What’s up!? My name is Justin, also known as “Camp.” Many people know me for my motocross graphics and art work of many different kinds. Motorcycles we’re always something that fascinated me when I was younger. Ive always loved to ride starting in my first few years of life, thanks to my parents. As I grew up riding, I always wondered how motocross graphics are made. How did they print each color? How did they design it? I needed to find out.
My curiosity to create began for me as a teenager. I never could draw or paint as a young child like some other kids. Once I studied it an applied myself, I could never make anything that I felt was good enough. I began to explore every medium in a very short amount of time. I took any money I had and studied everything from pen and ink to air brush. Exploring my art and my ability to create, I was the most drawn to graffiti art and graphic design. With a spray can I was inspired by a vendor I found painting amazing works, live on the Wildwood NJ boardwalk. I was born and raised just outside of Philadelphia and was inspired by graffiti constantly, mainly the shapes and the colors. I was blessed to start practicing graffiti on the shed outside of my house. Wearing a respirator mask and getting covered in paint, I knew that I wanted to be good enough to never worry about being caught. I wanted to paint where people told me to, not on the streets. Quickly I learned that spray paint is best to paint a large as possible. The larger your final piece the more details that can be packed into a small area. Learning this “zoom in” effect dropped me right off at graphic design.
Once proficient with creating art on the computer I swiftly moved into mixed medium works. Using the computer and traditional art mediums combined opened my mind to what could be done. I understood at this point that a blank page can turn into literally everything. That day my obsession shifted from motorcycles to graphics design. I remember making it a point at least open one project a day. Even if I didn’t make anything, just look at files. My teachers and friends would send me their works to die-sect and study. Many days I would make some absolute trash trying to reverse engineer, or draw inspiration from these works. Unlike other mediums that I studied previous, my graphics design learning curve was steep. I couldn’t just draw the marks I wanted to draw, I and would get frustrated. I didn’t know at the time, but that frustration made me. I wanted to know what this was, I wondered what can I do with computers. I began to study all the motocross bikes that I would see at the track and in the magazines, with the same “zoom in” detail that I learned previous. I had so many questions. Far beyond the basic questions like; “How do you print those?” or “Does a laser cut the graphics? (No it isn’t a laser.) I wanted to know how it was designed. I wanted to know how to get my logo on something outside of the screen. Luckily my dad knew the owner of the motocross graphics company that sponsored our local race track. I bombarded this man with questions and he invited me to his shop. This was the summer of 2011 and I was just about to go into my senior year of high school. I made the trip once and I was hooked. I got to see the entire operation, but more importantly I got time to work with the head designer. I would make the hour long trip to their shop twice a week until school started again. The next summer I graduated high school and was on my way to community collage. I made the trip again twice a week for the summer and would pay for it with my Texas Roadhouse job. 2 unpaid days a week turned into 3 paid days a week. I was joggling the graphics job, my restaurant job, and collage. I was done with school in 2015 and was working at another graphics company by this point. I worked full time graphics and studied traditional art in my free time.
This was when I came up with the name Camp Originals. My graffiti tag “Camp” (short for my last name) turned into Camp Original Clothing. I messed with some really interesting shirt dying techniques and even went as far as using a sewing machine to make more creative pieces. I began moving into vehicle wraps and letting. I moved around a lot and worked for a couple high end wrap and lettering shops. This work was fast and intense. Moving up the latter I could do everything from design, to production, to wrap installation. I finally felt like I had learned enough to do something bigger and more fulfilling. I became obsessed with motorcycles again like I was as a kid. I pulled the trigger and founded Camp Originals. I quit my job and didn’t look back to make the best motocross graphics that I can. In hindsight I could have kept my day job a bit longer than I did but, I was ready. I thought if I don’t jump now I might not do it later and I jumped into the unknown.
I am pleased to be able to thank so many friends and hundreds of clients for believing in me! I learn so much everyday and I have some great people to thank for helping guide me. Since starting I feel world class moto! Shipping international and producing art for some of the biggest names in the game.
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