JOHN VAN HAMERSVELD
John Van Hamersveld shot this image in Griffin's studio in early 1971. Griffin is holding a painting from his religious quest that began in the early '70s.
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From The Encyclopedia of Surfing by Matt Warshaw:
John Van Hamersveld was an illustrator and graphic designer from Los
Angeles, California, best known to surfers as the creator of the
Day-Glo poster for Bruce Brown's 1966 crossover hit movie The Endless
Summer. After Graduating from the Art Center College of Design in Los
Angeles in 1963, Van Hamersveld spent just over a year as the Surfer
magazine graphic designer. In the mid-'60s he made handbills for rock
acts like the Velvet Underground and the Who, then went on to design
album covers for the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Bonnie Raitt, and
Kiss, among others. In 2000, copies of a limited-edition
35th-anniversary run of the Endless Summer poster, signed by Brown and
Van Hamersveld, sold for $750 each. A lithographed copy of the
original orange-pink-and-yellow poster is in the New York Museum of
Modern Art's permanent collection.
Surf magazines to surf movie fame
In the Sixties, I was entering the world of Surfer Magazine. In
October 1962, I was 21 years old, and an abstract expressionist
painter, training in publication design. John Severson hired me to be
his assistant; Rick Griffin was my close artist friend.
In 1962, Rick Griffin was 17 and still going to Palos Verdes High
School. At the time I was living in the Hollywood Riviera Apartments,
just three blocks up from Torrance Beach, which was a meeting place
for surfers. At the time, I had left Art Center College of Design and
was working for Northrop in Aviation, in Hawthorne, in their
publication department.
Rick Griffin and I would meet at Torrance Beach to surf. He would tell me stories about working with John Severson on his Murphy Cartoon Strips for Surfer magazine. Rick would draw the cartoons and John would write the stories for him. As the weekends passed and I continued working at Northrop I decided that I could generate a surfing magazine out of my bedroom studio in the apartment and use the printer down the street to publish it. I told Rick I was going to start a surfing magazine (which was to be called Surfing Illustrated) and Rick said he would draw some cartoons for it as well.
Soon John Severson wanted to meet with me. Rick set up the phone call, and I talked to John briefly. He said, "I'll meet you at the Tahitian restaurant in Long Beach on PCH at 6:00." That was in July 1962. You would think this was a secret rendezvous of the artists and publication designers. We sat in the restaurant, talking about the surfing publication I had recently done. I had become experienced as a publication designer through my job at Northrop Aviation and the development of the look for Surfing Illustrated. Severson offered me the opportunity to work on his new Bi-monthly Surfer magazine. He wanted me to move to Dana Point.
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I talked to John briefly. He said, "I'll meet you at the Tahitian restaurant in Long Beach on PCH at 6:00." That was in July 1962. You would think this was a secret rendezvous of the artists and publication designers.
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Rick Griffin helped negotiate my worth with Severson, who felt he was eliminating competition in his market by hiring me. I went with the deal and built a position for myself by designing nine issues for him. Meeting everyone you wanted to know in the small surf industry, I saw how the surf trade was made up of characters that not only surfed, but were able to develop a business out of their relationship with their product and the ocean.
As Bruce Brown is quoted in the book, Stoked! "What became lifestyle later was just how we lived without giving it much thought. We knew we had to live by the ocean and needed to figure out a way to make a living there. Hobie made surfboards. Gordon Clark made foam blanks, John Severson started the Surfer magazine, and I started making movies."
While The Endless Summer poster was designed at the Art Center College of Design in the contemporary style of its time, the image grew out of my relationship with Rick Griffin and our deep relationship to Surf images. I still think if I hadn't ask Rick Griffin to make the phone call to John Severson in Dana Point I would have not met Bruce Brown.
The Rick Griffin show, "Heart and Torch: Rick Griffin's
Transcendence," opens June 24 at the Laguna Art Museum and runs until
Sept. 30, 2007. The show is comprised of 140 paintings, drawings,
posters, album covers and artifacts.
John Van Hamersveld opens a show at the Surf Gallery on August 11th in Laguna Beach.
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