From tons of widely recognizable band merch, custom 1/1 garments, album art and branding systems, incredibly detailed illustrations, to decaying plushies, Montreal-based designer Michael Shantz (a.k.a Grimjob) has been hard at work for over a decade. His (not quite) humble beginnings working as lead designer at Oli Sykes from Bring Me The Horizon’s London-based clothing brand, Drop Dead, lead him to get more and more into fashion, working with tons of big name brands but also keeping ties to his roots within the underground working with musicians such as Bexey, Rozz Dyliams and Crimewave. Underground Underdogs presents to you… Unbranded: Michael Shantz.
UU: Tell me a bit about your background. How did you get into illustration and graphic design initially?
Michael Shantz: I’ve been doing art as long as I can remember to be honest… both my mom and dad are artists and both of my grandmas as well, so we definitely were raised doing a lot of drawing and creative projects.
I continued that in school, always taking every art class I could and obviously drawing dicks in all the textbooks. I went to college, got a Bachelor of Fine Arts and started to hang out with a lot of bands then I realized they needed album art and merch, which I guess was the first moment I figured out that I could maybe keep doing art as a career.
At what point did you decide to enter the world of fashion?
Growing up I always had an interest in style, clothes and would ask my mom to sew me custom stuff as well. I didn’t know what fashion was or designers or much of that until college when I started a series of work for my grad show that was a weird mix of art and fashion…but honestly, it was shit haha. I didn’t like much of anything I did in college but it definitely allowed me to be myself and continue to explore my own style which I guess helped me to at least keep going down the right path.
I’d say the first REAL fashion job was being hired by Drop Dead in the UK and moving there to work as lead designer. That was the moment I started to do a lot more than just some art printed on tees and started designing actual clothes and accessories. It was a fantastic opportunity to grow both my artwork as well as new skills for the future of my career.
How would you describe the aesthetic of your brand? Seems like your work has a heavy graphic influence with a dark, whimsical sensibility.
My brand, Grimjob, is honestly just me, my style and ideas all mashed into a name. I had originally put out seasons with tees and custom 1/1 pieces, but the interest wasn’t big enough and the name kind of stuck since it was my Instagram handle.
My influences definitely vary from cute to super dark and I think thats what helped to make my art and ideas unique in a world of overly done, trendy garbage artwork. If I had to name my aesthetic I’d say its creepy cute.
Where are you based and how does your location affect your designs?
For the last 4 years I’ve been in Montreal, Canada. It has an art scene that seems to be more centered around murals and ‘street artists’ so I’m not really a part of it directly, but I’ve met a lot amazing artists and creatives here and gotten to do some fun projects. But I don’t really feel its affected my designs seeing as I look elsewhere for my inspo.
So you’ve been working in the design industry for about 11 years now. You’re essentially an OG. How has the industry changed since you first started?
In the start I feel it was a lot easier to contact clients, bands, and pretty much anyone you wanted to work with. Artists were known and hyped for ideas and skills rather than follower numbers. I feel like now you get work and $ if you do someone elses style or only do murals, but that mentality could be a direct influence of being in Montreal.
I’ve seen a lot of trends come and go, and some come and not go for way too long! It was a tough time when every single brand or band wanted white old english on black tees haha.
What other designers, artists and musicians are you influenced by?
My influences for fashion really stem from a mix of UK punk, 90s metalheads, 90s rap, and black metal. I’m basically every bad guy in 90s teen movies where you can’t tell if they just left an Anthrax or a Marky Mark concert. I will always lean heavily towards the late 90s, from rap culture wearing oversized brands like Fubu or Karl Kani mixed with tech like Helly or NorthFace, as well as the start of grunge/goth with bands like Coal Chamber and Manson with more dramatic, almost character based style.
Artists that inspired me to find my style stemmed from a lot of Japanese calligraphy and woodblock prints, as well as manga and American manga influenced comic artists like Joe Madureira and Adam Warren. Skate culture in the 80 also hugely influenced my style, fashion sense and artwork, with heavy styles like Jim Phillips and brands like vision and Lifes a Beach. Those line styles and character/portrait-based work pushed me to create my own flavor and something I felt would stay timeless and ‘me’ even as it evolved throughout my career.
It would be hard to list all the different artists that inspire me now since the list in infinite. From illustrators to tattoo artists to fashion designers to musicians, the talent and style of the art and music world is really an insane melting pot. I will always love dudes like Skinner, Neckface, Jimbo Phillips and Coreyyy Lewis because no matter the image, its always 100% them.
Musically I’ve always been heavily inspired by metal bands…. from Immortal to Cradle of Filth to Slipknot to Mayhem to Korn, to Coal Chamber to Marilyn Manson…. basically anything over the top or where they create a new persona really gets me going. I love any music where the art and visuals are as important as the music itself.
Seems like you’ve designed pretty much everything… from t-shirts to hoodies, hats to shoes, artist toys and even jewelry. Are there any other lanes you’re hoping to explore in the future?
