Well, I'm known professionally as Mike Giant.
Giant isn't my official last name as the government knows it.
Originally, in 1995, I got a job at Think Skateboards in San Francisco,
where at that time when I entered the art department it was Mike Giant there.
That was my first full-time art job right out of college.
And I even didn't finish college.
I just got the job opportunity and split.
I guess within a year, Mike had left there
and had been talking to Doug,
and Doug replaced him and entered the art department then,
and we kind of hit it off collaborating at that time.
I had an illustration background and Jason was graphic design.
First time we've collaborated with Mike,
even though we've known him for pretty much over 20 years.
Skateboarding, in particular,
was really a formative thing because I skated alone a lot and would just work on tricks
and just crash a lot and hurt myself over and over,
but I would just keep at it, and keep at it, and keep at it,
and eventually I would succeed.
And I think just that spirit alone is a really good thing to take on into adulthood,
you know, knowing that every time you try something new,
you're going to fall on your face,
and it's going to be embarrassing,
but eventually you'll get it.
And then you can kinda start to get cocky about it,
and get stylish even, and that's a whole other level to it
which I think is really cool because that's like art.
By the time I was 14 or 15-years old,
I knew I wasn't going to be a legit job guy,
and I had to create my own lifestyle,
and I wanted to do it, and it takes passion to want to do that.
There is no other choice for us. This is what we're going to do.
There's no reason you can't just achieve whatever you want to,
you know, because most of it just takes concentration
and effort, you know, and practice,
and you'll get what you want.