alright let me test my multimedia here
okay get my ROI G bit looking okay here
you guys cool to product toss I don’t
really careful okay okay let me get okay
here we go they get some Sparky Anderson
on that okay there we go
good morning Detroit good morning
alright okay wait I have no time I have
no time my little talk here is called
the underdog spirit or that underdog
spirit because my name is Aaron James
droppin I was born here in Detroit okay
how we got here quickly from Michigan
okay I was born Detroit on stout Street
just off a Grand River there it is
that’s it no my dad worked a Great Lakes
steel alright
we used to go hang out in the park and
he’d come down I can remember this at
two years old mom and dad moved us north
to Central Lake Michigan 800 people in
1977 it was a basic American upbringing
with a little sister you know and riding
bikes and swimming and all the basic
stuff and that was cool until you’re
about eleven a lot of terrycloth growing
up that was cool until about 11 because
at eleven you get to see the politics of
that little tiny town where if you’re
not the sports star you’re nothing I
tried my hand at basketball and the at7
mom and dad got us to Traverse City
Michigan and that’s where I became a
skateboarder and a snowboarder and I
discovered art and punk rock and all the
things that matter in life right and as
soon as I could
after seventeen and nineteen little
Community College I go all the way to
Oregon to be a snowboarder to live like
an animal with all my buddies all over
the West when it matters
drawing you know and painting doing
snowboard graphics for no money of
course I didn’t have a computer I go all
the way to Alaska I wash dishes for a
whole summer of 130 hours a week in
God’s country or whatever you want to
call it to make money from my first
computer because I never really knew my
mom didn’t have a lot we had Legos and
pizza and
uh you know love and right at the
house but here I am sleeping in between
shifts and you can see someone put a
mosquito on my lip cool right
4 summers of this so I go back to art
school Minnesota they pick me I get to
go to art school I got to go to art
school I was lucky to go to art school I
made logos there in learn how to use the
grid you notice I was ready to get it I
wouldn’t I don’t want to go change the
role with design I want to make a living
I got my first job at a snowboard
magazine all the way in Southern
California big mistake I went all the
way down there land of the beautiful
people get down there 22 months two
cycles of magazine and I get back to
Oregon in the sea it goes mm to have my
first studio job first to do job is
incredible because now I get to make
watches and cool advertising and logos
and things and icons but I also saw
meetings about meetings emails about
emails right so I could make more money
freelance than I ever could let’s just
say pretending to like my job so I
jumped out on my own I bought a little
house I got an attack dog named Gary
yeah all right let’s keep it
professional people okay and now my
basement where I could start to invent
my life now I had my basement so you
know or where I got free so here’s proof
okay I’ve been busy for 12 or 13 years
free of all the bureaucracy of like a
big agency or small agency making logos
making field notes these little things I
just whipped hopefully no one got hurt
these are things I I’m an owner of this
thing we have 2,000 stores all over the
nation I was just told by you know
headquarters in Chicago now I make a
bunch of merch I’m up to 180 items now
and this is myself and then my better
half League and we do the whole
organization out in Portland where I
live in Portland Oregon and make posters
for places I love and I get to travel
and I have been able to go everywhere I
just with the Guatemala and she I went
to Dubuque last year almost twice so I
have gone everywhere to go talk about
myself which is very weird this all
packed into
this I got to make a book right and then
we’re supposed to pitch things but
that’s not supposed to happen I’ve been
fighting hard to make it right this
whole time and yet where’s that fight
come from right I’m not from Detroit I
was born here but I know about this the
mc5 okay the Stooges all right okay Bob
Seger okay you know you know the early
period but the spinners come on come on
and when I was of course old enough to
start coming down here in 1991 the
laughing hyenas and mule and the dirt
bombs which I still love the dirt bombs
this basement kind of culture this is
what made it okay for me because I grew
up around this stuff and proudly Oh
while I’m here in front of everybody
proudly nothing to do with this turd
yeah
nothing oh-ho-oh striking a nerve huh
check how he’s voting okay moving along
hi I have fond Detroit memories okay
st. Andrews Hall my first punk show my
grandma’s house on joy road right
Mel far superstar I was in tiger town
look at look they thought I looked like
him those are my hands in tiger town
okay my dad we climbed under a fence
when I was 11 years old to go see
Olympia before it was torn down because
we went into the Red Wings locker room
there and took the carpet because my dad
wanted to get the carpet where Gordie
