The 37-year-old album designer (Jay Z, Childish Gambino) turned fashion darling (his paintings appeared in Hedi Slimane‘s fall 2013 Saint Laurent campaign) just finished art directing the spring 2015 look book for Levi’s Made & Crafted line.
What do you like about fashion?
I admire the experimentation and inventiveness. Fashion pushes people to see things in a new way, like music.
What inspired the Levi’s images?
I set out to illustrate the connection between Southern California’s sprawling topography and Los Angeles’ street art. Basically, one person’s tag or painting is often covered up by another person’s promotional poster or Post No Bills warning, and over time, they create a collage.
Any new music projects?
I just did the art for Steve Aoki‘s new record, Neon Future, which comes out Sept. 30. We played in hardcore bands together back in college at CalArts. I remember when Steve called me years ago because some bar asked him to DJ and he needed to borrow my records. I told him yes, but he had to put them all back in the right sleeves and make sure nobody spilled anything on them.