OUR ARTISTS

While it’s true that early Bell helmets put functionality above all else with simple lines and limited factory graphics, it didn’t take long before lids found their way to painters for a little something extra…something unique—pinstriping …the driver’s name…team livery perhaps. That custom touch has become a tradition and one we echo with the Bell Artist Series. Each of the painters we work with has an original point-of-view we find appealing and different. We hope you do too

ROLAND SANDS

Designer/Artist/Custom Bike Builder/Owner, Roland Sands Designs, Long Beach, CA

Roland sands will toil in his garage all day to create original designs. His do-it-yourself attitude and hardcore racing background has made sands an integral part of bell’s team as both a rider and a designer.

Roland grew up in the motorcycle industry. His dad started Performance Machine, an aftermarket motorcycle parts company in the 1970s. As a kid, Roland worked at his dad’s shop, sweeping floors, and eventually designed and fabricated his own motorcycles. He also raced them, and became the AMA 250GP Road Race Champion in 1998. Today, Roland still holds four track records including Daytona, Sears Point, and Laguna Seca. After racing (and 32 broken bones later), Roland hung up his leathers to launch his own custom motorcycle and design shop, Roland Sands Designs, that has gone on to win dozens of national awards and appeared in hundreds of publications. At Bell, Roland brings his rich background in racing and building custom bikes into bold graphics and rich angular textures that Bell continues to incorporate on a variety of helmets.

CHRIS WOOD

Artist/Painter/Owner, AirTrix, Santa Barbara, CA

He may have been kicked out of high school art class, but that hasn’t stopped Chris Wwood from becoming one of the leading artists in racing today.

After graduating high school, Wood served in the Marines during Desert Storm. The Santa Barbara-based artist came back with the ethos that superior work ethic is crucial, and luck is something you create on your own. These two philosophies led him to immediately start AirTrix, one of the leading custom-paint, digital illustration, screen-printing and design firms in the country. Originally founded to design helmets and pin-stripe for racers, today AirTrix works with studios like Dreamworks, on films like Transformers, with high-end designers like Marc Jacobs, with fellow Bell artists Roland Sands and with most of the top motorcycle, NASCAR jet-ski and snow mobile athletes around. Part of the Bell team for more than six years, the versatile artist has been asked to do it all, but Wood’s style is distinct – strong, bold lines and graphics with lots of motion that all tie back to racing at its core.

TAGGER GASPARIAN “TAG”

Artist/Airbrusher/Owner,Tagger Designs, Lake Elsinore, CA

Former pro surfer turned custom painter, tagger gasparian brings a rare combo of talent to bell’s artist team.

Growing up in Laguna Beach, California, Tag was exposed to art at an early age. His father was a world-renowned oil painter, and Tag received his first paintbrush early. He also started surfing young, and traveled the world as a professional surfer throughout the eighties. As a hobby, he combined his favorite two loves together: painting and surfboards. It started with just a few illustrations on boards for friends, but the top surfboard manufacturers instantly recognized Tag’s work. After leaving the tour, Tag became an artist for Channel Islands Surfboards, where he worked for several years. In 2005, he was introduced to the motocross industry and fell in love with a whole new design medium. He then started painting helmets for the best riders around, and began working with Bell. Tag’s individualistic style and dedication to doing things on his own terms has made him a perfect fit for the Bell artist team.

PAUL FRANK INDUSTRIES

Conspirator of Fun, Born in a garage in Huntington Beach, CA

Paul frank started his company hand-sewing wallets and handbags with scraps of naugahyde in a small garage in southern california…just like a certain helmet company we’re quite fond of.

Paul had a need to celebrate creativity and individuality – two core attributes to the Bell brand. He launched the brand in the mid-nineties, but had no idea his whimsical characters with names like Julius and Skurvy would quickly produce a cult- like following. Today, Paul Frank Industries make a variety of products from clothes to accessories, but the thread that ties them all together is a youthful, humorous approach that in the end just creates giant smiles. That’s probably the biggest reason the brand has been such a good fit with Bell. The Paul Frank Bell helmet collection features a variety of Paul Frank’s iconic characters designed to keep riders laughing, having fun, and that extra bit safer.

TAYLOR REEVE

Artist, Graphic Designer, Long Beach, CA

She’s known mostly for her bodacious designs with pictures of skulls and butterflies on four-inch high heel women’s shoes, but taylor can master just about any canvas she puts her brush to.

The young, Southern California artist’s influence spans from graffiti to pop art, and in her short time as a professional, she has gained a strong following in street fashion and bike culture. Besides being the first lady to paint bold designs on pumps, Taylor has worked with custom bike builder Jesse Rooke for the past six years, adding her signature flair to his famous choppers.She has also designed clothes for a variety of leading action sports companies. In her first season working with Bell, Reeve’s work will be featured on a bike and a full-face downhill helmet. Expect her designs to scream loud, fierce, a little punk rock and everything but mundane.

SKRATCH

Fabricator/Pin-Striper/Owner, Skratch’s Garage, Sun Valley, CA

Jack-of-all-trades and master of many, skratch is the kind of guy that can take a basket-full of spare parts and build a bitchin’ hot rod.

“I am not the best, but I am better than you,” he loves to say, jokingly. That’s exactly why Skratch is always in-demand. The owner of Skratch’s Garage in Sun Valley, California, Skratch spends his days building rods and customs for clients all over the globe. He is a master pin-striper; metal fabricator; painter; a regular on the Discovery Channel’s Overhaulin,’ and has been featured on numerous reality automobile fabrication shows, including his own, The Head Skratcher, which originally aired on the Speed Channel. Not only are his designs as flawless as they are functional, but his tongue-in-cheek attitude and independent style has won him fans including core gear-heads and mainstream audiences alike.

JIMBO PHILLIPS

Graphic Artist, Powersports and Bike, Santa Cruz, CA

When it comes to original artists, jimbo phillips and his father are at the top of the list.

The son of Jim Phillips, the original art director for the iconic Santa Cruz Skateboards (known for the "Screaming Hand" logo), Jimbo grew up with a natural instinct for eye-popping graphics. He also lives right outside Bell’s headquarters in Santa Cruz, California, and has carried his father’s legacy as one of the best action sports graphic artists around. The Bell/Jimbo collaboration has resulted in a number of distinctive, classic designs on bike, moto and multisport helmets. After all, as the original helmet company, it’s only natural to work with those that have also forged their own path.