I really, really want to do more cartoons! I was lucky enough to work with two freaks I met in college and made a pilot for Mondo called Blood Alley. It allowed me to do some awesome character design and well as explore some new ways to animate my work. It sadly didn’t get picked up as the rest of the team was also making a live action show that got picked up, so Blood Alley was lost and forgotten… BUT, I’m working with a few people to try some new ideas I have and hopefully have at least a few clips to start shopping around!
I would also really love to work with big fashion houses to design the environment around runway shows. They are getting more and more insane and I love designing worlds for characters to live in.
I’m obsessed with the decaying plushies that you make. Tell me a bit about how you came up with the idea to make those.
As long as I can remember I’ve been destroying toys and putting them back together. From bootleg toys to clothes to bags to plushies, I love the concept of rebuilding destruction. The bags resurfaced a few years ago when my gf had a shop downtown Montreal and said I could sell all my weird shit there. I created a couple but they got zero interest so I didn’t think much about it and didn’t do anymore for a year or two. Then a friend of ours bought it and showed a lot of his circle and the interest boomed! Now I at least have the chance to make more and experiment knowing I have a few regular buyers.
I want to make shoes next with the entire toe in the mouth. As well as take the teddy shoes from that hack Jeremy Scott and fuck em up. I think those would be fun and also be a bit of a fuck you towards him… yes, I don’t like that guy.
How do you feel about the current state of fashion?
Well, to be honest, I see far too many wannabe designers and celebs stealing ideas to fake the reality that they can’t design. Diet Prada on Instagram is the best source to see a huge variety of hacks being called out, its fantastic.
I still think there are some fantastic concepts being played with and younger designers as well as older ones all experimenting and really trying to not only bring back old trends, but bring them back in a new style. I’m a sucker for a lot of Japanese brands like Mastermind, A Bathing Ape, Y3 and Ambush, but even they’re lacking in the freshness department. My gf has an amazing brand called Pretend Play, where she uses vintage pieces, fabric and even a 90s style to create new pieces. She’s very out of the box but also focuses on wearability. I think she’s on a path to succeed 100%.
Are there any trends you’re particularly into right now? Anything you’re not so much a fan of?
I’m not sure its a trend, but I’m sick of celebs and rappers ONLY wearing high end brands and being called style icons or trend setters… that kills me and a part of my soul haha. A trend I really love, and I think its because its something I always loved and played with, is the idea of deconstruction in footwear. Seeing shoes taken apart and moved around or reworked always gets me stoked. Designers like the Shoe Surgeon and Studio Hagel are setting new heights in that department and I love everything they do. I’ve been getting back into doing that myself and made a bunch of monsters, but without a shoe sewing machine I’m not gonna be able to really bring my shoe ideas to life.
As for trends I’m not a fan of…. I really can’t stand people wearing band tees when its brutally obvious they don’t know the band. I understand enjoying the artwork and wearing it for that reason and thats cool, but if you wear Cradle of Filth, at LEAST know who they are or one thing about em! Maybe its because I’m an old head and remember buying Korn tees when they actually came out and because I loved them rather than buying ‘em because someone else wore them and I wanna be them…. smh.
Pretty sure I initially found your work through some designs you did for Underground Underdogs favorite, Dylan Ross. Who would be the coolest musician (dead or alive) to get hit up to design merch for?
Yeah!! Rozzymane is fam and we’ve been doing art together for around 6 years now I think! I think doing some true black metal design work would be pretty awesome, maybe Immortal or Mayhem. Cradle of Filth would also be amazing since they have legendary vintage merch and trying to match that vibe with my style would be a welcomed challenge. I would also love to do merch or art in general for MF DOOM! I know I’d slay the hell out of that.
So you were featured in Alternative Press magazine a long time ago? That’s amazing. Every scene kids dream, honestly. What was the article about?
Yeah I was in AP in an article about trends being overdone as well as artist stealing concepts and ideas and reusing them without much change. I tried to find a link but no luck… At the time I was having my style copied by so many young brands and designers that it was becoming a running joke. My favorite was not only my style being copied but the brand actually drew ME in MY style haha, that still makes me laugh.
What advice would you give to someone just starting out who wants to get involved in design?
Educate yourself on every level you can, from color theory to anatomy, life drawing to art history. The more you know the better! Don’t just copy a handful of artists you like because you will rarely ever find your own style or voice. School might not be for everyone, but I loved it and even though I hated everything I made, I learned a lot that I still use to this day. You also learn to take critique and work/collab with other artists which I feel helps to crush your ego and make you a much more open and experimental artist.
Thank you again for taking the time to sit down and answer some questions for us! Any closing statements? Would you like to give anyone a shoutout?
Stay creative, stay active, stay healthy, go vegan, lose the ego, fuck the system.
Keep up with Michael Shantz’s design work on Instagram @grimjob69.