Launch Party | Blast Skates
A little while ago London-based illustrator Matthew Bromley put his freelance illustration career on hold in favor of a nine-to-five design job. This regular salary has meant Bromley could fund his very own skate label, Blast Skates.“Being a skateboarder and an illustrator, I’ve always wanted to do skateboard graphics and artwork but my work didn’t fit the brands that I liked and there was no connection to make it possible,” Bromley tells CH about the birth of his new venture. “Roughly two years ago I thought, ‘I’m gonna do this myself!’ and drew up the logo, created the first stickers, then T-shirts and other bits before getting to work on the most important bit, a board,” he says.
Interview from LazyOaf.comBridging the gap between collectible art and the London skate community, independent label Blast Skates have one simple mission… to make you smile. We sent our Menswear Design Assistant Jake down to founder Matthew Bromley’s Brixton studio to discuss board graphics, pinata parties and favourite skate spots…So where did your ties with skate culture originate?I grew up in a small village, which was obviously really quiet and shit, so I was always looking to waste my energy elsewhere. I would mission from Bedford to London every weekend and kill two birds with one stone, dropping into exhibitions and independent shops in Carnaby Street. Lazy Oafwas definitely on that list. I’d spend all my weekend money on your reversible crew necks,some James Jarvis vinyl toys from Slam, then go skate around Stockwell.
What was the turning point that made you create the concept for Blast Skates …I guess when you really care about something, and you see cracks in your culture or community, you’re often thinking “how did that get made!?” yet people are still buying it, so you feel provoked to make a change. If people are still willing to pay forty to sixty quid for a decent board, just to serve a purpose, then maybe skaters will seriously value a board with considered graphics and shape. I just want to make something me and my friends are stoked on.
Do you have a specific aspiration or is the creative enjoyment itself enough motivation?Just to keep pushing! Nah seriously, I think just for people to notice Blast as an authentic independent brand. When I see someone picking up their first skateboard and it’s my design, or strangers in my T-shirts uploading Instagram videos from their local shitty skate park. They might think of Blast in the same vane I worshiped brands when I started out. It’s so important to keep that youthful mentality, like when you’ve got your first copy of Sidewalk magazine or Thrasher, and you’re hooked, its escapism.
How did the artist collaboration series come about?Well as a freelance illustrator I was meeting so many amazing imaginative people then looking at the current state of board graphics and thinking this is all bullshit! There’s so many talented young artists in London alone not to mention the rest of the world UK andYou guys throw some great events too right?Well nobody on this planet is born to be an events organizer or whatever, we learn as we go. So I was like, well I know I need a place, and loads of people to turn up. I wanted to exhibit the boards like an art exhibition, and do the collaborators the justice they deserve, but its pretty daunting! I spent so much time visiting galleries, but I was at Mile End skate park one day and gave some guy my stickers, turns out he owned Hoxton Gallery.https://vimeo.com/89869431