Old Ghosts Designs was a veteran streetwear company founded in the late 1980’s by John Grigley, 80’s professional skateboarder (and artist) of Vision team fame, whom released his designs on t-shirts and stickers throughout the 90’s. The name ‘Old Ghost’ originated as a pro-model skateboard deck designed by John, followed by the Vision Guardian, and Vision Aggressor. There are a lot of articles and discussion from other sources that focus on the skateboard deck designs, and while I’m certainly a fan of those too, the focus of this post is to show Old Ghosts Designs art from scans of my collection of stickers.
I really dig the style of the Old Ghosts Designs. I think to fully appreciate this art, you have to recognize that this was before the age of Photoshop and computer graphic manipulation, so a complete image is really comprised of several stacked layers of graphics and text fonts – created the old school way. The lack of color and the stark black and white contrast (the exception being the Barbara Kruger ‘I Shop Therefore I Am’ parody) is also really cool, and I suppose partly due to the photocopy and/or photo negative technique. The theme of sex & drugs & rock & roll (Ian Dury) is also apparent. It’s pretty obvious that this style has gone on to inspire a lot of other street artists and designers over the years. John was way ahead of the pack of unconventional artists producing politically incorrect and bawdy designs, and he is truly a pioneer in the streetwear scene. Respect.
Shamelessly, this is the part of the post where I solicit pieces for my collection that I do not already have. So, if you have any unpeeled, original (not a reprint) stickers, print advertising from Old Ghosts that you do not see in the image slider below, and that you would be willing to part with, please direct message me on Twitter (@CPXART) and I’ll gladly pay a fair price. I am not a reseller. I am an avid collector of average financial means. Also, you can and should follow John Grigley on social media (Twitter: @johngrigley) / (Facebook: facebook.com/grigley) to see how he is spending his time these days.
– CPX
WARNING: Contains explicit content
Old Ghosts Designs
