Since Patta moved out to their new location a lot of thing’s has been happening over here at Ben G headquaters. After a short peroid of thinking we decided to host the Obey Pop Up shop on the first floor of our building. The opening was last thursday the 3rd and here are some pictures of how it turned out

New Ben G snapbacks will be available on 12-11-2011. Only 50 made of each design.

Ben G Dog Face snapback in forrest black €35,-

Ben G Bar Logo snapback in burgandy black €35,-

If your in the neighbourhood don’t miss it!

We did this deck with Skate Mental and it’s called “going dutch”.The graphic is a bill from cafe bar Lux here in Amsterdam after a night drinking with Skate Mental owner Brad Staba. We tried to split the bill up even but Staba thought it wasn’t fair since i’m asian and i’m pretty much wasted after 4 drinks. This is what Brad Staba has to say about this incredible collab.

I wanted to make the deck since when i’m in Amsterdam I always end up hanging out with my little gay asian buddy Benny. And I always drink at Bar Lux with the bro’s. Makes complete sense for the board to exist and now it does thanks to Skate Mental, Ben G, Bob Stel and Bar Lux. It should have came shrink wrapped with polaroids from Vos’s personal photographer. But at 5 Euro a pop, we would have been broke. Stay tuned for more Skate Mental x Ben G in the future. If if you come to the board launch slap Benny in the balls and lend Vos your hair comb.

Brad Staba

Well that pretty much wraps it up….we’re having a releaseparty on the 8th of November at bar Lux where we also will be screening the new Amsterdam Promo part 2 which will have a full part of Enjoi pro Wieger van Wageningen.

If you’re in Amsterdam drop by meanwhile check out the Amsterdam Promo part 1 from a couple of years ago.

Our friend Vincent van de Waal aka Vinz is having his first solo exhibition. Vinz is responible for various Ben G t-shirts like the Skeletor & Gremlin tee. He also made our Big Logo snapback and his own drawings are more than awesome. Go check him out next week….here’s a little more info on the man himself.

Vincent van de Waal (Leiden, 1981) studied graphic design at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy. After his graduation in 2006 he started working for the Amsterdam music and club scene, designing invitations, posters and music packaging. Besides designing printed matter, he has also been collaborating with renowned sneaker shop and street fashion brand Patta. He designed many of the brand’s graphics and also got involved in their clothing design. Van de Waal’s creations are known for their direct and uncut nature. Both his typographic approach and his treatment of image seem at times crude and casual, yet to the trained eye they reveal a strong personal attitude and an undeniable graphic sensitivity.

Whilst never holding back in his commissioned work, Van de Waal created a sidekick for his designer personality; one obsessed with drawing, addicted to visual incentives and hungry to show the world another visual ability. This idea of total freedom is one that appeals to most designers; no banal information to translate, no clients just guts. But with freedom comes great responsibility; one that Van de Waal takes on without doubt nor fear.
This resulted in drawings that seem to merge various fascinations and cultures into a new experience. Collections of visual trophies compete and co-exist at the same time. Beautiful but deadly exotic animals, caged in a zoo without locks, ready to seduce and attack their spectators. Morphed commercial symbols meet the language of the dark and the rejected. Religious references hold their ground next to drug ridden fantasy rides. In a visual iconic battle they all get the same chances and eventually all is reduced to it’s core: black or white, lines or no lines.

Van de Waal’s language can be understood far beyond the realm of ‘underground art’. His subjects are present in most people’s worlds, whether in an obscure digital video channel or on the arms of an old sailor. Where most would never see the potential promise that these references hold, Van de Waal takes on his responsibility to capture them for us. He has in fact become the keeper in a zoo for the wicked, the untamed, the uncatchable.

Vincent van de Waal
first solo exhibition

opening: Friday 23 September, 17:00 – 20:00

open to public: Saturday 24 and Sunday 25 September 2011, 12:00 – 18:00

We made some new Ben G snapbacks and they’re available now! 50 made of each design! Check m out!

Sasa Ostoja friend and Amsterdam based artist made a nice board and shirt for us….check it out!

It’s a mythical animal forrest and we really really like it.

We made 30 skateboards and 50 t-shirts and they’re available now!

Check out Sasa’s work and Blog too!

http://sasaostoja.blogspot.com/

Nike SB x Ben G Jacket is now available at Ben G and selected stores around the world.

Skate of Mind is a contest we’re 4 Skateshops get to chance to shoot a short video of their skateboardteam in 1 day at 1 location with 10 obstacels. The idea was to bring graphic artist and make some sort of artsy video like the Skate and Create contest from Transworld Skaetboarding. The shops that entered we’re Bonk (Breda NL), Burnside (Deventer NL), Lockwood (Antwerp BE) and us Ben G (Amsterdam NL). Everything was filmed and edited by Thinkfish Media with pro equipment .

We got the wrong idea entering the contest we wanted to do a re-make of the Street League contest since most of our teamriders do well in contest. We wanted to dress the riders up in Monster gear and make silly comments like ” Oh that was Switch! Imagine throwing a curveball with your lefthand that explain how difficult that trick was!”(if you’ve seen the Street League contest you know what i mean right?). So we called up Monster got a bunch of gear and energy drinks and we we’re off….we thought…Wel no what it came down to was that everything we wanted to do was practicly impossible to make a long story short so we had nothing really artsy going on except from the skating….

Anywayz here’s our video starring Tim Zom , Nelson Mosikili and introducing new teamrider Chris Stuifzand.

This is the bootleg version of the day filmed and edited by our friend Sami which we personally like better because he know’s how to film skateboarding!

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You can check out the other video’s and vote for our video over here:

http://anotherskateofmind.nl/stem-hier/

It’s been a crazy week..Ben G 5 year party, Zoom FP weartest, Shoelaunch, Giants winning the world series, Rambobitch in Amsterdam….here are some blurry snaps i too with my phone! Thanks to everyone for making this happen but a special thanks to my girl, Bjorn&Agra from Nike SB, Mo Manager, Selwyn&Julia from dowtown 75, Bob Crabsalad, mr Staba, Sjaak, Faberyayo, The Opposites, Lil Vic, Beesmunt, mr Wix and my crew you know who you are.

For more pictures check these websites….

http://www.blend.nl/index.php?buttonID=8&module=photoalbums&albumID=60&setID=1

http://www.tagsters.nl/article/2152/ben-g-5-jaar-party

http://www.tacky.nl/skateboard/imagecollection/?id=14126

http://www.tacky.nl/skateboard/imagecollection/?id=14127