Robin Nishio
An interview with the Toronto based graphic designer Robin Nishio, whose resume includes Mishka, Nike and Adidas.
by GABRIELLE SWAN
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I guess Robin Nishio is just a bud that takes what comes his way, and either passes on it or… That’s one of those questions that’s easy to come off sounding like a douche bag. It’s like a test, if you can ask somebody one question to get a bearing on their psyche, ask that question.
Sorry to do that to you!
No problem, I don’t know how to answer that one. I would like people to think of me as a nice guy who tries to help people out.
How did you get hooked up with Mishka?
My friend Dennis Chow, it’s actually his birthday today. He was friends with them. He met them a few years before they started Mishka. He met Mike (Mikhail from Mishka) on a message board, and they had similar interests and then Dennis started designing for them. Eventually they came down here with the guys from Reason and Mighty Healthy for a party, and we were all hanging out and Mike and me got to talking about comics, and I showed him some stuff. The first project they had me do was this flip on He-Man. They wanted me to mimic Tom Of Finland’s style, only with He-Man characters. Kind of exploiting the fact that He-man was homoerotic and you know, putting it into street-wear, which is such a homophobic industry in general. They thought that would be hilarious, and it went over okay. (Laughs). I think it went over really well. I mean I definitely think Mike’s idea pushed them to another level. I remember talking to them about it and they said that all their Japanese distributors and people in Japan and Asia, they were like you guys jumped a level in the industry because you were the first to do anything homoerotic in street wear. I thought it was hilarious when I was doing it. It worked out really good.
What do you feel was your first real break into the industry?
I think my first break was my friend Craig Metzger. He’s now the head of Element skateboards, head creative director, I guess him and this guy Augie Galan started this. Well I guess before Craig had this website called the Engine System, which I guess he still has. It was a forum for incoming or established artists to contribute to this zine that he put out called Day In and Day Out. Really talented artists used to submit pieces to it.
Was this before they were big?
It was kind of when they were coming out. I think most of them that have contributed to the magazine in the past are way bigger now; Joseph Hart and guys like that. Back in the day it was just an underground zine where everybody was kind of mutual friends and decided to contribute to an online zine, and he would post a new picture from somebody everyday. When he got to a hundred pictures or whatever he would publish it. I guess that was my first break because I was fresh out of school. You know, I want to be choosy and very critical of who I put my stuff out to, but not in a way where I wanted to keep it really exclusive, you know. I just wanted to know that who ever I gave my stuff to was you know, kind of a good guy. Not a crazy douche bag. Craig turned out to be one of the nicest guys I know up until this day. I think a lot of people owe that guy a piece of their success. Anyways, I think he’s kind of a truly selfless individual, which is really cool. From that I guess he liked my stuff, and he gave me a spot in Arkitip, he started Instant Winner skateboards, with Augie Galan, who was the head of production at Supreme at the time and they got me to do their first decks, and I’ve been with them ever since.
And I guess it took off?
Yeah, well I don’t know if I’ve taken off anywhere, I mean I don’t really think I have done anything significant. But you know, It’s weird to have other people think that.
How do you decide who to work with especially when it comes to such large corporations like Nike or Adidas?
I guess, first of all it has to have a budget. If I’m not getting paid to do it, I’m not going to do it. Right now a lot of those corporations that approach artists in general, if it’s not a cattle call, and it does end up working out. I think a lot of the times they can be very seductive with what they want from you, and what they are willing to give you. It’s like you might have an artist that is just out of school, who will do it just to get exposure. But I don’t really care about exposure, so I guess for me it simplifies my decision. You know having it be worth my time, and having a little bit of creative freedom with it. The Nike thing, I just collaborated with a friend on a custom shoe. But we got paid for it, and I get to put Nike on my resume. Even though it was just some one-off shoe for party. We got a cheque from Nike, and Nike did bio’s on us and everything. But I guess along with that I have kind of done concept work on LeBron James commercials.
It surprises me to hear you say that one of the deciding factors is getting paid. I mean these are such big corporations that you think they would be willing to pay you what ever because you are cool, and you are going to bring them that certain audience.
It’s weird. I guess a lot of the time they know the stigma that goes behind their company. They know what they are worth to an artist, whether they are getting paid or not. It’s like if you have Nike on your resume, it kind of brings you to another level of “oh that guy is cool”. You know, because they are a pretty cool company too, and they keep that way. It’s kind of a vicious circle, you know they are a cool company, and they get with cool artists and creatives and you know...it keeps them young. It’s weird that they don’t pay people a lot of money on some projects I guess, from what I have heard, but at the same time that is how they got rich. They don’t…
They don’t just hand out their money.
That’s right. (Laughs). I know though that they will put their money into select campaigns and into something big. But they do so much. They have their hands in everything. Right down to hockey. They bought Bauer a while ago, and I guess it just wasn’t working out for them, and they are selling Bauer again. They definitely have their hand in everything.
I feel like everyone needs to band together and say, “I need to be paid!”
Yeah, definitely. A lot of the time there are too many under-cutters out there who will do it (work for free) in a heart beat and it hurts everybody else. The world will always have people that do that. It’s always kind of a really hard thing because corporations have done a lot of great things for art and artists, but on the flip side they do a lot of shitty things as corporations as well. Sweatshops for example.
Does that kind of thing influence who you work with?
