SELECTED BY
GEOFF MCFETRIDGE
STP & MOONEYES LOGOS
DESIGNER
UNKNOWN
Like anyone, my history is a history of both experiences and images. I find it hard to place a value on the things that have influenced me visually. Looking back, I see a muddy concoction of things from my youth, things from yesterday, and images passing by in a blur as if seen from a car window, all appearing with an apparent equal value.
Images always meant a lot to me. Visuals affected me; they made me feel good. I could glance at the Fantastic 5 on TV, close my eyes, and soak in the colors and lines. Tintin and Judge Dredd comics would ring in my head like church bells. My history is a visual history. Since I was a child, I dedicated myself to being affected by what I saw—it was my primary source of navigation, thus it is difficult to determine what thing affected me most. So my thoughts go back to some of the first things—maybe not the most important—that really affected me.
When I was around seven or eight, my father would take me to the stock car races. I was born in 1971, so this was the late ’70s. We were living in St. Albert, Alberta, Canada, a small town outside of Edmonton. The stock car races were of the “homespun” variety. There were a couple of main races, and a demolition derby. It was loud, dirty, and awesome. I remember the rough crowd, the haze of unmufflered exhaust, and rusty clunkers with their doors filled with concrete...and stickers, cars covered in stickers.
At home, my dad would draw a stock car in profile. I would then draw all the stickers, numbers, and logos on it. I loved drawing the numbers and the logos, but it was pretty hard, as I had to draw them quite small. Of course the best logos were STP and MoonEYES. Most cars would have STP drawn on them so many times that even NASCAR would cringe. MoonEYES was always carefully placed near the wheel wells at the bottom of the car.
Did VonDutch design the MoonEYES logo? I am not sure. But that logo made a real impression on me.
When I was older, I got into skateboarding, which in the ’80s was similar to stock car racing—bright colors and boards covered with stickers. From there I started making my own stickers, T-shirts, and logos.