Evil Puppethead Products

In the winter of 1991, I attended my first Action Sport Retailer trade show in San Diego and I was introduced to the fashion business. It was an exciting time in the industry, the clothing was wild and the music was groundbreaking. And there was a lot of interest in small companies and independent designers. I saw young artists selling unconventional garments and funky printed t-shirts. I remember thinking: I wanna do this!

In 1992, I began my company Evil Puppethead Products. The starting point and the center piece of the line was the Evil Puppethead jug head hat.

The next step was to create a series of t-shirts.

My design concept tied evil and 666 into my images. The 666 print became my best selling design for the next 2 years.

Other designers were inserting their names into well known logos and pop culture references.

I though it would be fun to do a mash up with comic book covers and created a group of fictitous super heros and villians.

I also made prints of old style comic book ads: see through anything with 'x-ray specs and 'learn to hypnotize'. For the comic book line art, I utilized the talents of my friends: Chadd VanZanten, John Ewell and my brother Noel.

> I updated the Evil Comic book art in 2009 using Maya and Photoshop

Also as part of this line, I screen printed my 666 design on gas station overalls, and put an "Evil" name tag over the left pocket. The coveralls were a big hit!

 Evil Puppethead Products V.2

After the sucess of my first trade show I put a large portion of my profits into building up for the next one.

I was really happy with my trade show concept. My booth and pre-show print advertising were tied around the images of the liquid evil girl. The joke being, toxic waste wouldn't have a bad rap if it had an attractive spokesmodel.

> I updated the Liquid Evil Girl art in 2009 using Maya and Photoshop

My product line grew as I designed more styles of custom hats.

I'd done so well with the drug reference t-shirt designs—I kinda went for it and did even more...Evil puppethead labs, Evil puppethead medical, Evil puppethead drive-thru dental clinic, Evil Puppethead fast food.

 Kungfu Threads

My third year I went in a different direction and designed a brand new line. I used almost my entire production budget to make high quality samples and hire kick-ass artists for my designs: Will Pace and a young Meats Meir. I printed on ringer tees and althetic jerseys. I designed a jacket, a pair of jeans, record bag backpack and turntable slip covers.

My trade show booth was minimal, focusing my marketing money on advertising in industry magazines. My promotional swag included Kungfoo stickers and a big box of mixed tapes by my freind DJ Mechanized.

Evil Knievel super-dooper disco jacket
Cut from the pattern of a prisoners issue jacket. High contrast colors and star accents down the sleeves.

Concept and design by me

I had a blast while it lasted and learned lessons about business, marketing, and design I would carry into all of my future projects.