Behind the Graphic: Ephka on 09-10 Capita Snowboards

Behind each snowboard graphic is someone’s ideas. A graphic can be born from a long car ride with friends, a silly design they walk by, in a dream they have…the list goes on. Each year there are thousands of graphics created, around an image, idea, story. Behind the Graphic is a series of interviews that I’ll be collecting over time with various artists/designers from companies who have designed graphics.

Shay:  What snowboard is your artwork featured on?

Ephka:  For CAPiTA 09/10 I did 40 decks. The Green Machine, Black Death, Inc., Indoor Survival, Horrorscope FK, Space Metal Fantasy FK, Stairmaster, Saturnia, and the Late Release Super Special – ULTRAFEAR FK.

Shay:  Did you approach Capita with an idea or did they approach you with an idea for a graphic?

Ephka:  I’m pretty much given free reign. Since I’ve been working with CAPiTA for almost 10 years, there’s a lot of trust in the relationship and I have a good idea what is needed. The process is not clearly defined. Sometimes I come up with a bunch of ideas and we will talk about what might work where. Sometimes it’s a specific series and Blue will brief me on what type of image or general mood he wants to go for. Ie. For The Green Machine, he wanted an eco board that didn’t have cheesy hippy graphics on it.
Shay:  Describe yourself as an artist?

Ephka:  I think I draw a line between art and illustration. When I make art, I make it for myself. I don’t think about anyone else but myself. It’s masturbation. And if someone wants to buy a painting, that’s coo. Eventually I end up just giving it away to my friends.
With illustration, designing a board graphic, no matter how much freedom I get, it’s still WORK. Which doesn’t take away from it at all. Having rules, having boundaries, is another type of challenge and it’s a lot of fun. Without rules, any game would get tired really quickly. 

So… for a board graphic, it’s like custom building something for that specific problem.

As for handling other people’s art to use as board graphics, we make sure they know in advance that this is work. So we might have to tweak it here and there to make it right. We try to change as little as possible and most of the time we’re happy with the original anyway. But we make sure that the artist is stoked with the end result, if we can’t get 100% solid hi-5’s from the artist, we won’t go ahead.

Shay:  What was your inspiration for the graphics?

Ephka:  The inspiration is always PANIC.

Shay:  What are you working on now?

Ephka:  10/11!