Converse 1HUND(RED) – UPSO (Artist #06) 100 Bolts Chuck Taylor All Star Hi

Converse 1HUND(RED) – UPSO (Artist #06) 100 Bolts Chuck Taylor All Star Hi

UPSO (aka Dustin Amery Hostetler) (Artist #6)
Dustin Amery Hostetler, also known in the art and design world as UPSO, lives and works in Toledo, Ohio. The pseudonym comes from Hostetler’s college days, when he used to paint small spacemen for his own amusement. “They wore really ornate costumes and I felt they needed a NASA-like organization, so I came up with UPSO which stands for United Planets Space Organization. Over time, it stuck with me,” he explained. An internationally exhibited artist, he also runs a design firm called Studio Sans Nom with his wife and business partner, and is the publisher of the art magazine Faesthetic. In addition, he has curated group art shows in multiple cities, including Los Angeles, Chicago and New York. Speaking about his artistic style, he says, “My work is very personal. There are a lot of references to my actual life in the pieces I make for gallery shows as well as commercial/commissioned pieces. Whether it’s my own body parts (hands, eyes, mouth, etc.) or just thoughts I’m having, I’ve always treated my art as an extension of my thoughts.” He regards the role of artists in society as articulators or chroniclers of human emotion. When it came time to design his Converse 1HUND(RED) Artists submission, Hostetler called upon mythic iconography. “The lightning bolt design represents empowerment. I wanted to create an image that conveys the strength of this campaign arising from personal involvement. On the inside of each insole are 50 lightning bolts, for a total of 100 for the pair. The design shows a rather dark exterior, but once you pull back the tongue, you see a bright neon blue insole with lightning bolts,” he explained. “I’m hoping the concept of ‘looking inside’ will come across to people. The design suggests that all of the power in finding a cure comes from the will of individuals to get involved.”

UPSO’s Converse 1HUND(RED) Artist collaboration shoe will be available in June at select specialty retailers nationwide and online at www.converse.com. MSRP $49 with 10% of the net wholesale price going to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (Geneva, Switzerland).

Converse 1HUND(RED) – Grandpeople (Artist #37) Finished Draugen Chuck Taylor All Star Ox

Converse 1HUND(RED) – Grandpeople (Artist #37) Finished Draugen Chuck Taylor All Star Ox

Grandpeople (Artist #37)
Grandpeople, a Norwegian design studio established in 2005, has quickly built a name for itself through its innovative design in fashion, music, art, advertising and culture. Bergen-based, Grandpeople turned to spooky Norse mythology for their Converse 1HUND(RED) Artists design. A “draugen,” which is the Norse meaning for the word ghost, serves as the imagery for their shoe. Rumored to be a harbinger of death, draugens haunt fishermen in particular. “It was our take on nature and fairytales from Scandinavia:. In an abstract way that is,” says Grandpeople’s creative director Magnus Voll Mathiassen. The mythic character is drawn with a Japanese pencil in swirls across the side of a Chuck Taylor All Star shoe. Grandpeople’s design also has that feeling of the hyper-detailed drawings kids do on their spiral notebooks in the back row of math class in seventh grade. “We wanted this idea of the Draugen as a figure that cannot easily be tamed with wisps of smoke that has its own life, like organisms and bacteria,” Mathiassen explains. “Often folklore makes a point or gives you a guideline on how to avoid meeting the darker side of life, but we didn’t just want to be ‘fun’ or ‘cool’ for this. We wanted to create a powerful reminder.”

Grandpeople’s Converse 1HUND(RED) Artist collaboration shoe will be available in June at select specialty retailers nationwide and online at www.converse.com. MSRP $54 with 10% of the net wholesale price going to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (Geneva, Switzerland).