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DDC

Aaron Draplin in his visionary posture: "So I have this idea..."

If you're one of those snowboarders who actually pays attention to this industry's many layers, chances are you've stumbled over the name Aaron Draplin. He's tough to miss: A big designer with big ideas (and, from time to time, a fair-sized mouth), Draplin, 35, has had his Portland-based paws on everything from Snowboard Magazine to graphics for Mervin to ads and layouts for Coal, Union and others. So, if you're the kind of person to notice the little things—as more and more industry heads do via his insightful and irreverent blog on www.draplin.com—this is one big Midwestern galoot you should pay attention to.

The DDC is known for working with some of the hipper independent brands in snowboarding. What are a few accounts you're especially proud of?

Snowboarding for me has always been one big experiment, a hashing-out of, like, "for us, by us." I really took that to heart so whatever the norm was back then—skiing—we invented our own little brand of it. And it wasn't theirs and it wasn't timed. It was fun and wasn't about medals and speed suits and sh*t.

So you fast forward into all these little brands and, of course, all my brands—Snowboard Mag; Union; Coal; even when I worked on Grenade—these were all brands who were pretty much told not to do it. There was no room for them but yet they went and made room for themselves... they actually started to take business away from other brands because they were more authentic.

[The brands I work for] are the little guys who nip at the heels of the bigger, "smarter" guys. And we might not be as efficient or whatever but it does come from the right source. And I can sleep at night knowing I get to work with these guys that aren't as polished. At the end of the day, it's up to us: the independents. Independence! We're getting away with it, you know? Right now we're hearing about people losing their jobs, it's out of their control... so it's up to us to control our little spot. If we f--k it up, we f--k it up...

DDC

Draplin is the man responsible for the art direction of Snowboard Mag.

Every journo in action sports uses your Field Notes to write their 1080s and team manager numbers in. Do you sponsor pros, too?

I don't think "sponsor" is the right word but, yeah, I just give 'em away [laughs]. We've sold enough at this point to have all of our costs covered and are up to 55 shops selling them, I think. That's amazing to me. But for everyone who would ever use one and dig it, yeah, I got a couple for 'em. I don't know if they're something the average shred is really gonna use, but Travis Rice has a few and he says he uses them... I've heard stories of [writer Jennifer] Sherowski out "fact finding" and people shouting, 'She has some! Can I get some?!' So Sherowski is on the pro team for sure.

Aside from collecting enough post-War industrial flotsam to crash eBay and being way too into your dachshund, Gary, what gets you out of bed in the morning?

Every morning I get up and I check my heart. [Ed. Told you he was a big guy.] It sounds like a bad joke or a bumper sticker, but it's like this: you got this day to make this...stuff. You got 10 hours, sometimes it's 16 and, at the end of every day, you've made something new. I keep a running list, too. My partner says a lot of it's just "landfill," this kind of creation, but, hey, hopefully it entertains somebody... I just like the idea of creating. I can't get down here quick enough in the mornings.

My new wake-up call is Wilderness. [NB they're too busy designing stuff to make a web site.] I already got out of my basement and into a real space with the DDC. Now it's six eyes instead of two: David Nakamoto—or "Naka-No-Dough" as I like to call him from his gambling skills—and John "Goo" Phemister. And what they're known for is John art directed Holden and did a lot of the ad campaigns and graphics and David's been responsible for the Holden websites among other things. We all worked together at Cinco on Nixon and Gravis. And I think we're gonna tear some shit up with Wilderness. Aren't you gonna to ask me some real general question like 'Where do you think snowboarding is headed' or some sh*t?

No.

Well, look at it this way: How much is a lift ticket? F--kin' 85 bucks or something? So I see it in backyards, okay? Before we could afford lift tickets we went to golf courses, anything with an incline. Those are my greatest memories, just pushing up a pile of snow and calling it 'a jump.' There was no f--king training—who gives a f--k about any of that? So where's it going? Hopefully somewhere where you don't even see it. Just guys with their buddies, having fun. Nobody's worrying about their time or, like, amplitude. I hope to make the gear to fuel that shit.

And, by the way: mom and dad, I love you. I'm coming back this spring!

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