Thwack Life Sugar Skull Origin Story

The Thwack Life Sugar Skull Evolution

If we want to really get to the beginning of the journey to what has become the Thwack Life Sugar Skull, we need to go back more than 50 years. When I was two years old, I started school, which was pretty unusual at the time. I spent two years in what was then a newer concept, pre-school. It was only half days, but it was very structured towards actual education and not just “babysitting.” It seems that may have jump started me in some of the things I did, because before I could read or write, I would tell my mother stories that she would put down on paper and I would then draw the illustrations that went with them, which we would fashion into books with Elmer’s Glue, construction paper and brass fasteners. This work was eventually seen by someone (I think a teacher) who presented it to the Everson Museum of Art who bestowed me with a scholarship to an immersive arts program for gifted children at said museum during the summer break after I attended kindergarten. 

From there I won a contest to design the cover of the Christmas Newsletter for the division of AT&T that my father worked for when I was seven years old. My father was frequently drawing or doodling and would always want me to do it with him. He would teach me to draw the things he was drawing and both of my parents would encourage my creative ventures. 

There were always classes and projects, and just times of random self expression. In middle and high school, as I think many boys do, I became more interested in the darker subjects like monsters, dragons, super heroes, war, and definitely skulls. 

My first t-shirt creation was at 16 years old. My father, my cousin and I hunted together and we all used Remington shotguns, so we took to referring to ourselves as Team Remington. I had no knowledge of screen printing or anything of that sort, and funds and resources were limited, but I wanted to create something that showed our camaraderie. I got a 3-pack of white t-shirts which used to come folded over that thin white apparel cardboard. Removing that cardboard from the pack, I laid it out on the garage floor. Tearing a Remington ad from Field and Stream magazine, I taped the part of that ad with the Remington logo onto the white cardboard and with an Exacto knife I traced out the letters in the Remington logo, cutting a template into the white cardboard. I centered that template on one of the t-shirts and grabbed a green spray paint can I found in the garage and in a few quick squirts, that shirt said Remington. For the word “Team” I used some brass letter stencils we had laying around and taped them above that logo. A few quick squirts of that paint can later, we had the finished product. From then on, I experimented with various ways to create and design custom clothing items which continues to this day.

High school was filled with art and photography and I had won some awards and developed a decent portfolio. As a senior I was looking at an opportunity to attend Syracuse University for Art and Photography on scholarship, but my father who had nurtured these pursuits when I was younger said he couldn’t support that pursuit as a profession and was insistent that I get an eduction in something more practical like engineering or drafting. These were pre-computer days. We argued back and forth about this for nearly a month before I finally gave in and decided to attend a junior college with a great program in Advertising Design and Production. My best friend and another friend from my art classes were both going to be attending that school as well, so it seemed to be the best idea. 

Me being me, I was disgruntled with that decision and after two years in school, I dropped out and eventually ended up joining the Army. After the Army I had a short stint driving for UPS, there was always construction, working for a rental company, and finally more than a decade in the staffing and recruiting industry. All the while, pining for the creative life I craved. Finally, at forty years old, in 2007 I decided it was a now or never moment and jumped at the opportunity to become a freelance photographer and a graphic designer on the side. I started Valentino Unlimited and developed a strong reputation in the market I was in by always going above and beyond what was asked of me and what others were willing to do. In 2016 there was going to be a good sized Dia De Los Muertos (Day of the Dead) celebration in an area of downtown that was full of shops and galleries that I was covering and I wanted to have something unique to wear as part of that celebration.

I have always loved the asthetics of bones, and of skulls in particular and they have been parts of many of my designs throughtout my life, so of course, I wanted to create my own sugar skull for this occasion. Unfortunately, my Adobe Illustrator skills were not sufficient enought to create one from scratch without some assistance, so I found a tutorial on how to draw just such an item.

Of course, I didn’t just blindly follow the tutorial, but made many tweaks and changes in many of the design elements along the way. When the tutorial was completed, I went back and recreated the entire design using what I had learned mixed with my own aesthetics and the original Valentino Unlimited Día De Los Muertos Sugar Skull design was created.

Over the years I have changed various aspects of that design for different reasons, and I had set it aside for a while. But when Thwack Life started becoming a growing thing, I decided that this would be a cool design to add to some of the merch and added archery related elements to it, so that it made sense. The skull is mine. The adaptations are mine. I conceptualized, designed and evolved the logo. The target graphics I built from scratch. The arrows are photos of arrows I built which I then turned into graphics. All those pieces assembled, make it what you see today. So, essentially, it’s a short story with a long background.

There are multiple slightly different versions out there right now, and the ones that are my favorite have the phrase, "I didn't choose the Thwack Life. The Thwack Life Chose me." That statement can be attributed to a post from Mathias VanDriekoffie on the Thwack Life website early on.

Stay tuned, because there are many more designs to come…