343 - Mark Lewman of Nemo Design “Own The Unknown”
Episode 343 - Mark Lewman of Nemo Design “Own The Unknown”
Mark Lewman’s resume of cool shit is longer than Paul Bunion’s left leg. From humble midwest beginnings. to moving to LA at the age of 17 to work for Freestyle BMX, then working with the Bestie Boys and Grand Royale, later in life penning Matt Hoffman’s biography and eventually writing for MTV’s Jackass. We now find this superhero of the underground as a partner at Portland’s NEMO Design, one of the premier creative shops in in the Pacific Northwest.
Some of the talking points you’ll hear on episode 343 with Mark Lewman.
- Hear Mark strike out on being Mark’s friend.
- Finding a culture and feeling of belonging when getting into the BMX scene.
- The importance of being authentic when tying to advertise to passionate audiences.
- Reaching out to your dream publication to land your fist real job out of high school.
- Generation X-er's jumping in head first and building their dreams without asking for permission.
- The midwest work ethic that stays with you forever.
- Xeroxing the warehouse cat and reinventing your boss’s business.
- The creation of Homeboy magazine, Mark Lewman’s first fully materialized day dream project turned into something real.
- Creating a general purpose magazine “Dirt” to be the male companion piece to wildly popular Sassy Magazine.
In The Circle of Trust (Paid Content)
- Getting away from press release driven content and creating real conversations.
- Working with the Beastie Boys and getting a personal phone call request from Michael Diamond.
- Watching your core group of friends go off and become important figures in the culture that you love.
- Behind the scenes of the Bestie Boy Sabotage video, a lesson on taking corporate funding but investing in your friends and keeping a DIY approach.
- How urban sports such as skateboarding or BMX teaches you to see the landscape not for what it is but for what it can be.
- Writing for MTV’s Jackass and Wildboyz, why the authenticity of those projects was paramount.
- Being a Dad not a Dude.
- Quitting your job, selling your home and leaving the county to figure out what you should really be doing with your life.
- Writing Matt Hoffman’s biography and literarily being bookends on his career as one the best BMX riders of all time.
- How life experience is the real riches of the world.
- The culture of NEMO design where the team is more important that the players.