Shelflife Artist Tee Series: Ninja Bread Boy

Shelflife are excited to announce the launch of our ongoing Artist Tee Series, collaborating with our favourite local artists, and graphic designers. Our brief to the artists was simple. Create a unique print that interprets our Shelflife “S” into their design, using of course their own unique style. 

 

We start the series with the well-known artist Ninja Bread Boy. Ninja, real name Richard Moir, is a freelance illustrator and handpoke tattoo artist who works at Palm Black Tattoo Co. in Cape Town, while also doing illustration work. With his distinct line-based style and love for graffiti, we knew we had to get Ninja Bread Boy on our Artist Tee Series. 





Join us this First Thursday from 6pm at both CPT and JHB stores to celebrate our very first Artist Tee Series release. Ninja Bread Boy will be there on the night where he will sign limited edition prints for the first 3 customers at our CPT store. The tee will be available for purchase on the night from 4pm in JHB and 6pm in CPT, but numbers will be limited and for sale on a first come first serve basis.

R499 per tee



Check out the Facebook event

 

We got the chance to speak to the artist himself leading up to the launch of our series on the 1st of November. 

 

How did the name Ninja Bread Boy come to be?

From an online name-generator



 

Where did your love for illustration and art begin?

I started skating at a really young age and started collecting skate mags when I was 8 or 9. I always loved the skate graphics, graffiti and tattoos I saw in these mags and use to obsessively draw skate and surf logos. When I was around 11 years old I started sketching a lot of letters and then got in to drawing tattoos a few years later. 



 

How did this love for illustration develop into how you make a living as a handpoke and illustration artist?

I studied design and illustration and worked in advertising for 2 years which I hated. The goal initially was to be in a position where I could start freelancing as an illustrator so I use to do extra work at night and over weekends in order to build up a client base and start working for myself. I generally get bored pretty easily so I’ve always enjoyed experimenting with mediums and applying my “style” to different things. Handpoking was initially just a medium that I experimented with. I practiced on myself and friends for about 3 and a half years, not ever expecting to do it full time. During this time I had quit my 9 to 5 and started freelancing and had more time to practice. Raoul Goetze had started Palm Black at the time and asked if I wanted to do handpokes at his studio once a week. The more tattoos I did the busier I got and the rest is history I guess. 

Who are some of your biggest influences?

There are so many over so many years and covering so many fields but a few that come to mind first are:

 

Mike Giant. Wealz. Ralph Steadman. Toe. Graffiti World (book). Shepard Fairey. TVA. Espo. Sure. J.H Pierneef. Bitterkomix. Anton Kannemeyer. Conrad Botes. AmIcollective. Dabs & Myla. Motel. Jean de Wet. Michael Taylor. Google…



What have some of your highlights as an artist been so far? 

A personal one that stands out is a public artwork I got asked to do a few years ago. When I was studying I wrote my final research article on the graffiti bylaws that had been implemented by the minister of safety and security in Cape Town in 2009/2010. 

 

A few years later in 2014 I was asked to do a public artwork as part of the Design Capital Project in Cape Town. Basically I did the piece knowing it would have to be “approved” by the city council so I painted a bunch of pigs stampeding knowing it would piss them off. 

 

I was interviewed by the Cape Times and just played the ignorance card after them mentioning that the artwork was not going to be approved. It ended up causing some controversy and ended up on the front page of the Cape Times with the headline, “Arresting Artwork Set to Bring Home the Bacon at World Design Capital Project” and was approved and put up a few days later. I titled it, “Safety and Security” and added the title underneath it a few days after it went up. 



 

How did you interpret the concept of the Shelflife "S" into your artwork?

Since doing the “Safety and Security” piece in 2014, the pig character has become a close association with my name and I try incorporating it into a lot of my work so when I got the brief I new I wanted to use it in some way and found a way to incorporate the S into the design.