About Me
The idea behind Von Hogler Designs began over a decade ago when I decided I wanted to design my own T-shirts and hoodies to wear. I was tired of lackluster designs that functioned only as billboards for companies and brands, with no clear message or meaning. My love for typography, working digitally, and using bold outlines lent itself naturally to clothing prints. I've dedicated myself to improving not only my techniques and skills but also my confidence and belief in myself as an artist. The fact that this site exists is a testament to how much I've grown, both as an artist and as a person. I had trouble accepting myself as a 'real' artist years ago.
A few years ago, to help break through creative blocks, I began an exercise of creating nonexistent brands to design for, each one representing different facets of my personality, taste, or a style I enjoyed. The three brands featured on this site are my favorite and most developed ones.
Dark Circus Ice Cream is technically the oldest idea of the three, having been born before I ever considered myself an artist at all. At first, it wasn't even named, just a crazy idea a work buddy and I had while bored at work. We joked about buying an old, beat-up ice cream truck, wearing creepy clown outfits, and driving around local neighborhoods to creep people out. We were never really serious; it was just something we found funny to pass the time. The idea stuck with me, and I brought it back out to play with as a "brand" to design for as part of my exercise. I gave it a name, began imagining what flavors a creepy, macabre ice cream truck would sell, and designed artwork to go along with those flavors as merchandise for this imaginary company. I'm really enjoying what I've come up with so far, and there's still more to come.
Transylvania Surf Company is an idea I had to combine my love of vintage surf art and my love of old horror movies. I like the visual of monsters like Dracula or Frankenstein as surfers and imagining what that world would look like if it existed
The Royal Society of Dangerous Gentlemen, the RSDG for short or "The Dangerous Society," is a little more complicated. The idea started as just the image of a skull with a handlebar mustache and wearing a monocle; everything else was built around that and has developed into something I'm quite passionate about.
The name, "The Royal Society of Dangerous Gentlemen," inspired by the skull design, was simply a grouping of words that sounded cool and fit the aesthetic of the art; evoking the image of an old-world Victorian Geographical Society-type group of people. I became fascinated with this term I had created, the dangerous gentleman, and pondered what it meant. I began fashioning a whole story behind this made-up society and wondered what these people would believe in; what creed would they follow. I found something that had been brewing within me for most of my life, the desire to be dangerous, to pose a threat.
Being dangerous has its own kind of power, but being dangerous isn't enough to be a "dangerous gentleman". Unfortunately, in my youth, this desire for danger and the power it can hold led to a lot of reckless and self-destructive behavior. No, it's not enough to simply be dangerous, to take risks or pose a threat indiscriminately, that's just unstable and destructive. You must have an aim—not just any aim, but one higher than yourself, a noble purpose worthy of the risks and able to keep you grounded so that you do not damage or threaten what you care about. For me, it was my family, my children, but that is not the only aim someone can have; there are all kinds of noble pursuits that can lift you above yourself. This nobility of purpose is what can elevate someone to become a dangerous gentleman, a dangerous person you can trust. Yes, my goal is to be a kind of monster, but a monster that stands between the chaos of the world and the order I've established in my own life. How else can you fight a monster if you are not capable of being one yourself?"
I believe in becoming the greatest monster I can imagine, to pose a greater threat, to be a dangerous object aimed at the highest most noble purpose I can. What is more dangerous, one dangerous gentleman or a whole group of dangerous gentlemen? I want to build a society that supports each other and inspires the weak to become strong and the strong to become truly dangerous, capable of standing up to the terrific threats this world can produce.
I create RSDG art with skulls not to glorify death, but to deny its hold on me, to defy its power to inspire timidness and a weak heart. Life is lived as an adventure or not at all. I do not fear death so much as I fear a life lived timidly and without purpose or glory. When I look at the RSDG skull I'm inspired to face my fears and push past them with nobility and perseverance. Join me and let's build a society of dangerous gentlemen; let's live a life they'll write stories about. Let's be dangerous.
Mathew Hogler