John Van Hamersveld

The Endless Summer (John Van Hamersveld illustration)

In 1963, Van Hamersveld was hired by director and filmmaker Bruce Brown to design the iconic Endless Summer movie poster using a photograph taken by Bob Bagley, general manager and camera man for Bruce Brown Films. In the staged photograph originally taken at Salt Creek, Brown is positioned in the foreground with his surfboard on his head and the movie's two stars, Robert August and Mike Hynson, between Brown and the setting sun.[1] He had learned this technique at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena where he took night classes, graduating later that year. He converted the photo into an abstract design by reducing each color to a single tone and giving each image a single, hard edge.[6]

He designed an official poster and 360-foot-long mural for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games;[1] illustrations for Esquire, Rolling Stone, Billboard; and branding and logos for Fatburger, Contempo Casuals, and Broadway Deli.

In 1997 Van Hamersveld started his own line of products revisiting his work from 1964 to 1974, which he calls "Post-Future". With the printmaking of a fine art edition of the Endless Summer poster, he moved his design work into his Coolhous studio in Santa Monica and between analog and digital environments managed to create works such as the posters for the 2005 Cream reunion concert at the Royal Albert Hall.

In 2013 he celebrated 50 years in graphic design by producing a vinyl EP sleeve for Liverpool-based blues-rockers Sankofa, in addition to publishing the book John Van Hamersveld—Coolhaus Studio: 50 Years of Graphic Design. He continued that line of work in 2014 with two more artworks for records by Asher Roth and the Gaslight Anthem.

In April 2018 Van Hamersveld completed a mural on a storage tank near Grand Avenue in El Segundo, California. "El Segundo is where my career started, as a surfer and an artist," he told the Los Angeles Times.[7]

A Selection of John Van Hamersveld Album Covers He Designed

Among his album covers are:

• John Van Hamersveld Website
• Article --- "John Van Hamersveld" Swindle, Issue #05
• Article --- "John Van Hamersveld" on The Giant: The Definitive Obey Giant Site
• Press Release for recent show at Shepard Fairey's Gallery
• AnaheimOC.org Surfing Podcast
• the Rock And Roll Report "Making of the Cover for Exile on Main Street" Archived 2011-07-15 at the Wayback Machine
• Rolling Stones Exile On Main Street Blues (Photos and Images by John Van Hamersveld) on YouTube
• Hippie Nation on The VivaVision at Fremont Street Experience on YouTube