What inspires your art?
Kitties, Pizza, Music, Skateboarding, Science, Artists, Friends, Road Trips, The Bible, My Japanese half, My American half, cartoons, Tron, Star Wars, LOTR, Memories, Dreams, Nice Smells, Poems, Children’s stories and Jesus
Is there anything you do to prepare yourself to create a new design?
Sometimes I doodle doodlys… Sometimes I go get some coffee and come straight home to kick booty… sometimes I pump up the jamz really loud and run around doing jump kicks…
You are a big winner on Threadless. Why branch out and work with other
brands when you are so successful there?
New challenges and experiences are always good. Its just good to get out and about on the internets and in the world with your art whatever it may be. Kind of like “you don’t put a lamp under a bowl”. Threadless is a contest against tons of designers and is no way to really make a living as a free lance designer unless you have a gift for impressing the demographic which is very picky. (absolutely not guaranteed any monies for student loans).Working for Thriving Ink has been great since you guys are really invested in supporting the artists you have on board. The exposure has been nice and I’ve been able to have all kinds of art made by working with other brands which I couldn’t have done on my own.
How is the art scene in Virginia?
Its growing. At least here in SWVA. The new art museum just opened and its pretty neato burrito. I’m just hoping sometime soon we can get the parks and rec people to understand the benefit of allowing the skatepark to be a place for public art/ graffiti. I’m hoping for more evolution of what is perceived as art here in the what I think are the boarder lands of the official South.
What is with all the cats??
I lub da kitties! We have two.. and I want another one… I hope you can print one with our kitty Ninja on it! 
Last time I saw you, we played Guitar Hero. Have you improved at all since
then?
ha, I’m pretty sure I still stink even on medium! I swear its a lot easier to play a real guitar…
You work a lot with different bands, tell us about that process. Do band
members have a say on what goes on the shirts that our sold to their fans?
Well for me its rare to talk directly with the band, and I usually get art direction through a merch company that talks to the band members or a band manager. So I might get an email with a list of themes, interests, colors, artists the band likes, or a do’s and don’ts kind of thing to start off. I usually get on myspace or pandora to listen to the music and get a feel for what the band is about then ideas kind of start popping around and I write them down or sketch little thumbnail size versions of the idea. When I get going in the sketch book or just straight on the computer I try and keep the ideas near by so I can just plug away… but usually I get semi distracted or find new visual paths just from messing around a little in photoshop or illustrator and browsing images/art in my library or the internet. This “distraction” can actually lead to some really great unplanned surprises when keeping in mind the Bands tastes etc. So I guess it can be pretty organic and when on a role I can pump out multiple designs or at least good partially finished designs and a nice set of little bits and pieces. Its great working on band tees because it can give me some focus. One of the companies will print the designs on paper and will have a meeting with the bands if they are in town and the band will make decisions right there on what they like and don’t like. The bands Underøath and Carolina Liar have purchased the most for sure and they both had these meetings… I found out that one of the Underøath band members even wanted a tattoo of this really goofy design I did but I’m not sure if he did or not. That would be extra awesome.
The only band I’ve been in contact personally and am a big fan of is “Between the Buried and Me”. They don’t have a band manager and they take pride in having control of everything even while they are touring the world! It was nice to work with them because it was so direct and payment was immediate with magical internet land monies. I’ve been really lucky to work for bands that I actually like… or grew to like.
Your band merch shirts are so unlike any band shirts I ever got at a
concert! What makes your art compatible with bands?
I’m glad you likes them! I don’t know. Maybe I like a lot of different music? or I really just have fun making these shirts. I don’t really have a personal style that is too too specific and can kind of accommodate multiple genres of music and culture? I know for sure that I’ve always been intrigued by band tees, my favorite one being this funky turquoise Beck shirt from the Midnight Vultures tour. I think I’ve surrounded myself with this stuff throughout my life and it can kinda just click. Like when I was young I loved bmx trail riding and that connected me to ska/punk/hardcore then and then skateboarding which has its own world of art and spirit that is connected back to music. I’ve played instruments and developed an appreciation for music and art should naturally fit. My favorite music comes with energy, excitement, power, creativity, good lyrics, and these are the bands I’ve been able to be working for. I had the hardest time doing something for this new Grateful Dead Live Egypt album release though because they are freakin’ legends. That was intimidating. But I’ve found just having fun and playing with the art, having a deadline, and trusting myself has been the best in designing for bands and just producing art in general.
You have a ton of completely insane skateboard deck designs. How is
designing for a skateboard different than a t-shirt?
The biggest difference is the shape of a deck is much narrower so the composition/balance is different as well as you have to consider the placement of the trucks… With computer print out heat transfers you don’t have to worry about color limitations but the quality is lacking I think… Screen printing to sheets and then transferring seems to produce much better results I believe with brighter color options too…
SIREN skateboards will be coming out with a design I did for one of their pro’s Anthony Carney. Its gonna be siiiick!
Will you be designing for Thriving Ink in the future?
I hope for a long time please!
How do you like working with Thriving Ink?
You guys are Awesome! Super fun timeS! Like I said above very supportive and really invest in your artists. Great!
What is next for Ken Marshall??
Emailing this interview, getting ready for Thanksgiving with the family in Erie, PA, and wondering whats next myself!
Favorite:
Drink? Texas Margarita (from El Rodeo)/ Coffee/ Tea
TV Show? The Office/ Lost / Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job!/ Nature shows
Book? The Bible / Wheres Waldo?
Website? thrivingink.com / ffffound.com
Person in History? Jesus
Place? Home / Anywhere warm by a wavy sea
Food? Shabu Shabu
