Made In Santa Cruz logo

Jim Phillips

The "Screaming Hand", designed by Jim Phillips Sr. in 1973, is the main logo of the Santa Cruz brand. A detached hand drenched in blood, blue in colour with a mouth that said everything gnarly about skateboard culture and it’s endearing roots. Pulling inspiration from the surf and drag racing culture in Santa Cruz, Jim Phillips has created some of the most iconic skate graphics of all time. It was Phillips skateboard art that put skateboarding firmly on the map across the world in the early 1980’s. If you think about how huge skateboarding became back then, and then look at who was at the controls of designing its very lifestyle, it was down to Phillips. One man, working for one company, and that company was Santa Cruz Skateboards.

Publication courtesey of Keegan Callahan (Transworld) and Zac (Crossfire).