PSU Graphic Design Alumni ‘24 Brendan Hanna is an artist specializing in design and screenprinting. Hanna’s work takes on a fast-moving style, blending pop, music and skateboarding culture and spins it into a new form.
Hanna grew up in Portland as an artistic child—eagerly engaging in creativity at a young age. Hanna proudly displays the art created over thirty years ago, ranging from elementary to teenage years, when he became involved in graffiti.
This interview takes place in Hanna’s home studio, where Hanna has resided for over twelve years. In this time, he has transformed the basement from storage to a creative space. Portland State Vanguard spoke with Hanna to discover more about who he is and the work he create
VG: What brought you to PSU’s graphic design program?
Hanna: When I decided I was going to check out graphic design programs and [was] thinking about doing graphic design in general, I checked out PSU. I checked out PNCA, [and] probably checked out some other stuff that I’m not remembering right now. But the big thing for me was, I took a class at Outlet, which is a Risograph studio owned by Kate Bingaman-Burt, who’s the Associate Director of the School of Art + Design.
…When I went there and did the class, there were just all these people that were PSU graphic design [affiliated]. So that made me feel like, ‘okay, there’s, like, a community around this…It’s kind of embedded in the community.’ So that was sort of the vibe check for me that it passed.
VG: What came from your time at PSU?
Hanna: The short answer is, the way that I make work now is sort of the result of all the time that I spent at PSU. So now the outcome is… I do design for skateboarding and music cultures. I think just the way that I think about making work and the way that I think about design as being an art practice. That’s all the culmination of everything that I kind of went through at PSU.
VG: How are you working and creating art now?
Hanna: I have somewhat of a formula now [for the process of creating]. One thing I like to do is to start with physical media… Recently I’ve set this table up down here with big paper and all these different kinds of things to make marks with, all these different media [types]…It’s separate from the computer to try to capture the human hand in it.
I also really like to make that stuff physically with drawing materials or collage or whatever it is. Then, I’ll take that to the computer…I’ll sort of mess with it in Photoshop or do stuff with it that I wouldn’t do or that I couldn’t do physically. Maybe blow it up, make it super huge and cut out a tiny little chunk of it and make a bunch of copies of that or something…, I think of it as processing. Often the result will then be printing it, bringing it back out of the computer, [and] back into physical media.
VG: Hanna creates art through screenprinting. Hanna’s project/brand, ‘Boys Do Cry’ is the manifestation of this work.
Hanna: This project that happened organically… The way that it started was, I made these two bumper stickers to have at a table-ing event (PSU GD’s event, Be Honest). One of them just said ‘Boys Do Cry’ and…then the other one just said, ‘Don’t Honk at Me, I’ll C*m.’
…It was one part of this commentary on gender…What it sounds like is identifying as like, a boy or a man does not mean that you’re this macho archetype that has not [been] in touch with their feelings…The feelings are there whether you suppress them or not.
VG: During this same time of creation, Hanna went through a personal “gender revolution.” Hanna says this inspires some of this social commentary. Inspiration for Hanna often comes from pop and bootleg culture as well.
Hanna: I just sort of went through my own little gender revolution of dressing differently or wearing big earrings or I did a photo shoot with my friend and wore a skirt in it and was just doing this sort of gender-bending. Then the other piece of it is the naughty side, which is just, fun to me…, and makes it a little bit more counter-culture. It’s not as easy to put it in a box or for people to be like, ‘Oh, that’s nice.’ It’s a little bit confrontational…it kind of wakes people up.
VG: Can you share about your design surrounding the loss of the skate park?
Hanna: The courts basically existed the whole time that I went to PSU…, and it’s now gone shortly after I graduated. People started skating there in 2020 in the summer and then I went to start at PSU in the fall.
I met a lot of people that I’m friends with and skate with now. I would say it coinciding with school made me realize that doing art… for skateboards, t-shirts, and skateboard culture just made a lot of sense.
VG: Originally, a friend of Hanna’s, SUNBOY Skateboards, screenprinted a t-shirt in honor of the courts, making around twenty. All t-shirts went to people supporting the courts. However, not everyone had the chance to grab this memorabilia. This sparked the idea for Hanna to create an original design.
Hanna: Basically I was, like, ‘oh, it’d be cool if there was a shirt with more units made so everyone can get one… I also wanted my art to be attached to it. My idea basically was to approach [PSU BFA Student] Nick Pelster, who is the liaison with PSU for The Courts… I hit him up and was like, ‘hey, I want to do a shirt. I’ll do it as a donation of labor and the design, and he was super down.
I did a mural [for The Courts] that was this sort of bubble letter graffiti style, and there was a Snoopy character on that. So, I basically started from a similar place, but then just tweaked it and did this thing where there’s Spike leaving his flowers for The Courts, but then there’s Snoopy [who] is the little angel.
It’s meant to symbolize that the spirit lives on. A lot of the community that was made from The Courts continues now… There’s other DIY skate spots where some of the ramps move to.
VG: What are some plans for your future or dreams that you continue to grow into, possibly influenced by it being the New Year?
Hanna: My hopes and dreams are to grow my freelance business doing skate and music related stuff. I’m really sort of doubling down and betting on that…That’s the main goal, to grow my freelance design business for music and skateboarding related stuff and just cool work in general… To keep growing [my] screen-printing, I might try to get a job screen printing because I’ve never been trained like that. I’ve just learned everything off of YouTube and friends helping me.
Maybe ‘Boys Do Cry’ will turn into an [official] brand or maybe it won’t. It’s more important for me for it to be just this arm of my creative practice where I can print stuff when I want to, like make a t-shirt out of stuff when I want to.
I think other than that, just to be part of a thriving creative community, to sort of find a home as a working creative.
VG: What advice do you have for young artists or those continuing their education at PSU?
Hanna: Well, I’m 38 now. So, what is pertinent for me might be different. I don’t know if I would say this to somebody that’s younger, but…don’t let people tell you you can’t do a thing or that it’s not reasonable.
My perspective on what’s reasonable has changed a lot. I think that’s the true barrier…There’s also a lot of reasons why it is harder for some people to do it than others. That’s definitely very real, but there’s also the internal thing of if you tell yourself, ‘it’s not an option,’ then it’s not. If you decide not to ever try that thing, it literally can’t happen… So I say, if someone has the energy, just try to do the exact thing you want to do.
VG: Hanna’s portfolio website is available at brendan-hanna.com.
This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and consistency.