- Mark Vanco
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Mark Vanco
Mark Vanco (born October 13, 1968) is an American designer and artist in new media. He was an influential artist of the cyberpunk aesthetic and an early proponent of the transition towards digital lifestyle. He is the creator of Rotor Clothing.
Contents
Profile
An entertainment designer bridging the fringes of technology, art, fashion and videogames, Vanco has been both a forerunner in the promotion of social technologies and a creative voice for the popularization of the cyberpunk movement. He treats much of his work with technological themes and unconventional narratives. With a consistent nod to interactive pop culture, his particular vision has informed contemporary fashion and print design and foreshadowed a movement towards what he terms ‘designer entertainment.’
His noted moniker throughout a majority of his career has been "Rotor". The premise behind Rotor is relevant today in that it was a harbinger of the shift towards digital lifestyle – an early sign pointing towards the emergence of an all-digital society, game-space as super reality and the mass adoption of Asian creative styles and memes into the fabric of Western mainstream culture.
Vanco has recently been developing products that address the latent potential of online gaming services like Microsoft's Xbox Live and Sony's Playstation Home. He is exploring methods of combining online space and entertainment design in order to advance game content innovation and further push the mainstream appeal of interactive entertainment.
Biography
Mark Vanco was born in Columbus, Ohio, USA. His father was a designer and engineer who had been responsible for the development of a diverse array of breakthrough products between the 1940s and '60s, amongst which were pre-fabricated and solar-heated homes, plastic interlocking blocks and prosthetic limb designs for the U.S. military. Like his father, Vanco's desire to innovate as well as to inspire others has lead him on an ongoing search for balance between the development, creation and implementation of his creative vision. Some of Vanco's firsts are a blending of two disciplines like his ‘streetwearable’ computer design from 1996 as well as his early use of videogame themes in fashion.
Rotor
• Rotor, his clothing company and origin of his artist name, initially sold mail-order shirts and accessories via ads he placed in seminal technology culture magazines. He eventually went on to sell Rotor in many international, high-profile boutiques.
In 1991, Rotor Clothing ads started to appear in Mondo 2000 Magazine, a San Francisco cult publication and direct predecessor to WIRED. These ads featured Vanco's t-shirts inspired by a mix of cyberpunk and Japanese consumer culture.
• In 1994, Vanco moved to Chicago to work with Mike Saenz, the man behind the digital entertainment company Reactor and father of the first computer generated comic Shatter, the first interactive erotic PC games MacPlaymate and Virtual Valerie as well as the first CD-ROM computer game, Spaceship Warlock. Together they worked on the development of several early iterations of digital entertainment content including 3D films and ideas about what Vanco would eventually coin as "designer entertainment".
• Between 1996 and 1998, Rotor was based in downtown Los Angeles’ garment district on the border of Little Tokyo in the neighborhood of other popular street wear labels like Third Rail, Tribal and Twentyfive. The Rotor loft invited an interesting intersection of fashion, art and music. Various music acts held after parties and shows on the Rotor premises, including No Doubt (with singer Gwen Stefani) and the Icelandic electro pop band Gus Gus.
• In 1996 Vanco collaborated with California-based industrial designer Rob Bruce (known for his design of the Nike Triax watch) on a design for the first urban fashion wearable computer aka the Rotor "Streetwearable". Vanco consulted with designer/engineer Adam Oranchak on the processor and interface design (handheld, with a chorded keyboard and micro PC located on the user's upper back). Rotor's early wearable computer was a clear predecessor to what would later become a mainstream fashion establishment obsession with cyberculture, wearable technology and the "accessorization" of digital devices into everyone's wardrobe.
• In 1997, Rotor was named one of "10 to Watch" by ASR (Action Sports Retailer), the largest magazine, convention and business forum for the street, snow and surf clothing industries. Vanco was also invited to participate in various sponsored forums and chats to discuss his vision regarding the future of fashion and technology around the US and abroad.
• Rotor folded in 1998. At the time, due to both physical and financial limitations, Vanco leaves Rotor, allowing him to focus on larger ambitions in the entertainment industry. Popular cyberculture evangelism would eventually be taken up by the likes of the Wachowski brothers with the film The Matrix and digital lifestyle streetwear would be brought to the mainstream by brands like Analog, Nike and Oakley.
Rotor's influence
• Rotor advertisements and editorial coverage appeared on the pages of many national and international publications. These included the Los Angeles Times, Ray Gun, New York's Paper Magazine, Surface, URB, UHF as well as Interactif (France) and various Japanese street wear magazines.
