Johnny Lightning

Jason Cruz

Artist
» Web site

Jason Cruz began his career in the action sports industry designing snowboard graphics for Joyride Snowboards. During this time he was also taking his art to the streets of Southern California as a graffiti artist. After giving art school a shot, Jason became Art Director for Arnette Sunglasses and then later, Sanuk Sandals.

In 2006, Jason was hired by Mattel’s Hot Wheels brand as designer for their Lifestyle department. It was during this time at Hot Wheels that Jason was inspired to pursue his passion of custom cars and bikes. He began to focus his creative efforts on automotive and cycle illustrations. Jason has designed numerous die-cast cars for Hot Wheels, Jada Toys, and Johnny Lightning as well as product for Felt Bicycles, Scorpion Helmets, Spyder and numerous action sports companies.

Since 2006, Jason has focused primarily on T-Shirt design, creating graphics for Quiksilver, Harley-Davidson, Hanes, Loser Machine, and various other companies. His work has been featured in the books “Surf Graphics” and “Kustom Graphics II” published by Korero Books. His illustrations have been seen in magazines such as Spin, Arkitip, Juxtapoz, Dice, Street Chopper, Traditional Rod and Kulture, Car Kulture Deluxe, and Ignite ( from Japan).