Gavin Strange: How He Rolls
After two years at design school in the U.K., Gavin Strange was flat-out bored. Not with classwork as one might expect, but with the typical student lifestyle. “It was more about the social life, about drinking and going out and I just didn’t fancy any of that,” he says. “I don’t drink, smoke, do drugs or any of that. I’m really quite boring,” he laughs. “I couldn’t wait to get out there and get involved in design.”
Gavin Strange.
Strange and Wonderful Graphics
Undaunted by his lack of a degree, Strange launched himself head-on into the highly competitive world of graphic design while his fellow students were still tossing back Guinness in pubs. Seven years later, at age 25, Strange has gained an international reputation as a cutting-edge young talent, with retail lines of skateboards, designer toys, clothing and other products, along with his mainstay business of web design and illustration.
Upstairs Downstairs
Bitten by the entrepreneurial bug after four years at a design agency, Strange launched his own business called JamFactory in 2003, moving it into a space above Casino, a popular Leicester skateboard shop. Casino turned out to deliver a jackpot — the shop hired him as its web designer, a special treat because skateboarding was a favorite pastime. Before long, Strange’s hobby and his love of design merged into a freewheeling venture he calls Xynthetic, which creates skateboard decks and videos in collaboration with other creative artists and skaters.
Strange considers JamFactory his independent brand and Xynthetic his collaborative brand. “I was very protective to start off with because I wanted it purely to be me,” he said. “I finally just loosened up a bit and thought, well, you know, it could benefit Xynthetic if there’s more than just me doing the design side of things. You know, it will give a different style and some influence.”
A Sticky Solution
Strange started by designing a line of skateboard decks, but needed an inexpensive way to create them. “I couldn’t afford printed boards because they had to be ordered in such large quantities,” he explains. “It wasn’t worth it. So I figured I could give them a go by hand-applying the graphics via templates and spraypaint. I’d do the design on the Mac, print off each separate layer, mask off each section, then build it up, repeating until the board was made.”
He continued hand-making boards one at a time until a California company called Pop Cling noticed his designs — and offered him a terrific solution that stuck. “Pop Cling prints huge vinyl artwork for you to stick on your walls. They approached me about doing skateboards with adhesive vinyl designs, so I did three for them that they sell on their website.” The process couldn’t be easier for Strange, who designs the boards using Adobe Illustrator CS3 and a Wacom Graphics tablet. When finished, he transmits the digital files to Pop Cling for printing, assembly, sales, and shipping to customers.
Strange has four new Pop Cling designs in the works called CMYK, featuring four different theme tiling patterns. “CMYK stands for the Cookie Mob Yardie Krew, my fictional gang who are all about biscuits & cookies,” says Strange. “And CMYK also happens to be the four print colors — Cyan, Magenta, Yellow & Black.”
Shooting the Skateboarders
After designing board graphics on his own and with other Xynthetic artists, Strange began pursuing another creative avenue — making skateboarding movies. This led to motion video projects involving a hand-picked selection of photographers, filmmakers, and talented skateboarders that joined Strange in the Xynthetic fold. “If we wanted to make a video, we couldn’t have myself, Steve, and Jamie skating,” he says. “We were okay, but, well, we just weren’t very good. We just did it for fun, whereas we wanted Xynthetic to be more serious.”
