ZOMBIE INTERVIEW #1
"Out of our graves of dirt and into a vat of radiant ink we go." said our zombie interviewee, Abby Normal, today outside of Ink Monkey Graphics at 2500 5th Street, in Davis, CA.
The Zombie Bike Ride committee and Ink Monkey staff needed inspiration for this year's Zombie Bike Ride t-shirts, so a horde of zombies literally rose to the occasion and offered to model themselves covered in glow-in-the-dark ink for the latest t-shirt design.
Artist Christopher McCreary captured the dynamism and pandemonium outside as more zombies began to arrive on scene, a fissure tore down the middle of the street and undead cows and toads wandered aimlessly. When asked about this sequence of events our zombie interviewee explained "When the Zombie Bike Ride committee made the request for a zombie apocalypse we put in a call to our vast network of the undead and many were eager to participate. Some zombies even came by way of hot air balloon, as you'll see was captured in the t-shirt design".
Ink Monkey Graphics, producer of our 2020 limited edition glow-in-the-dark t-shirts, is a treasure to the Davis community helping many dozens of local organizations with their creative projects year after year.
Jason Steenbergen, owner of Ink Monkey Graphics, learned the trade from his father who started as a fine artist then transitioned into drawing for t-shirt designs on the North Shore of Oahu in the late 70’s, and then moved back to Washington state and started his own shop in the early 80's.
Steenbergen explains that "I went to Junior College up there and worked for my father for 2 years before coming to UCD in ’87. I stated doing print jobs in my Olive Drive apartment in the fall of ’87. By early ’88 I started the Screaming Squeegee in the garage of a rented house in West Davis. I sold my share in Screaming Squeegee and started Ink Monkey in late 2002."
Ink Monkey does design, service and production on site in their warehouse on 5th street near the Police station. Ink Monkey fills the local demand for screenprinted and embroidered shirts, hats, jackets, sweats, etc., as well as drinkware, stickers, pens and signage.
When asked about some cool groups and organizations that Ink Monkey has produced work for over the year's Steenbergen comments "We love having worked with the Farmer’s Market FOREVER! It is really cool to see how popular their hats have become. We recently created a webstore to sell their items for them and have shipped hats as far away as New York City! We also have got a great new customer that is called Float that does tons of items for people that own the One Wheel electric skateboards. I love doing a lot of activities and we have customers that I have met snowboarding, wakeboarding, mountain biking, road biking, surfing and playing ice hockey."
And when asked about their reasoning for supporting the Zombie Bike Ride Steenbergen replies "We have already worked with the NorCal Trykers and love what they do as an organization. I am also an Odd Fellow so the event is a 'no brainer'. The shirt project is a fun one for us since the designers and volunteer staff have let us add some touches to the shirt colors, ink colors and especially let us add the Glow-in-the-Dark ink!"
Steenbergen says he plans to attend the 2020 Zombie Bike Ride on October 31st from 12-3pm "Yes, I will attend again. We are planning on making some special Halloween themed face masks and hope to hand some out at the event."
For details on the Zombie Bike Ride visit www.ZombieBikeParade.com