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RON CAMERON | MANUAL FOR CHANGE ARTIST SERIES
February 02,2021
BIO
Ron Cameron has been primarily known internationally as an innovative skateboarder, artist and designer within the skateboarding culture since the mid-1980s. Ron has applied his creativity to skateboard art, deck and wheel design, skateboard ramp and obstacle design, clothing and shoe design, wall murals, painting, cartooning, acting, video direction, filming and editing, record cover design, live DJ, radio disc jockey, music, writing, ad campaigns, magazine layout, food packaging, marketing, brand ID, and much more.
Ron started working professionally in the commercial art field at 16 years old for food marketing agencies (Park Smith Marketing and Timothy Buckles Design Group), both in downtown Sacramento, California. By the late 1980s, he also worked at a local skateboard company called Blockhead (which Ron was first sponsored by in 1985), he was able to develop his own unique design style by combining 1960s psychedelic poster art, early 1980s graffiti, gritty punk rock xerox zine graphics, underground music vibes, the emerging street skateboarding culture, and his own uncommon ideas and special vision.
Ron has done layout, graphic design, illustration and packaging for companies inside and outside of skateboarding such as: Marie's Dressings, Nature's Warehouse, Zacky Farms Chicken, R.H. Phillips Winery, TransWorld Skateboarding magazine, Big Brother magazine, Warped Tour, Warp magazine, ESPN X-Games, Heckler magazine, RVCA clothing, Ernie Ball guitar strings; and bands such as: The Mummies, Big Drill Car, and Buck-O-Nine. Within the skateboarding world, Ron has done board graphics and shapes, concave molds, wheel graphics and shapes, ads, t-shirt art, packaging, trade show booths, and wall murals for companies such as Blockhead, H-Street, Vision, Sector 3, Acme, Formula One, Strike, Channel One, World Industries, Blind, Grape Netwerk, Toy Machine, Foundation, 510 Wood, G&S, True Love, Krooked, and Real. Ron has designed clothing, textile prints, shoes, hats, and other accessories for companies such as Skate Rags, Airwalk, Acme Built, Vans, etnies, RVCA, Circa, and Nike SB. Ron’s art and design has been featured in such international magazines as Thrasher, TransWorld Skateboarding, Poweredge, Big Brother, Warp, Heckler, TransWorld Snowboarding, Communication Arts; and the books: Typographics Three - Global Vision, Disposable - A History Of Skateboard Art.
Out of the hundreds (and maybe thousands) of designs, graphics, illustrations, and logos that Ron has released to the world over the past 30 years, the two that he is most likely recognized for is the Nothing Is Cool graphic that adorned the top of his Blockhead Skateboards model in 1988, and the logo for RVCA (pronounced RUCA) Clothing (a brand which he was one of the three founders of) in 1999.
Currently Ron has been focusing on a variety of creative projects. The first, The Way Out, is a music-related project based on his enormous music collection of vinyl records and CDs which Ron has been amassing since he was a teenager, spending the majority of his spare cash on used records that helped influence his extremely original art style. He has been performing this live as a DJ since 2011, and is developing it into a weekly radio show concept, and of course it includes a small t-shirt line featuring Ron’s designs. He is also designing future-forward and retro-historic skateboard related designs under the brand names Tragic Skates and Ron Cameron Designs. Moving from graphic design to fine art is also on his horizon.
Instagram - @the_ron_cameron
INSPIRATION
The issue Ron Cameron chose for the 2021 DC Shoes ‘Artwork For Change’ is a single word: “EQUALIZE.” That one word has been part of Ron’s life for many years, as he has worked to promote a more positive future for all.
Ron feels that “EQUALIZE” is a cleverly camouflaged replacement for the word “UNITE,” and can be used by all of the underground, alternative, and counter cultures out there. It promotes positive action and makes an optimistic statement for folks to “wear on their sleeve” or boast proudly across their chest!
He encourages people everywhere to simply become more aware of and join others who promote and cry out for UNITY versus individuals and groups who negatively call for DIVISION. Ron’s choice for a sane, healthy, and creative world is pretty straightforward; and this word and lettering helps to quickly communicate that message.
THE BACK-STORIES
In the mid-80s, Ron was riding for Blockhead Skateboards and helped create a newer “look” for them. He was designing ads, t-shirt art, board graphics, and logos. At the time, he was creating these designs on his tiny drafting table in his bedroom and on the living room coffee table in his mom’s apartment in Sacramento, California. As he looked for music to listen to while doing his artwork, Ron sort of re-discovered the band The Clash, but instead of the very punk sounding first album that he gravitated to in the early 80s; he was now drawn their very experimental triple-LP fourth album from 1980, Sandinista. On that album, the song called “The Equaliser” led to Ron’s “EQUALIZE.”
Ron first hand-lettered the word “EQUALIZE” for his 2009 NikeSB Collection, front, and center, on one of the t-shirt designs.
During 1986-1989, Sandinista became one of his go-to albums because of the weird experimental dub reggae hip-hop tracks tucked away all over the place within the three LPs. The “we’ve got to equalize…” lyric echoed in his head then and through the decades, leading to 2020 when the full song lyrics seem to be custom written for these times - again! The “the balance of opposites” slogan that Ron came up with for RVCA Clothing back in 2000 was very similar, further proof of this life-long echo chamber inside his head. While he was a resident DJ at ‘BAR’ in downtown Palm Springs in 2013, Ron created a large wall mural using the “EQUALIZE” lettering.
The main toe area on these painted shoes features Ron’s “Eyes” pattern. This pattern was originally a sketch from one of Ron’s many notebooks back in 1990, the last year he was part of the Blockhead project. He cleaned it up and finally used it for his 2009 NikeSB Collection because he thought it completely summed up his “look” created for Blockhead; Ron is known for eyes and drawing characters with thought-provoking eyes. Ron again re-vamped the “Eyes” pattern for his DJ and radio disc jockey project that he launched in 2011 called “The Way Out,” using it as a backdrop for the banners and ads. To Ron, these eyes looking in all directions hint towards many things, including always being on the lookout for the unknown, always looking out for all “underdogs” out there, endlessly seeking out the truth, and keeping an open mind towards everything around you (including the entire cosmos).
The final graphic element on these shoes is two different colored heads looking towards each other, (maybe even vibing a bit). Ron initially used these heads for one of his many unreleased projects or brands; this one specifically from 2007 called ‘Brain Fight,’ which was to be a whimsical, ironic, and very irreverent social-political t-shirt line. This image also reeks of 2020. The world desperately needs people from all mindsets and ideologies to work together, no matter what they think their differences are.
Now it’s up to you to go out and EQUALIZE!
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