Surf Shacks 093
Newport Beach has always been my favorite place in the world to come back to. Growing up outside Detroit, Michigan, and surfing the Great Lakes as a kid, I was drawn to the waves, the scene, and the salty attitude of Newport while on a school trip. The spirit of Echo Beach was turning Indie, and some mad style was found from RJ’s to the Wedge and obviously at Blackies too. I’m challenged with the cultural friction between old school nautical/surf town and the uber-wealthy estates, which creates an interesting high/low tension that is very inspiring for me. My wife and I were constantly driving our groms down from Costa Mesa to surf, and finally decided to just sell everything, move to the beach, and raise our boys on the sand. We found an old beach cottage on Balboa Peninsula built in 1924 that we thought we could make work. Most saw this house as a tear-down, but we saw it as a tidy home—965 sq. feet— to raise two boys and our dog.
Newport has been my home base for over 30 years, but I’ve been able to travel for work all over the world. I learned early on from a friend that you travel for two reasons: growth or comfort. I immediately challenged myself to take the off-roads and back alleys on trips to really get to know a city, town, or village’s culture. I wit- nessed the passion people have for their environments and how they pour their souls into their dwellings. Whether it is in a favela in Rio, a mud hut in Oaxaca or a modest cement structure in Tahiti, people surround themselves with the things they love.
My sand collection started when I wanted to share stories about the waves and environments in the places I was traveling to. The small grains of sand are so de- fining to the local topography on land and in the water. The refinement is telling as to how the waves break and the bottom that affects it. Reef, rock, beach break, point break, et cetera. You would think they are all similar except for color, until you put them into clear glass jars and their differences become very clear. The sand from Pichilemu, Chile, is definitely a standout for me.
So I’ve always had a love affair with art and making stuff, even as a young kid. Because I was living in De- troit, I wasn’t just drawing the dreamy waves from Lake Michigan on my folders, but I was drawing fictitous surf ads with color pencils. I was one of a very few that was subscribing to Surfer Magazine in Michigan, longing to surf and make art in California. Fast-forward to 2000 and I finally landed a gig at Quiksilver in its creative department. I was tasked with creating art packs with a team that sparked the seasonal direction that then inspired and directed product, marketing, photography, and retail directions. The opportunity to travel the world and observe youth beach culture, through an ur- ban and Earth filter, then run it through Quiksilver’s lens set, was priceless. I really found my stride in having the ability to visually define a brand, with such a rich surf/ artistic history, and making it appropriate and relevant to the current youth market.
So “slightly choppy” was just a saying I used to use in my paintings. I always had an element of typography in my art and this one kept rising to the surface. Over the years the term has defined my appreciation for all things human and imperfect, including my craft, typography, and art process, where things are off just a bit. The flags have become a perfect combination of my passions for painting, hand-painted signage, and worn- down fabrics that I can experiment with. The process of making these flags creates a uniqueness from one to the other.
I’ve always had a hard time throwing things away, especially scraps of paper goods, fabric, and other discarded materials. I’ve been a collager of objects, drawings, photos, whatever—always cutting stuff up and putting things back together. As a kid, I took a sewing class that made an impression on me, so I knew how to cut and sew. Surrounded by my piles I’d been gathering, I just stitched together a flag based on a vintage sailing burgee. I had no grand plan, but just crafted something that felt right and had a painter’s quality to it. My aim is to have every flag look like it’s been found and been around since the early days of surf culture.
Discover more creative surfers’ homes in our books; Surf Shacks® Vol. 1, and Vol. 2 available now!
A goofy-footed graphic designer who hails from the first state, Delaware. After attending Flagler College in St. Augustine, FL then graduating from SCAD in Savannah, GA with a BFA in Graphic Design and Illustration, Matt moved to NYC and found work as a freelance designer and art director. In 2006 he moved west to Venice, CA where he co-founded ITAL/C Studio and now resides a bit further north in Oxnard.
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