Itâs mid November and sunny as everâcool enough that youâre trying to make a sweater happen, warm enough that youâre starting to regret that choice. If anybody is at home in this eternal sunshine, itâs John Van Hamersveld, creator of the iconic poster for the documentary The Endless Summer. The artist lives and works in Palos Verdes, where he runs a gallery with his wife, Alida Post.
Van Hamersveld designed the poster for his friend Bruce Brown, who was directing low-budget surf documentaries, in 1964. At the time, he was a student at Art Center College of Design and the art director for Surfer magazine. He arranged the photo shoot with Brown and the filmâs two starsâMike Hynson and Robert Augustâat Salt Creek Beach in Dana Point, crafted the image at his kitchen table, screen-printed the poster in a garage, and hand lettered the title to complete the work. The poster, for which Brown paid him $150, would soon become a national phenomenon. Van Hamersveld went on to work at Capitol Records, designing the album cover for the Beatlesâ Magical Mystery Tour, the Stonesâ Exile on Main St. as well as the now-classic Jimi Hendrix and Jefferson Airplane Pinnacle Rock Concert posters. At 74, the artist is still going strong, producing logos, digital drawings, and murals. We asked him about his perennial relevance and current projects.

Image courtesy John Van Hamersveld
You created the Endless Summer poster a little over 50 years ago. Do you get tired of talking about it?
No, because itâs like a mythical image at this point. Itâs become a symbol for surfing. So thatâs good. Itâs 50 years later, and everyone seems to know it or wants to know it, from the ages of 70 to 13âit has that kind of crossover of culture.
Why do you think itâs had such lasting appeal?
Partially, itâs the words âThe Endless Summer,â but essentially, itâs the poster as an icon. Itâs that symmetrical sun that draws people in, and then the contrast of the colors in Day-Glo. And then the figures are sort of abstract and it indicates a kind of space of nature, but being that itâs abstract, itâs just so simple and clean and accessible.
As a local artist, do you think the poster has special meaning for L.A.?
The poster celebrates Southern California: the beach and the sunset. Pacific Coast Highway was the main street for surfers up and down the coast. Weâd go to Rincon, weâd go to Malibu, weâd go to Huntington Beach, weâd go down to La Jolla, Laguna, all the way to Mexico. It was always this sort of route going back and forth along the coastline.
I understand you were quite the surfer yourself.
Yes, right, absolutely avid. Phil Becker took me surfing when I was probably 12.

Photograph courtesy John Van Hamersveld
What are you up to these days?
Iâve been doing more drawings than anything else. My drawing has been applied to the digital world, so it becomes posters and advertising and murals. These new murals Iâm doing are done from my drawings and then blown up and put into these mural-like shapes.
Which murals have you worked on most recently?
[My wife and I] rent this bookstore called Williamsâ Bookstore in San Pedro, which is where Bukowski used to hang out. Down the street on West 6th Street is a large building called the Topaz building, and Iâve done a 10 by 20 foot mural in its lobby on canvasâit looks just fantastic. It has a wave in it, as well as being a graphic montage of images.
And then I got pulled into this Hermosa Beach piece, which is like 72 feet by 19 feet. It has to do with the history of surfing in that area. The Hermosa Beach Mural Project gave me the opportunity to do the mural. The nice part is that itâs so high techâitâs done in vinyl. My drawings go into a computer and then through a printing process. Then they are applied to the wall in these 48 inch strips of 3M vinyl, which have really good color. The mural is color-fast for probably about 10 years. Itâs sophisticated.
Iâm doing one for the back of an office building, and that will probably be painted by industrial painters; I canât believe that somebody with a brush can still do that. Most of the time, painters use spray-cans. Or like Shepard Fairey prints everything on paper and then uses wheat paste to paste it to the wall.

Photograph courtesy John Van Hamersveld
You know Shepard Fairey personally, right?
Oh yeah, heâs my dupe, I guess. He loves what I do. Heâs like 40 now, and Iâm 74, so thereâs like 30 years between us, but he got in on my work a long time ago and has made an homage to it. Itâs my famous Pinnacle Hendrix poster that he pays homage to and talks about a lot in the media. Shepard makes his work with an issue in mind. I donât necessarily see any issues to take on the way he doesâand he gets himself in trouble with it.
You donât get political with your art?
No. Itâs poetry. Itâs an aesthetic.
What other artists are you interested in right now?
The other day I went to see a younger world of architects who were having an event. There were these two girls and they have a gallery downtownâJai and Jai Gallery, I thinkâin which theyâre cultivating all these different architects to do art. That gallery has some really fantastic shows.
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