Yeah, definitely. But I think the whole issue is not as simple as you might think. It has a lot to do with moral ethics, I think. You know it’s like a lot of people want to work at the sweatshops because they are still paying more than some of the other factories. But is it morally right, and is it morally right on a global economic scale, obviously the answer is no. But at the same time it’s like a lot of the time people don’t buy art as much as corporations provide money for artists to do what they want to do. A lot of the time there really isn’t a clear answer on that for people. And I think the most important thing is to kind of not let that one get away, and always be creating a dialogue (at least) about corporations like that. You know if you just totally forget, then it keeps happening, and it’s kind of a drag.
Selling out is always a huge topic of discussion. What is selling out for you?
I guess selling out for me is just doing something that you disagree with. Doing something kind of willingly that you disagree with. And it hasn’t really happened yet for me personally. Sometimes there is a bit of a grey area with certain things, but for the most part I try to work with people who creatively haven’t asked me to you know… compromise I guess, with Adidas for example, they kind of let us go with it, and that is kind of rare, and kind of cool, and I was like glad that they let us go with it, and they didn’t say “you have to do a portrait of Adi Dassler”. They just asked us to pitch something that maybe had something to do with Adidas Originals, you know. (Laughs).
Do you ever feel like you have had to compromise the integrity of your work?
No, not really. I guess on the one hand I do a lot of creative things whether it be graphics for t-shirts or short films, I guess whatever comes up. But on the other hand I do a lot of concept work for films and commercials. I guess a lot of people may think of that as selling out, getting a corporate job, and it’s like you know I do commercials for Canadian Tire or something like that.
Well yeah, that’s just to pay your bills.
Well yeah exactly. You know, I guess the thing for me is that I picked storyboarding and concept work and stuff like that just because it's so far away from what I like to do and from what I normally do that I can whip it off and get paid a lot to do it. And I don’t have to give any of myself to that. Literally I whip sketches off. And apparently they are good enough to pass off as passable work or storyboards. (Laughs.) I guess in that way one may think that would be sort of a sell out kind of move but for me, it’s the furthest thing from it.
Personal style is one of those things that kind of creeps up on you. I feel like a lot of the time when you are starting out other people see your style even before you see it yourself. Was there a specific person who really pushed you to pursue your artist talent?
I don’t think so. I guess I have had different influences through out college and high school. I would definitely count my friends as being my biggest influences in what we are interested in at a certain point in time and you know we all share similar interests ultimately. Definitely that, and in general as long as you’re for the most part, taking influence or inspiration from the funny kind of weird things that happen in life, for me anyways puts me on the right track, as far as developing a style. It is funny you asked that because I guess a lot of the time as far as graphic T’s go, there are a lot of different styles throughout. I guess the one thing that is common with all of them is that I am kind of taking the piss at the situation. Which is kind of funny because on the one hand what I do personally are really detailed kinds of renderings of various images. But for the graphic T’s it’s pretty much taking the piss. It is important to me that things be well drawn or well executed, but I guess the one thing that they all have in common is that there is attention to detail. I pay more attention to the execution and the concept of it then anything. It’s kind of weird, in college I would really try to render projects out really well, the projects that I liked. I would get a docket sometimes that I didn’t like, and I would sit there making fun of it. I would be like, I should just do a steaming pile of shit, I should just wipe my ass with the illustration board and hand it to the teacher. And then I really started to make fun of things. I would sit there making fun of these dockets to myself, and then I thought, well what if I actually just drew these ideas. So I just started taking the piss at projects, taking kind of the humorous approach and it actually started to work out, which is kind of like a happy accident for me. It’s kind of funny to see that for the most part doing the graphic stuff, that is kind of the route that it’s taken. Well-executed piss taking.
Was there an artist you were inspired by as you were developing your style?
I guess my mother raised me on certain “alternative” for lack of a better word, comics. I guess like, Love And Rockets, and Eightball, The Bradlies, lots of Peter Bagge, a lot of Kitchen Sink and Fantagraphics stuff. And of course I liked the super hero stuff too. I used to get $1.36 allowance to go buy x-men at the corner store (because it was $1.25 plus tax) I guess, so various kinds of influences. I’ve always really liked them; I pick up comic books to this day.
How do you feel about all the movies that they are making based on these comic books?
Oh yeah, I think a lot of the times it’s hit and miss kind of thing. It’s such a cash cow for studios now. It’s like your super heros brought to life, it’s like cha-ching! (Laughs.) Who doesn’t want to see that.
You mentioned before that you are into doing films. Can you tell me a bit more about that.
I’ve done a couple of short films, I directed them.
Is this something you want to pursue in the future?
I think in the future, I guess first off I want to have a solo show of drawings and paintings. Which may or may not ever happen. I keep saying that I’m going to do it. I also like doing films because I’ve worked in film for a long time. I started off as a PA, and I guess just started doing storyboards and concept stuff after that. But it has always been something that has kind of interested me. As far as film goes it’s a combination of all mediums. It is very daunting, but fun and unpredictable.
So the films that you directed, did you write the scripts for them?
I wrote the scripts for them. They keep my style, but they are very dark. They are dark and comical I guess. I got them into ResFest, which I haven’t done in a while, but who knows.
What are your hopes for the future; is there anything you are set out to accomplish?
I don’t really set out with a real ultimate goal for myself. I think I am kind of living the dream now so it is kind of tough to say. I try to make that my everyday thing. Mostly I want to avoid disappointment, so that if I never do anything from this day on, I’m like yeah! That is what I set out to do. I want to find new places to eat, and have good times with friends. Have good stories for when I am old.
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