Brokovich unmasked!
Check out the interview with Thomas Broquet aka Brokovich, illustrator of the Endzone 500 board.
Brokovich is the artist behind the mask.
We had the opportunity to enter his world, check out his workshop and his sources of inspiration. He told us about his childhood, shared his passions, explained his style and his relationship with street art and board culture.
CHECK OUT THE INTERVIEW!
Brokovich unmasked!
VIEW THE COLLECTION
THE ENDZONE 500 BOARD
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MEN’S BASE LAYER
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WOMEN’S BASE LAYER
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what's your job?
I’m an illustrator, designer, miniature painter, graffiti artist and enameller, I’m plugged into board culture and street art.
WHY BROKOVICH?
My real name is Thomas Broquet but I've also worked under the pseudonym Brokovich.
To tell you the truth, it was my nickname when I was little. My passion started from a very young age so this pseudonym is a nod to my childhood!
What were your passions when you were little?
Even when I was really little, I loved design! My hobby was painting and modelling clay. I loved making up stories and telling them to my mates. It was also a way to shape my personality and come across as a cool guy!
Aged 8, I moved to a small ski resort called Les Rousses. I grew up with skiing, snow sports and nature and these have always been a source of inspiration to me.
What is your first memory related to your job today?
There was a factory that made snowboards in my childhood village. My mates and I enjoyed going through the skips to recover old board prototypes that were going to scrap. It was really to convert them into longboards, but what struck me the most were the board designs. That’s when I said to myself: “Actually, there are people whose job is to create artwork for boards”. That seemed great to me and I admit it was always in a corner of my mind... The job I have today is a childhood dream!
WHEN DID YOU TAKE UP STREET ART?
Up until my high school graduation, I got lost in the board culture but I was way off the graffiti artists. It was when I moved to Metz for my first year’s study of fine arts that I met guys who did graffiti. Then I joined their crew and began to tag. At the beginning, I enjoyed creating little characters that passers-by would discover one after the other.
WHAT IS YOUR ART STYLE?
My style is the way of seeing the world. I like sitting on a terrace and people watching. All the faces are inspiring as they convey an emotion. It’s from there that the masks came to me as a signature look.
I’m also greatly inspired by flea markets. I love these places of exchange and discovery.
What interests you most about flea markets?
It's crazy what you can find in a flea market. I generally go with no real purpose and I come away with so many ideas! What I particularly like are the discussions with the sellers. I like to learn about the history of each item to be able to then create new stories for them.
I remember, I met a guy at a flea market who was selling 3 enormous shopping bags covered in buttons. He explained to me that his mother and grandmother ran a haberdashery previously. Finally, I left with the 3 bags that have hung around my workshop for a good 2 years. Then one day I said to myself, I could use them as paint and I created an entire range with mother-of-pearl buttons!
It's thanks to all these hunted items at flea markets that I was able to design what I call my curiosities cabinet.
WHAT ARE YOU MOST PLEASED WITH ABOUT THE DECATHLON COLLABORATION?
To design a board! That’s really what motivated me from the start. As I said, mixing my attraction to board culture with my passion for art was a childhood dream. Mission accomplished with this collaboration!
Then the brief obviously grabbed my attention: devise a twin tip board design that rides in both directions for freestyle use.
The snowboard team gave me carte blanche which really gave me room to be creative.
How did you go about designing the board illustration?
Firstly, I took into account all the limitations of the board’s shape, bindings placement, the space I had to work with for my illustration, etc.
Then I quickly thought of an idea connected with the brief. The board is twin tip so I found it fitting to be able to see its design in both directions. So I quickly came up with a two-faced mask that I connected with the DNA of the Seriously Playfull snowboard collection: A serious mask on one side and playful on the other.
Once I had the idea, I reviewed and incorporated elements found in the flea markets: beer mats, curtain rings for eyes, small boxes for the mouth, etc. to make a double mask that was one of a kind.
the final word!
For a rider, as for an artist, the value of style really depends on the surroundings in which you express yourself.
A snowboarder expresses their style with a slope edge, a slide bar or a kick that a snowboarder expresses their style. And it's the same with art, it's through the material you work on that you express yourself. For me, it can be a bowl, a skateboard or snowboard, a canvas, a street corner, masks, pistachio shells, etc.
Going beyond the limits of our forms of expression is a challenge that motivates us on a daily basis. I also think it's a driver that will keep me going until I’m doing wheelies in my wheelchair at my nursing home!