Mark Jardine

Back in high school I tried to sketch every day. I had my heart set on becoming an illustrator. As I went through my first few years of college taking art classes here and there, I felt like my drawing skills were progressing too slowly and I was worried that I would not be able to get a job as an illustrator (or make a decent enough of a living doing so). So I pivoted to graphic design—something that I thought would at least guarantee me a job and would allow me to be creative. I’ve been designing for over 20 years across many disciplines now and I decided I want to become a better illustrator again.

Some might wonder why someone who doesn’t look Japanese nor have a Japanese name is creating work/apparel that is Japanese-inspired. I am not Japanese, but I lived in Japan as a kid. My younger brother was born in Japan. I have cousins who went to school and live in Japan. My Korean grandmother was one of the first women to attend Tokyo University. She was fluent in Japanese. My art and design has always been influenced by Japanese pop culture because of my upbringing and inspirations.

I love Korea, but Korea has never really loved me back. Being mixed race has probably been one of the toughest things I’ve had to deal with in my life, and for better or for worse, has shaped my personality and who I am.

Stickers are beloved by almost everyone, especially designers. It’s such a great feeling to see your designs beautifully printed and stuck on objects that you use everyday. But quality stickers can get expensive, you have to wait weeks to get them, and there’s always a chance that they didn’t come out quite as expected. I’ve spent a lot of time finding the right tools, paper, and procedures to make my own die-cut, waterproof stickers that’s 90% as good as what the professional sticker printers make, and I’m going to share it here.

It’s been almost 2 decades since I’ve had a full on website. I once had a site built on ExpressionEngine, but I was never good at long form writing and when Twitter launched, I was hooked. My website slowly became a relic and eventually I turned it into a single-page “bio”.