H1: WhoIs?

Creating easy to read and eye-catching advertising that sells my client’s idea, product or tickets is what I have been doing professionally as Hesh One since 1994. Here’s how it all came about...

ON A MAC SINCE WAY BACK
I have been using the Apple Macintosh platform since 1986 and quickly realized the power it gave my creativity as a writer and visual artist. In addition to the artsy stuff it helped me get better grades in school because my penmanship is terrible. Born and raised in San Diego, California I inexplicably graduated from Stephen F. Austin High School in Austin, Texas in 1988. Later that year, while a freshman in college, I got my first paying gig as a graphic artist using my Mac and the SuperPaint app plus traditional layout and illustration skills to create custom cassette J-Cards and 7" covers for punk bands as well as mixtape J-Cards for local hip hop and house DJs.

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO
At UCSD I learned the ropes of journalism and graphic design while at the school newspaper, The UCSD Guardian. Starting as an illustrator then contributing writer I eventually became the Arts & Entertainment Editor where I was responsible for assigning writers, editing their work, and laying out the weekly Arts & Entertainment section, Hiatus.

I graduated from UCSD in 1993 with a degree in Psychology and minors in Art Studio and General Science with the plan of getting a master’s degree in Psychology then working in a clinical environment as an art therapist. I’ve always been passionate about music, however, so when the music industry called I answered wholeheartedly, without reservation, and changed my course.

HESH ONE’S PRIME DIRECTIVE
In 1992 I created Plus Megazine, a successful off-campus alternative music monthly, which featured local and national bands and artists. From 1992 to 1994 my desktop publishing company, Prime Directive, flourished and developed into a graphic design studio with the success of Plus Megazine. The zine, and my time at The UCSD Guardian, brought me fully into the music industry as I graduated from UCSD.

BILL SILVA PRESENTS
From 1994-1998 I was the in-house artist for Bill Silva Presents, an influential independent concert promoter based (at the time) in San Diego. Churning out ads for hundreds of shows a year throughout the Pacific Southwest is a great way to master one's chops so, when Mr Silva moved the BSP office to Hollywood in 1998, I stayed in San Diego and restarted my graphic design studio. Mr Silva is a maverick in the industry as well as a great guy and I can’t say enough good things about the people I met and the experiences I had while working there.

HESH ONE'S DESIGN PLUS
In 1998 Design Plus was born, taking off where Prime Directive left off. The design studio grew into a juggernaut by creating print ads, posters, flyers, billboards, t-shirts and anything else concert promoters, venues, DJs, and bands asked me to produce to sell their events.

In 2000 I created and distributed the art for Dr. Dre's "Up In Smoke” tour, the most successful hip hop tour on record for nearly a decade. The art was used for everything from t-shirts, tour programs and posters to duffel bags and the tour DVD. I had to hand draw the “Up In Smoke” lettering after Dr. Dre said fonts weren't "smoky enough" – that’s my handwriting on the DVD!

JASON MRAZ
I was lucky enough to be on the ground floor of Mr Mraz’s career and was his in-house graphic artist from 2000, the coffee shop days, until 2008 when his platinum-selling, Grammy-winning career outgrew what one person could produce. Until that point I was also designer and webmaster of jasonmraz.com and created and distributed all of his tour admats both nationally and internationally. 2017 had me back in Mr Mraz’s employ which continues in 2019.

THE AUGHTS
A punk rock DIY “do it yourself" attitude combined with corporate professionalism to lead me to designing tour art for 250+ national and international tours since my first tour admat job for Tears For Fears in 1995. The first national tour I created and distributed art for was Dr. Dre’s ”Up In Smoke” tour in 2000. My first international tour art distribution gig was Green Day's 2004-2005 "American Idiot" world tour. In 2007 I truly went global with the distribution of tour art to Asia, Australia, Europe, Mexico, South America and the U.S. for Maroon 5, Fall Out Boy, Evanescence, Korn and Velvet Revolver in addition to all the national tours that didn’t hop the pond.

2010 - 2019
As print advertising has waned over the past decade I’ve moved on to producing digital assets in addition to print materials. There are fewer posters and newspaper ads and more Full HD TV slides, digital signage and seemingly never ending sizes of display ads for desktop and mobile advertising. After mastering the print realm I have moved on to static digital ads and social media graphics.

Doing the layout for The Rolling Stones’ tour jumbo jet, creating a super graphic that covers the entire side of a building on the Sunset Strip for Maroon 5, or creating a dozen digital ads for concerts at FivePoint Amphitheatre – these are the types of special projects that come across my desk in addition to the daily work I continue to do for national corporations, local businesses, charitable organizations, bands, DJs, venues and concert promoters.

2020
In mid-March 2020 the concert touring industry was shut down so I started focusing on art prints and t-shirt graphics which have always been a side project. If you haven't already then please check out my store at heshone.bigcartel.com.

Post-Covid
Since 2021 work has resumed at Hesh One. Please contact me for current samples.

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