Ah, so many stories with our legendary friend “Little” Jesse Gonzales. I met him in September of 2004, at a Bbq in San Marcos, CA., right when Brian and I started dating. Jesse is one of those people that as soon as you meet, you get that good vibe and you feel comfortable. His roots, family ethics, and lifestyle are very similar to what I’m used to; we’re all fluent in Spanish as well. I love his family!
After a little while knowing him and his super adorable girlfriend [who is also a great friend of mine] Kari, I found out that he has been super good friends with Brian since they were two years old. They have been babysat together, studied/hung out all the way through High School, and had their first couple of jobs together for the next following years.
Sometimes we spend gaps of time without hanging out, but we always stay in contact and spend together relevant moments of our lives. We have a solid friendship that continues reflecting throughout the years, and I’m stoked about that.
There’s something that happens to me often: I meet really nice people, and after a while I “discover” that they are ridiculously amazing artists of some sort. It’s really random and it blows my mind. Of course, Jesse creeped out on me like that. He happened to be this super amazing graphic artist, super inspired in graffiti art. He is a natural artist, he was that kid that if you walked by his desk at the end of class you would be like “whoa, you did all that just now”? You get the idea.
When he was 19 years old, he started his own company, Kreative Impulse out of his mom’s garage in San Marcos. He was the guy to go to during these guys’ high school years if you needed some cool business for your band (screen printing apparel, creating logos, fliers, stickers, layouts, banners, and pretty much everything!). Jesse actually did all the albums’ artwork, logos and apparel for Brian’s old band “Shooters.” All those shirts are still around, the pigment is still alive! You can see some of it here, as well as his full portfolio. He has an Applied Science Degree in Graphic Design and also a Bachelor’s Degree in Media Arts.
Jesse had all sorts of jobs with graphic design. He is still working for a super cool licencing company in Carlsbad, CA., and has done work for Innes Clothing, ACDC, Rob Zombie, and other cool stuff. You might be wearing a t-shirt with one of his designs right now!
He also designed everything for Dopamine Energy Drink iIf you haven’t tried it, you totally should. It’s delicious and a great mixer.
Surf, Skate and Music are Jesse’s favorite hobbies. “It plays a big role in my art, because it’s art.” Jesse says very convinced. “I’m not a musician at all but I like to mess with different beat machine programs just cuz it’s so fun to make retarded stuff.” He is also a great admirer of all musicians and always comes to local shows to support all of his friends!
When I asked him what inspires him, he said “humble people who love what they do is what truly inspires me every day.” Not only that but also people who try hard and don’t give up, and it doesn’t matter if they reach success as long as they’re are loving 110% of life and of what they’re doing. To be content.
Today, Jesse is the Artist/Creative Director for LACED. If you haven’t heard of this company, you need to take a peek! Everything started one random day, when a common friend [Mario] called Jesse to ask him to do some graffiti for the old DC vert ramp, where some friends were building a recording studio underneath it. So Jesse agreed, and went to meet up right away. One of those dudes happened to be Australian Pro-Skater Jake Brown (this website needs to be updated!). He said he spoke with Jake for a while and decided what to do on the vert ramp and that they clicked immediately. It is funny that Jesse didn’t realize that Jake was who he really is until later on during the conversation; he was impressed with Jake’s simplicity for being such an amazing skater with his status alone.
Reality is, they’re both chill people who have a lot in common: the HUMBLENESS.
Jake was very satisfied with Jesse’s work, and that’s when he asked him if he was interested to sketch out some logos for a start-up clothing company. This business relationship AND friendship was formed effortless. Jesse went down to help out “some dudes,” without looking for anything in exchange. Good karma and good intentions will take you the path of success alone. This is when LACED was born, by the end of 2007. This company has been successful ever since and growing incredibly, they are “LACED THE F**K UP and still going strong”!
You can find their super cool apparel and products at skate shops and specialty clothing stores nationwide, and of course, always at their website!
Ah, my buddy Jesse is truly inspiring. Being legitimate and being yourself is the message he has transmitted to me. It is interesting how I see his time line as an artist and he has only gone uphill. He is ambitious and doesn’t rest, doesn’t lose any focus or vision in what he loves . He is always smiling, hanging out and being happy, being himself; I’ve never seen him with a negative attitude. He’s a true pal, that will be your friend because of YOU, and NOT for what you could possibly have to offer.
I truly wish Jesse endless success, and I hope he continues doing what he is doing, because it’s working out great!