Howe’s balls dripped okay
my favorite story from the book this is
from the book 1983 there’s my dad I
don’t have a shot I don’t have a shot of
my dad Jim grappling I don’t have a shot
of him from 1983 polish-american night
where the beer was flowing he was a
little tipsy with my uncles and all my
cousins and sup I don’t have a shot I
call this mid sip okay so my dad we get
there my dad says to me I’m gonna get
you a ball Punk now you never tell a kid
you’re gonna get him a ball okay third
baseman Channel Lake you know okay
everything’s cool but you never tell
your kid you’re gonna get that this is
1983 Tiger Stadium ninth-inning Ron
hassey Cleveland Indians tips one off
the Tigers dugout back to us my dad
dives two rows catches the ball doesn’t
spill the beer stands up puts the ball
I’ve been rolling up my sleeves for
underdogs my whole life because I didn’t
know any better bigger isn’t better and
free my mouse finger can change lives I
know this because I’ve already done with
crusty little things but when these guys
call now this was an underdog who went
and saw the inauguration okay I was
there representing Detroit on some
molecular level I was there but you see
this that night you know and you’re
scared because because you know the
other guys are moving out Barack and
Michelle are moving in and I was I’ve
voted for him I was proud I love this
logo so who gets to move in who gets to
make the logo we were Lee and I were
there we’re scary you know this is this
whole process and then I get this call
from the people about six weeks after
inauguration saying have you heard of
the stimulus package sure 800 billion
bucks well Erin we have five days to
make this logo what are you doing this
weekend this is on a Wednesday yeah to
the youngster sorry okay but whoever was
calling me from Chicago who made his
logo they worked for him so I was so
scared when you see these logos myself
my buddy Chris glass from Dayton Ohio
and the mode project we got to make
these not for Barry for America okay for
America in my hometown of central Lake
Michigan where they say the most
horrific stuff about an incredible
president my load was on the sign there
were they’re putting in a new road a
couple years back Monday morning our
president was showing our logos to
America right and I cried my eyes out
seeing this and then okay I got to work
for America and then Oh at sea-tac a
couple months ago we know some people
and we got to go we got to go we got to
go America lands the plane
there comes America taxing in and from
here from this distance from me to him
that’s when I started to cry because he
represents dignity and he represents the
idea that the underdogs can get insured
a that underdog okay okay I know I know
how you vote here thank you
but when he got to me I’m crying my eyes
out
thanking out this is what I said I said
I’m gonna miss you man now look at
usually when you meet the president you
get one handshake I got the handshake I
got the hand clasp and cuz I was crying
he hit me in the shoulder okay
recent stuff I worked for Bernie six
months ago huh huh I know it hurts but
big H is gonna kick ass come November oh
man okay
I did three posters for Bernie and I got
to go to an art show with Lee all the
way in New York City my buddy Lewis this
is like outreach guy back before you
know they had to kind of call it but
there’s Lewis looking at me saying don’t
do anything stupid rap and see but see
that I was so high in this moment
there’s Bernie I’m like Bernie since
about 91 92 because there’s only one
Bernie okay and I had no proof I was
there until I was digging around on
Getty Images and I found this okay new
posters a skillet company my dad died
and I got him tattooed on my arm and
it’s my harem I’ll let if he
said you better get it right I gotten a
little bit of a scrap with the guy on
the table and I found a bloody toothpick
and anyway
okay logo for the son vans documentary I
made the first LGBT one of the first
LGBT a cards for target proud of that
pop-up stores two years in a row now in
Portland we made a new mini-mart in
Portland my friends and I they put me on
a magazine cover
that’s amazing I got to go to graphic
design took me to Guatemala and Sydney
Brisbane and Melbourne okay I was on
Marc Maron show give it a listen okay
some pronounce it okay I made a typeface
this year that’s coming out in a couple
months things I love howay at the top I
love my family all right
I love my family look at the neck angle
on the nephew
yeah Thank You Lee Thank You Lee is here
okay
we traveled here last night my little
nephew Oliver who’s the light of our
lives who 6 who 6 he’s certain his teeth
are going to fall out soon that’s
incredible my shop
I love Portland Oregon and man I love
Detroit I’ve been coming back home three
times a year but listen what the only
reason to entirely call me I was afraid
to come here because I didn’t want to be
the kind of person who buys a sweatshirt
and says Detroit I know but just so you
guys know all the places I’ve been all
the places I’ve been lucky to live just
know I always defended my hometown ok
I’ve always defended it because this
continues to teach me you never
with an underdog alright ok thank you thank you thank you