• Rotor ads featured parody logos of gaming companies and franchises. Logos like Praystation, Nofriendo and Microshit were designed to be commentaries on videogame culture, technology tribalism, and a corporate controlled media universe that substitutes religion with brands. The logos would serve as an inspiration for many other artists including then up-and-coming media talent Joshua Davis who adopted the moniker Praystation. Rotor advertising graphics became the center of much attention in the fashion and new media scene at that time. Due to the brand's original visual style as well as it's foreshadowing of future trends, Rotor's themes resonated with a broad audience of consumers as well as members of the fashion and entertainment industries.
• Rotor was seen on CNN, The USA Network and a host of local TV stations. Rotor was profiled as a fusion company merging fashion and technology at a time when the web was in its infancy and the concept of ‘digital lifestyle’ was yet to be grabbed by the media at large. It has since become an extremely popular term, but Vanco openly used that exact language in the early and mid nineties to describe his Rotor brand. Because of its progressive design and attitude, Rotor was featured in a host of films, television advertisements and video clips.
• Rotor fashion was also seen in music videos and/or used as stage gear by popular music artists such as Front 242, Marilyn Manson, Rage Against the Machine, Front Line Assembly, Fear Factory, Chemlab and White Zombie.
Magazine & fashion design
• Throughout the 1990s, Vanco handled art direction for magazines like Mike Manix's seminal underground music publication Street Sounds (with the covers featuring breaking music acts like Wu Tang Clan and United Future Organization), and the renegade Los Angeles-based cyberpunk zine Nexus 6, electronic media vehicle for movie industry executive and filmmaker Brian McNelis know also for his 1999 rave culture documentary, Better Living Through Circuitry. Vanco also directed an exclusive, one off, mashup design for the famous Asian culture magazine Giant Robot for friend Eric Nakamura.
• In 1996 Vanco designed custom jackets and other apparel for the innovative electronic music label R&S Records in Gent, Belgium including custom garments seen on international deejays like Ken Iishi and CJ Bolland.
• In 1997, Vanco created the logo as well as stage and promo fashion for the Belgian industrial music prodigy Front 242. These designs are still used on merchandise and on tour material up until present day (2008).
Vanco has also worked occasionally as a brand design and new media integration consultant for the fashion industry.
Games & CG animation
• In 1998 Vanco art directed the PSOne videogame ‘Speed Tribes’ and produced a comic of the same name for game developer Nemicron headed by Mark Alamares and publisher THQ.
• In 1999-2000 Vanco made a brief move to Brussels, Belgium to act as producer and art director for the computer animation production firm Imagination in Motion (IIM). Vanco rebranded the European company as part of its entrance into the international marketplace. Subsequent to the rebrand, IIM attracted many global players in the entertainment industry. It was at IIM that Vanco worked with clients like clients like DreamWorks Entertainment, Disney and Coca Cola.
• Vanco launched the animation consultancy bureau N1digital in 2001. The bureau worked together with companies across northern Europe including Grid[disambiguation needed
] in Ghent, Belgium, and 583D in Frankfurt, Germany.• In 2001 Vanco developed a character-based, interactive strategy for Universal Music's Farmclub.com, a progressive television/web music program launched by Interscope Records' Jimmy Iovine and produced by Glenn Kaino. He produced and art directed custom CG animated characters and bumper animations for the show. The animation was created by the award-winning German CG production house 583D. Farmclub gained media and industry attention because of its unique profile as a combination website and cable television program. Farmclub brought Vanco's distinct technology fashion flavor to US national television as well as the web.
• In late 2002, Vanco brokered and produced the computer graphics translation of the global cleaning icon, Mr. Clean for Procter & Gamble Europe. The antiquated 2D version of the character was in need of a digital upgrade - and the client had high expectations for the worlds most recognized home cleaning character. After finalizing the production deal, a subsequent 9 territory European launch of the new 3D Mr. Clean was initiated. The 3D Mr. Clean character Vanco produced has subsequently been adopted for use in all of Proctor's domestic U.S. campaigns and has proven an overwhelming success with well over 100 international television spots created.
• In 2005, Vanco acted as Web 2.0 design consultant and brand advisor for the digital music giant Napster in Hollywood, California. He crafted a vision for Napster's broader entertainment objectives regarding the brand's mission to expand its profile in the music marketplace with original, digital lifestyle content and a more progressive design.
• In 2006, he art directed the satellite broadcast music video network International Music Feed aka IMF in Los Angeles, California. IMF was wholly owned by Universal Music Group and designed to promote and market both the label's American and international music talent. Vanco was responsible for a wholesale network rebranding effort as well as the IMF campaign ‘War on Analog.’
• At present, Vanco prepares the launch of his first ‘designer entertainment’ brand, aimed at a combination music industry and CG entertainment audience.
References
- Dendel, Joanna and Stolz, Mary Kay."The Outer Limits" L.A. Times, September 25, 1997
- Ramirez, Mike."Front 242 - Patrick Codenys interview" Last Sigh, May 1997
External links
Categories:- American designers
- Living people
- 1968 births
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