No really. What the F kind of a name is “Krushervision?” And what does it have to do with pin-up cartoons?
I admit that it doesn’t make a ton of sense at first glance. Or maybe second or third, either. But here’s how it came about:
It started when I was a graphic designer from the late ’90s to early 20-aughts. “Krushervision” was just the title of my website, which itself was mostly a design portfolio. The name is actually a combination of a few things:
1) When I had a radio show in college, my air-name was “The Krusher.” I played metal and everybody hated my show. I stayed on for five semesters. It was fun.
2) One of my favorite hobbies is playing and collecting classic videogames. I had the names “Intellivision” and “Colecovision” in mind, and I thought of my website as a game system with interchangeable cartridges that represented pieces in my portfolio.
3) I’m also a huge fan of classic movies, and thought of the names the studios created for their widescreen photography and projection systems: Cinemascope, Cinerama, VistaVision, Panavision, etc.
…So it was kind of a no-brainer to mash together “Krushervision” and use it to name my website.
At first it was all designy-pants and shit. I wanted to be another David Carson or something. Unfortunately, I was spinning my wheels because there was no market for that type of work locally, and after applying for a few higher-profile design positions (that I totally coulda rocked) and not getting them (*cough*TheOnion*cough*), I dropped the design gig and started tattooing.
After the career change, I refocused on my drawing, painting, and digital art, and so did my website. I redesigned the site to reflect the new direction my work was taking. At this time, I was doing a lot more monster art along with my pin-up girls. In fact, the first art show I participated in in 2005 did not have a single one of my pinups in it: I showed three pieces, and they involved King Kong, Nosferatu, and the Bride of Frankenstein (but only her head!). Krushervision was still a perfect name for what I was doing — it sounded like a late-night monster movie show hosted by a mad scientist and his ghoulish sidekick (which, by the way, has always been a secret fantasy career of mine). My website was designed to look like an old movie lobby card, and I had a logo proudly stating that it was “Presented in the Miracle of KRUSH-O-SCOPE” (more classic movie-style hype!).
I started an online shop where I sold t-shirts and mugs and crap with my art on it, and “Krushervision” started to become a brand name, rather than just the title of my site. I was also designing and selling a line of videogame-themed merch, so the classic gaming connection still worked as well.
As I continued to find my niche, though, the pin-ups started to overtake the monsters; I was having more fun with them, and I realized they appealed to a wider audience. But I was rolling with the Krushervision name now, and people started to recognize it and associate my work with it. Besides, my website was settled nicely into the domain name of krushervision.com, and it wasn’t like anybody was gonna steal it.
So in 2009, when I decided to establish an LLC to protect my business, the obvious choice for a name was Krushervision. But the full name, Krushervision Art Industries, has yet another story behind it. I needed something that would represent all of my creative pursuits, which included tattoos, art commissions, merchandise production and sales, and future ambitions not directly related to drawing and painting, such as publishing, filmmaking, etc. I was inspired by my favorite anime, Mobile Police Patlabor (I’m not going to explain what it’s about here, just look it up), in which there is a mecha manufacturer called Shinohara Heavy Industries. Boom.
When you look at it that way, hopefully it’s clear why my business is called what it is. But if you weren’t there for the first 10 years, “Krushervision Art Industries” doesn’t exactly evoke images of cute, busty, leggy cartoon pin-ups, which has become my main output, aside from tattooing. I’ve considered changing the name, but…nah.
What do YOU think? Do you like the name? Do you associate it with quality creative products? Is it weird? Weird is okay with me, but is it TOO weird? Do you think it’s hurting my ability to get noticed? Is it cool now that you’ve read how it came about, or is it dumb?
…is anybody even reading this far? Well then for you, I’m just gonna put this here. It’s the last piece of the puzzle.
Krushervision Art Industries 