Ted Cocuzza, an artist based in Santa Cruz, has spent the last eight years leaving his mark on some of the most significant brands in skateboarding through his graphic design work. Not only does Ted have an instinctive skill when it comes to creativity, but he’s been able to put this towards working in an industry he’s passionate about. He is the ultimate example of doing what you love, and making it a career.

After discovering Ted’s art on Instagram, we were instantly drawn into his work. We loved that to him, skateboarding is a viable platform for art and artists. Once we connected with Ted for some graphics, we thought it would only be right to pick his brain about skateboarding and learn about his experience with art.

Ted's Background In Art 

Ted has been drawing since the day he could pick up a pencil. He kept this up throughout his life and eventually went to the University of the Arts where he got an Illustration Degree. As he graduated college, he realized there was a way higher demand for graphic design. As much as he loved illustration, he decided to take a community college course in graphic design.

“Although I had learned a lot in college, I wanted some more basic knowledge of graphic design, so I just took what I learned in college and applied it to this community college course and then did some internships and learned a lot through there. Over the years I learned a lot about design through working at different places.”

Now, he works for NHS inc. – A company that makes skateboards and trucks for some of the most important brands in skateboarding (Santa Cruz Skateboards, Creature Skateboards, Independent Trucks, and many more). He currently works on four of the eight brands at NHS, including Mob Grip, Krux Trucks, OJ Wheels, and Creature Skateboards.

Combining Skateboarding With Art

When Ted was around the age of 10 or 11 years old, he picked up skating. This was around the same time that Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater game came out. “One of my friends was like, ‘Dude you should get a skateboard, this is fun.’ And I was like, ‘All right I’ll try it out.’ When I was a kid I realized that skateboarding was not as easy as it is in Pro Skater but I’m glad I stuck with it all these years. It’s probably been 21 years since I started.”

Once he entered the sixth grade, Ted was constantly doodling all his favorite skate logos and graphics, and even came up with his own graphics that could hypothetically be used for skateboard companies. Ted says, “Obviously I was just drawing this with colored pencils and leaving it in my binders, not actually sending it to companies at that age. I was like ‘that's so cool.’” But, clearly this sparked something inside him. A couple years later, he realized that someone had to be creating these graphics and designing these catalogs. After college, he started looking for jobs in the skate industry, and went from there.

His process when creating art, all starts from “doodling random stuff.” He usually hopes on Pinterest to find some inspiration, and often gets sucked into the rabbit holes. Typical Pinterest pictures that spark his ideas are anything from skateboard, movie posters, gig posters, or photography. From here, he just starts sketching and sees where his brain takes him.

Finding The Similarities Between Art and Skating

Even though skateboarding is a lot different than drawing at a desk, they are still both considered creative activities. Ted says, “you still have to use the creative side of your brain to figure out what tricks work for different spots or different obstacles. Skateboarding is a problem-solving process much like doing a drawing or writing a song, except it’s a physical activity.”

There are major cross overs in art and skateboarding, and that’s because they’re both creative outlets. Considering this, it makes sense how he was able to not only fall in love with both hobbies, but gain inspiration from skating for his art.

Get To Know Ted

Aside from his professional career, we wanted to know a little more about him. What is he listening to? What is he eating? Here are some rapid-fire questions we asked, followed by his answers.

Do you have a favorite band at the moment?

"I have so many favorite bands. Actually tomorrow I’m going to San Francisco to see the Screaming Females with the Menzingers. They’re only playing an hour and a half from me so I have to check that out. I’m into punk and indie punk kind of stuff. If I had to choose my top 5 favorite bands I’d go with Gaslight Anthem, Bouncing Souls, the Misfits, Bruce Springsteen (obviously, being from Jersey) and what could I put as the fifth one… This is one of those questions where you’re never really thinking about it.. Let's just throw Blink 182 in there. I’m really into Pop Punk too, I’ll just go out there and admit it."

Would you like to shout out your favorite place to eat in Santa Cruz?

"Shung Feng. I eat there every friday, it’s the Chinese place down the street from me."

Do you have a standing order?

"The combination dinner D1. It comes with chicken lo mein, some veggie fried rice, some sweet and sour chicken and a little serving of hot and sour soup and two fried wontons, so you get a lot of bang for your buck."

What’s your weapon of choice when it comes to drawing?

"When I’m in the sketching process I’ll just start with a #2 pencil in my sketchbook. I used to be really into sharpies and microns and brush pens, but nowadays with the wonderful technology of the iPad it’s all in there. It really streamlines the process. I still love drawing on paper but if you have deadlines and you just need to do an illustration in a crunch the iPad really speeds up the process. It’s another creative tool."

What’s the inspiration between the “art and skateboarding” graphic?

"I’ve been doing a little drawing like that every Thanksgiving for the past ten years now. I was probably in my early 20s and on Thanksgiving I had nothing to do one time so I said 'I’ll do a little art and skateboarding drawing' and it became a fun little project for myself to do every Thanksgiving. Now every Thanksgiving in my head I’m like 'I have to do that drawing' and it’s like a deadline I give myself even though I know I don’t have to do one."

Is there anything you’d like to shout out or finish with?

"Shoutout to all my friends and family and everyone that I think is awesome."

Cheers to Ted!!