with, snowboard with, or work on art projects are anything from 10 to 70. It’s like-minded people, and probably has to do with the common goal of having fun. The everyday passion is still there: I broke my hand this summer for the first time in 25years of skateboarding , still had to paint my 22ft tall character sculpture 3 days later for the opening of my self-built concrete skatebowl! ;)
I started snowboarding in ’85, skateboarding around the same time, and got into competing in ’88. Turned pro in ’93, rode the last couple of seasons for Burton Snowboards until my last contest in 2002 (or so). Sponsors at that time included Nixon watches, Smith eyewear, és footwear and Shorty’s skateboards. At the end of my career, I got more into graphics, design and street art on a professional level, some kind of substitution for not beeing on tour anymore. And the scenes are quite similar, so it’s been a fun ride since.
Red Bull approached me and my brother in 2001 to help them with a skateboard event series called local hero tour – that was the prototype for a series that later made it to various countries. My brother, my GF Kathi and me were starting our own design studio at the same time, so we got involved more with RB, as some of their ideas matched perfectly with our passions.
We worked with/for them on a series of events and below the line activities, most of the things involved concepts, designs and execution/organisation. There’s a lot more things I did designs for, from X-fighter stickers to branding manuals to event logos and posters, but these had less personal involvement and more corporate briefing then the above. Some stuff is online on my website, or on our old studio site.
The studio got to an end as everyone of us wanted to focus on something different, Kathi and me moved to Vienna. In 2007 I started working for/with Atomic, doing graphics, a bit of art direction and catalogs for their snowboards. That led to other clients in boardsport/action sport brands, so I worked for KTM, Gloryfy Eyewear, Kini/Wings For Life, Dotz Wheels, Almdudler, burn energy, Megacard and others over the last year.
We exhibited art and design things on various occasions, including London Design Week/Tent at Truman Brewery, ISPO trade fair and the “pretty sketchy” skateboard/art guerilla exhibition/session on GSD 2007. (btw: for 3-4 years we ran our own snowboard/skateboard company, but stopped when my brother went back to university and Kathi started her clothing label as a spin off)
Other then that i like urban vinyl/designer toys, listen to ska, punk and hiphop (thanks to the Brandwagen project I met a lot of good people) or whatever music radio FM4 offers. I like travelling, with London, Berlin and Lisbon beeing the most often visited cities, guess I’m quite urban. I have a lot of punkish DIY activity inside me, but there’s a common thinking part of me, that will stop me from doing stupid things.
Ok, that’s it so far. More to come soon. Upcoming projects are an artist in residence program in our new HQ, I’m currently talking to some brands to get involved. That should start next summer, as soon as the miniramp is set up in our shed ;)
