Quiksilver promoted of Natas Kaupas to Vice President of Marketing of Quiksilver Americas. In this capacity, Natas will oversee Quiksilvers creative, advertising, promotion and online projects. He will also continue in his role as the Quiksilver Brand Global Creative Director in which he directs all Quiksilver artwork across all territories.
Natas, an accomplished artist and authentic skateboarding legend, was one of the worlds first professional street skaters in the 1980s and was hugely influential in the spontaneous development of the high performance form of boardriding that turned ordinary curbs, rails, fire hydrants and dumpsters into canvases for creative expression. He was the first skateboarder to have a professional model shoe and recently won the Transworld Skate Legend Award.
In the early 1990s, Natas began to channel his creative and innovative boardriding into art direction and graphic design for such companies as Santa Monica Airlines, Element, Vita, Etnies and his own board company, Designarium. He started at Quiksilver Inc.s art department in 1999 under the direction of world-renowned graphic designer, David Carson. Natass artistic style, like his boardriding, is highly distinctive, individualistic and free form. Inspired by classic sign painting and wildly creative postmodern artists such as Jean-Michel Basquiat, he has taken these influences and set forth virtually his own genre of graphic art.
Natass trademark handwritten script, seen in the distinctive Quiksilver “Impaired Logo,” has had a huge role in shaping the global identity of the brand and its progressive style has been emulated throughout the boardriding industry. He has also contributed many significant graphic and messaging concepts for the Quiksilver brand over the last three years, including the “Bemo Core” and “Revolution Blues” campaigns, and has won the SIMA Advertising Campaign of the Year award in 2004 and 2005. His freehand form of art and free thinking personality is a perfect match for Quiksilvers ethos of youth driven cutting-edge performance. This accompanied by his long-standing experience in the music and action sports communities make him a great proponent of visionary initiatives and his dynamic leadership bodes well for Quiksilvers future growth in new and exciting directions.
“Quiksilver has had a great relationship with Natas over the years, and his work has always demonstrated his passion for the boardriding lifestyle,” said Marty Samuels, President of Quiksilver Americas. “His promotion to Vice President of Marketing of Quiksilver Americas is a natural progression for Natas and Quiksilver. He knows our team riders he was one and his connection to our events, retailers and heritage make him an ideal choice to direct our growth in these areas.”
“Ive been involved in boardriding my entire life, and have always enjoyed and appreciated a strong connection to Quiksilver,” said Natas. “Im fortunate to have the opportunity to expand my responsibilities and am dedicated to growing the brand that Ive supported for so many years now. I plan to use my background and creativity to complement the strengths of our marketing department, to be even more effective and to illustrate Quiksilvers personality on a greater level. Im excited to enhance our brands image, get more involved with global initiatives and, of course, find fresh and innovative ways to reinforce who we are as a brand.”
Natas will be based at Quiksilver headquarters in Huntington Beach, CA, but will continue to be a strong presence for the brand in Europe, Australasia and the Americas.
