Hermosa Beach Council averts culture clash, offers artist street sign license
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 replacing. Inez sold the signs that year at the Hermosa Beach Fiesta for $20 each.
Over the ensuing years, Hermosa Beach street signs became a signature element in Inez’s art, which celebrates Hermosa’s punk, surf and skate history.
His 2016 art on a city utility box, at the downtown intersection of Pier and Hermosa avenues includes a Hermosa street sign named “Pennywise,” after the local punk band. The art was commissioned by Leadership Hermosa.
His towering, 2018 mural titled “Punk and Skate in Hermosa — ‘70s and ‘80s,” on the side of the downtown Hermosa parking structure has a Hermosa street sign named Pier.
The trophies for the annual Fourth of July Hermosa Beach Ironman are replicas of Hermosa Street signs made by Inez’s company M1SK (Made 1n Southern Kalifornia).
The Hermosa Beach Education Foundation recently asked Inez to donate his Hermosa street signs to its Heart in Hermosa gala on Saturday, March 23.
But the Ed Foundation’s donation, along with street sign sales, which Inez lists for $75 on his website, have been on pause since January, when the City of Hermosa emailed Inez a cease and desist order, alleging “unauthorized use of the City of Hermosa Beach seal, logo and insignia.”
The street signs at the heart of the dispute bear an impressionistic rendering of the Vetter Windmill on Pacific Coast Highway, often accompanied by a pair of soaring seagulls. The gold lettering is on a brown background, described in “The Sellout,” a 2016 Booker Prize winning novel by Paul Beatty as “the bland brown of cheap blended malt whiskey.”
The street signs were designed in 1968 by Carol Tanner and Joanne Purpus, longtime Hermosa residents with strong roots in Hermosa’s surf culture. Tanner’s son, Scott Funk, co-founded the legendary Tavarua surf camp in Fiji. Purpus’ son Mike was a professional surfer. Joanne Purpus is deceased.
“Punk and Skate in Hermosa — ‘70s and ‘80s,” on the side of the downtown Hermosa parking structure, was designed by Daniel Inez in 2018. Photo by Kevin Cody
Tanner, when asked last week about the sign controversy, recalled designing it with Purpus in 1968, when the two were on the Hermosa Beach Improvement Commission.
“We got to choose the colors and also the typeface. I think we may have had someone else design the ‘bats in the sunset.’ Maybe Jim Gordon (a prominent Hermosa artist and community activist). The brown and yellow were supposed to represent seal brown and sunset gold. Of course you know what we jokingly called them,” Tanner said.
At the Tuesday, March 12, council meeting, Inez asked the council for a licensing agreement to sell the street signs.
His request was accompanied by over 100 letters of support and a barrage of social media support, much of it questioning the council’s beach culture bonafides.
“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 city’s oldest surf shops to stop selling hats with the city logo?” Inez said in his address to the council.
Then, in a more conciliatory tone, he said, “I’m here to work with the city by requesting a licensing agreement, as outlined in the municipal code.”
Inez noted, ironically, he won the 2018 city design contest for a new city logo, which has replaced the design on the street signs he sells.
Mayor Justin Massey began the council discussion by expressing openness to a licensing agreement.
But not before telling the artist, “Your business model is based on appropriating the intellectual property of Bruce Brown (filmmaker of “Endless Summer”), the Kings, and the Dodgers to sell souvenirs and apparel. I find that ironic when artists and athletes are fighting to protect their intellectual property — their names, images and likeness.”
Massey said the cease and desist letter had only been sent after Inez failed to return multiple calls from the city clerk.
“I don’t think the staff has had a good experience working with you,” Massey said.
The Mayor concluded by stating, “I’m not opposed to considering negotiating a licensing agreement for the old windmill logo, at market rates, for product lines approved by the city.”
Casey Chapetta and Jenny Lane with the 2014 Ironman winners’ trophies made by Daniel Inez of M1SK. Photo Ray Vidal
Councilmember Raymond Jackson agreed with Massey on the approval of product lines.
“Some M1SK merchandise is less than supportive of people not from the South Bay,” Jackson said.
But then he added, “I appreciate the passion. It’s clear you are a beloved figure in the South Bay. There’s room for a strategic partnership.”
Councilman Mike Detoy, while noting, “Local government needs to protect its intellectual property,” told Inez, “Thank you for what you and your team are doing. I have dozens of your hats and shirts. Besides the Padres and UPS workers, those of us who love Hermosa may be the only people who love brown and gold.”
Councilman Rob Saemann said he has lived in Hermosa for 50 years and always wanted a Hermosa street sign with his name on it.
“I just didn’t know where to buy one,” he said.
Councilman Dean Francois, who suggested a licensing agreement at the start of the discussion, introduced a motion for staff to prepare an agreement, limited to the Vetter Windmill art on the street signs.
Council unanimously approved the motion. ER