By Kevin Cody
In 2007, Hermosa Beach Public Works Supervisor Mike Flaherty gave artist Daniel Inez 20 Hermosa Beach street signs that the city was going to replace. Inez sold the signs that year at the Hermosa Beach Fiesta for $20 each.
Over the following years, Hermosa Beach street signs became a signature element of Inez's art, which celebrates Hermosa's history of punk, surfing and skateboarding.
His 2016 artwork on the city's utility box, at the intersection of Pier and Hermosa Streets downtown, includes a Hermosa Street sign bearing the name “Pennywise,” after the local punk band. The art was commissioned by Command Hermosa.
His towering 2018 mural, titled “Punk and Skate in Hermosa – '70s and '80s,” on the side of a downtown Hermosa parking structure has a Hermosa Street sign called Pier.
The annual trophies for the Hermosa Beach 4th of July Ironman Championship are replicas of Hermosa street signs made by Inez M1SK (made in Southern California for the first time).
The Hermosa Beach Education Foundation recently asked Inez to donate her Hermosa Street signs to their Heart of the Heart Gala in Hermosa on Saturday, March 23.
But the Ed Foundation donation, along with sales of street signs, which Inez listed on his website for $75, have been on pause since January, when the city of Hermosa sent an email to Inez ordering it to cease and desist, alleging “unauthorized use by the City of Hermosa.” Beach Seal, Emblem and Badge.”
The street signs at the heart of the dispute carry an impressionistic rendition of the Vetter Windmill on the Pacific Coast Highway, often accompanied by a pair of soaring seagulls. The gold lettering is on a brown background, described in “The Sellout,” Paul Beattie’s 2016 Booker Prize-winning novel, as “the pleasant brown color of cheap blended malt whisky.”
The street signs were designed in 1968 by Carol Tanner and Joan Pourbus, two longtime Hermosa residents with strong roots in Hermosa's surf culture. Tanner's son, Scott Funk, co-founded Fiji's legendary Tavarua surf camp. Porbus' son, Mike, was a professional surfer. Joan Porbus has died.
“Punk and Skate in Hermosa – '70s and '80s,” on the side of a parking structure in downtown Hermosa, designed by Daniel Inez in 2018. Photo by Kevin Cody
When Tanner was asked last week about the controversy surrounding the sign, he recalled designing it with Purpus in 1968, when the two were members of the Hermosa Beach Improvement Commission.
“We have to choose the colors as well as the font. I think we might have had someone else design “Bats in the Sunset.” Maybe Jim Gordon (notable Hermosa artist and community activist). The brown and yellow were supposed to represent the color of the brown seal and the gold of the sunset. “Of course you know what we called them jokingly,” Tanner said.
At the council meeting on Tuesday, March 12, Inez asked the council for a licensing agreement to sell street signs.
His application was accompanied by more than 100 letters of support and a barrage of social media support, most of which questioned the council's beach culture.
“I've been doing this for 17 years, in the open, not under the radar. Where does this stop? With the city asking ET and Spyder, the oldest surf shops in the city to stop selling hats with the city logo on it,” Inez said in her speech to the council.
Then he said in a more conciliatory tone: “I am here to work with the city by requesting a licensing agreement, as stipulated in the municipal code.”
Ironically, Inez noted that he won the city's 2018 design competition for the new city logo, which replaced the design on the street signs he sells.
Mayor Justin Massey began the council discussion by expressing his openness to the licensing agreement.
But not before you say to the artist, “Your business model is based on appropriating the intellectual property of Bruce Brown (director of Endless Summer), the Kings, and the Dodgers to sell souvenirs and apparel. I find it ironic when artists and athletes fight to protect their property.” Intellectual – their names, images and shapes.
Massey said the cease and desist letter was sent only after Inez failed to return multiple calls from the city clerk.
“I don't think the staff has a good experience working with you,” Massey said.
“I am not opposed to considering negotiating a licensing agreement for the old windmill logo, at market prices, for city-approved production lines,” the mayor concluded.
Casey Chapetta and Jenny Lin with the 2014 Ironman Winners' Trophies made by M1SK's Daniel Inez. Photography by Ray Vidal
Councilman Raymond Jackson agreed with Massey on approving the production lines.
“Some of the M1SK merchandise is less supportive of people who aren't from the South Bay,” Jackson said.
But then he added: “I appreciate the passion. You are clearly a popular figure in the South Bay. There is room for a strategic partnership.”
While noting that “local government needs to protect its intellectual property,” Councilman Mike Detoy said, “Thank you for what you and your team do. I have dozens of your hats and shirts. Along with the Padres and UPS workers, those of us who love Hermosas may be the only people who like brown and gold.
Councilman Rob Sayman said he has lived in Hermosa for 50 years and always wanted a Hermosa Street sign with his name on it.
“I didn't know where to buy one,” he said.
Councilman Dean Francois, who proposed a licensing agreement at the beginning of the discussion, made a motion for staff to prepare an agreement that would limit Vetter's mill art to street signs.
The council unanimously approved the proposal. He is
