GelatiMotel

Our imaginary is continuously shaped by visual stimuli. You know…. Gelati Motel is shaped by porn culture. Alaska is one of the mind behind the commercial explosion of altporn in the US market. He’s a graphic designer. His style has been able to seduce consumers putting together the sparkling energy of pop and the vital impulses of underground. As discussed frequently on Gelati Motel, he’s defining a new style in the porn industry with a bunch of wild boys and girls. This interview is an introduction to his imaginary, our imaginary.

Porn packaging and graphic is usually really standardize. If you enter in a shop it’s difficult to see the difference between each product. How do explain this phenomenon?

Well, it’s funny that you mention it like that. There have been a few occasions where I’ve been out walking around with some friends and i’ll bring them into a porn shop and ask them to grab any number of boxes that stand out to them as something cool. we walk around the store for about 5 mins and usually we never find ANYTHING that we like. How do I explain this? I’m not sure. Porn has always been about 10 years behind any popular trend. Ironically, some of this is on purpose. Most porn companies are trying to market to the lowest common denominator. I think this is completely lame because there’s a huge youth market that they’re missing out on. It’s really pretty disgusting to watch people do stuff solely for money, and not caring about the product that they’re putting out, or pushing the limits of their own industry. Also, most porn companies don’t want to do anything new, unless they’ve seen at least 10 other porn companies do the same thing. It’s really retarded, and frustrating. The heads of these companies are always talking about , so-and-so porn company is doing this, and that, blah blah, we should do this too. No one ever steps back and says, “Well, that shit sucks.”

I’ve been lucky enough to be able to push the envelope in this industry a little bit, and while I’ll say it’s easy because the standard is so low for most porn design, it’s just as difficult because the companies and scared shitless to do something different. Now that I’m freelance, it’s great, cause I can tell clients that come to me, that if they want something that looks like typical porn, or some other porn company’s work, they’re talking to the wrong designer. While I’m certainly not the most original designer out there (by any stretch), I’m not trying to remain stagnant.

Last, but not least, I find the biggest reason a lot of porn design looks the same is because most porn graphic designers look at other porn for inspiration. WRONG! bad idea! I know this from working at a few porn companies as an in-house designer; I’ve actually seen other designers looking through porn catalogs for ideas. this is horrible!

I discovered your style by Eon McKai. How have you started to collaborate with him?

I’ve known Eon for a very long time. he’s been a great friend and when he got hooked-up at VCA, he said, “Alaska is doing my box cover, bottom-line.” He wouldn’t let the staff designers do it cause he wanted an authentic “indie” vibe. He’s very conscious about corporate “hands” touching things, cause he knows that they are so far removed from his scene, that they’ll mess it up. In addition, he really wants his audience/customers to know that he’s the real thing, it’s not some typical porn shit “dressed-up” to look hip.

Do you share the same cultural background?

Eon and I were always into contemporary art, experimental film/video, music (DJs drum and bass from time to time), so we’ve always connected on those levels. So, when he finally got a movie deal with VCA, he knew that I was on the same page as him aesthetic-wise.

Who are your favorite artists? Where do you find your inspiration?

hmm, I’m inspired by so much, the list could go on and on. To condense it a bit… I’m into graffiti by Buff Monster, She 1, O.Two, Os Gemeos, Twist, and Joker. Writing by Hunter S. Thompson, Chuck Palahniuk, and non-fiction. Music by Boris, Thrones, Sunn 0))), Earth, and the Melvins. Film and Video by Bjørn Melhus, Matthias Müller, and Martin Arnold. New Media (for lack of a better term) by John Baldessari, Christian Marclay, and Tim Hawkinson. Design by Superlow, Happy Pets, Burlesque of North America, David Carson (who isn’t inspired by this guy’s work?!), Plastic Kid, … I should stop there, I seriously have about a couple hundred graphic designers’ websites bookmarked. There’s just so much good stuff out there.

I guess that’s it. Thanks so much for hitting me up. I’d also like to give a couple of shout-outs to my XXX homies, whom are also trying to push things forward in this industry: Malachi & Slain of HumanStain, Vivid-Alt., Vena Verago, Joanna & the Burning Angel crew, Gram Ponante, and Jonno of Fleshbot

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 4th, 2006 at 3:54 pm and is filed under interviews, porn. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.