TechVector otherwise known as Reggie Gilbert, otherwise known as the man that works non-stop and still finds time to snowboard most of the winter, can switch back lip a 10 stair, is a hot rod builder and a mean flamenco guitarist.

Above all though he produces amazing artwork… hence the TechVector identity. We caught up with him on a board-riding day off to see what this dude is all about. Read on…

FMCS: Hi Man how’s things with you?

TV: Over worked, under paid. A slave to the maze, everyone owes and everyone pays.
Nah, I really can’t complain, life is very good right now. But I’ve been so deep in Illustrator this last year I run red lights when I’m driving and think I can hit Cmd + Z for a split second! I find myself doing that more and more…especially when I’m drawing in my sketch book, I generally use ink so it’s like “doodle, doodle, doodle” oops!, undo………….shit!

FMCS: Tell us a little bit about what it is you do and why you do it?

TV: Well for the last few years the majority of what I’ve been doing is technical illustrations….major burn-out factor and not my favourite thing but the money is nice….I have a knack for producing it 100% in Adobe Illustrator so it’s all vector and the clients I have like that….plus it can be imported into flash and that’s a bonus.

I much prefer drawing and painting or tying shoelaces into words and scanning it in but I haven’t had a lot of luck with getting paid on that tip.

FMCS: How long have you been into the whole creative production thing, and why did you start?

TV: I suckled at the teat of drawing and doing graffiti my whole life, growing up in Los Angeles, skateboarding and roaming the streets till the wee hours nurtured that.

I got a few gigs with local skate companies, mostly just a trade for goods to keep me skating.

I kinda stopped doing anything in the art department because it was so hard to make a living from, unless you live under a bridge. I never really cared for computers or used them much growing up so I’m sure that didn’t help. I had to find other ways of making ends meet. Worked some weak-ass jobs….dug miles of ditches and cleared acres of hillsides of brush for avocado orchards….. to pay for my travelling skate/snowboard habit. Work all summer, board all winter. Then around 2003 I snapped my femur like a twig on this viciously icy kicker while filming in Oregon for my snowboard part in a video. Overshot the landing and t-boned it on the edge of the landing at the bottom part where it goes flat.

That landed me 40k in debt, a bar in my leg and behind a computer, I got a program called adobe Illustrator and the rest is history…..so I guess I haven’t really been doing art/ illustration digitally for that long, 4-5 years maybe? … Self-taught.

FMCS: You have a lot of interests…among them board sports and music… do these pursuits influence your creative output in anyway?

TV: That is what keeps me going really, finding the “pocket” in whatever I do….snowboarding, surfing, playing flamenco…. I’m sure everyone has a version of “the pocket”. For me it’s when everything is coming together easily. It’s an amazing feeling when it happens and it’s priceless….most noticeable when you’re playing music and everything is so tight, everybody is clicked in and on point…..then I mess up and it’s over, everything falls apart…haha…fail!

FMCS: Tell us a little about hotrods…You mention on your site you are into building them. Is this true and do you have any pics we could see?

TV: That’s a love/ hate thing for me. I just sold a 1967 RS/SS Camaro that was so dope. So much time was put into it…plus a pint or two of blood spilled on the ground working on it. I love driving them and the feeling is just unreal… I’m a big believer in driving the shit out of them…make them mad clean like a show car but with melted rubber sprayed all over the quarter panels….rumbling and rocking with a cam out of an airplane.

At the same time it’s hard justifying owning a car that gets 8 miles to the gallon when your foot is buried in it….environmentally it’s not cool….so I’ll probably never own one again unless they start making engines that run on hydrogen.

FMCS: Why did you settle on the name TechVector, what does it mean to you?

TV: Let’s see….Techvector. Basically I wanted to bill people as more of a company and not under my name…almost everything I was doing at the time were technical illustrations (tech) and they were vector (vector). After months of thought a stroke of genius came upon me while doing Gin X Tonic collaborations and I settled on Techvector.

The silhouette of my logo is a bullfrog with the antlers of a mule deer.

I live in Oregon now and I have a big-ass lake in front of my house…huge bullfrogs and deer are everywhere you look. Genius.

FMCS: How are you finding the industry? Any help received, any good friends made? Any juicy contracts?

TV: Industry is ok I guess, most of the help I’ve gotten is just advice. I think almost everybody holds their cards close…unlike myself, if I can do something but I’m not really into it or time is short I’ll slide the client the website address of somebody I know who would be a better fit….I actually do that quite often and I like to pretend there is a karma bank and I keep making deposits into it.
Doing a grip of boards for a wakeboarding company called Liquid Force, also some fresh stuff for Arbor Snowboards. Hyped on free gear homie!

FMCS: Where do you want this all to go? Any plans?

TV: Damn bro, all I can say is if I don’t change gears at some point the future sees my white skin becoming clear, skinny legs, a fat belly, and my fingers will grow spindly and long from pecking away at the keyboard, any day now I’ll just morph into a banana slug and slide away.
Haha! Just playin’, but this profession will take its toll on a person if you don’t go surf or skate regularly.

On that note, I do have a few business plans in the works, and if all goes well they will leave me cold chillin’ in Spain, ripping flamenco and drinking red wine.

That’s the interview I really look forward too…..

Or it could very well play out like this; keep doing illustration for a few more years……then my computer melts down and due to the fact I never back anything up I’ll loose everything I’ve ever done, my mind will then snap….I’ll then move to Costa Rica or Ecuador to surf and chill in a hammock, never to be heard from or use the pen tool ever again.

FMCS: Thanks for the short interview TechVector any shout-outs before we split?

TV: Yeah, www.FoundryShop.com It’s a snow/skate/streetwear shop I’m opening with two friends that have spent there lives managing and repping some of the top industry brands, mad connections….we feel our experiences in life till now have groomed us for this shit. The shop will be in S. Oregon, we are going to cherry-pick only the freshest gear from the brands we carry. Foundry will also be an apparel brand in it’s self.

Take note we’re going to be looking for skilled snowboarders and skateboarders to add to the team, so get those videos ready!

If you’re feeling them go grab my stock vector sets off the always amazing YouWorkForThem…… daddy needs to go skate and play music in Spain!

Boom-Boom-Chicka-Chicka-Boom-Boom!

Peace!

R-

TECHVECTOR WEBSITE