For over a decade, Santa Cruz native, artist, illustrator and graphic designer Shaun Logan—also known as Slogan—has been crafting vibrant murals in Santa Cruz’s most iconic spots, including the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk and the Catalyst Club.
Born in San Jose, Logan moved to Aptos when he was 7, “ironically, into a house that already had a redhead that was 7. So I think I just, like, kind of just replaced him.”
His style—influenced by that of local artists such as Jim and Jimbo Phillips—often reflects that childhood, spent attending punk concerts and skateboarding—but it was Logan’s time on the road, serving as a tour manager and guitar technician for Santa Cruz-based rock band the Expendables, that Logan believes helped make him the artist and person he is today.
“I always said, ‘if I get attached to a band, I might be able to get my artwork further,’” he says.
Following his graduation from Aptos High School, Logan began working for the Expendables after his friend, Ryan DeMars, became their bass player. DeMars, aware that Logan was an artist, asked him to design a T-shirt for the band, which became the cover of the No Time to Worry album.
Logan signed the piece, S.Logan, a reference to his grandfather, who signed his art B.Logan, for Bill Logan. But when the shirts were printed, the period between S and Logan didn’t print, transforming Shaun Logan into Slogan.
“Cam Hanson, the original guitar player for the Expendables, said, ‘Oh, your name’s Slogan,’” said Logan, and it stuck. “You don’t get to pick your nickname—so, they got me.”
Over the next few years, Logan’s role in the band grew. In 2002, he designed the cover for the band’s second album, Expendables Open Container. Then a few years later, while the band recorded their third album, Getting Filthy, they stayed with Logan in San Francisco as he attended the Academy of Art University.
Eventually DeMars—the band’s bass player—approached him with a proposal to leave San Francisco and join the band on tour.
“I just, I was like, okay, I’m gonna do this—and it wasn’t like a job, there was no money,” says Logan. “My heart was just like, we’re going this way—I wanna go do this.”
So Logan hopped on the bus and, for the first year and a half, attempted to balance sound checks with tracking down Wi-Fi at coffee shops to complete the program online. He eventually found himself at a crossroads, debating whether or not to drop out.
“So the conversation was with, like, mom, my dad, at the time, my teacher, that I really connected with at Academy of Arts,” said Logan. “I know my mind was set. I just want to make sure I wasn’t making a stupid mistake.”
His mom said no, but his teacher and Dad pushed him towards the band. “He said, ‘Go for it. It will always be here,’” Logan said of his teacher. “My dad said, you’ll regret this, if you don’t do this, go on tour. My mom’s all, absolutely not.”
So Logan made the final leap, dropped out with four classes left, and put his energy into the band’s success.
Over the next decade, Logan honed his craft on greenroom walls and the occasional bar napkin, while cultivating relationships and an artistic respect for the other musicians and bands touring alongside them.
“We’d just be hanging out backstage, and he would bust out a Sharpie and like, do something really cool, like on the wall, and I’m like, oh my gosh, that’s that’s like really dope graffiti.” says Wesley Finley, the drummer for Rebelution, about his time spent touring with the Expendables and Logan.
“It was easy to recognize Logan’s talent,” Finley added, and his band jumped at the opportunity to use Logan’s skills on their own album, Count Me In, as well as for posters for us and merch designs. Logan even designed Finley’s tattoo art.
“And as time went on, I was like, okay, at what point is he just going to pursue art full time?” Finley added. “Because he’s way too talented to like to work this hard, you know, doing something else.”
By 2013, Logan finally left the road and returned to Aptos, at the time without much of a plan.
“And then Dan from California Roots wanted to work with me,” said Logan, referring to Dan Sheehan, the co-owner, producer and talent buyer for California Roots Music & Arts Festival, an annual music festival in Monterey, who had reached out to Logan with another musical proposition: create art for the festival.
Logan had previously met Sheehan while promoting shows in the area and later worked with the co-owner when the Expendables played the third California Roots festival.
“Dan was aware I was the artist for the band and a few others,” explained Logan. “When news got to him I stopped touring, he reached out to me for the fourth year of the festival.”
He was tapped to become the festival’s poster artist, a partnership that has persisted and helped to kick off the local chapter of Logan’s professional career as an artist. He has since continued to be an artistic mainstay of the festival, leaving a noticeable artistic footprint.
A few years after the connection with Sheehan, the Expendables proved to be another connecting point in Logan’s career, when a friend of Logan’s through the Expendables happened to be the UPS driver for Cindi Busenhart, the founder of Santa Cruz sock company MERGE4.
“Our UPS driver who was saying, ‘Oh, I think you’ll really like this guy. He’s so awesome,’” said Busenhart. “I hear that often. So I was like, okay. And like, if anything, maybe borderline skeptical.” But the driver turned out to be “150% correct,” says Busenhart.
“He’s hard-working. He trusts his gut. You know, he takes chances,” says Busenhart. “The art that he does is the freaking cherry on top of the person that he is.”
Nearly every piece he completes, from album cover to mural, utilizes what he refers to as his curse, an almost photographic memory, to get the piece right, in a way paying tribute to his memories, and homage to his childhood, his travels, and his time on the tour bus.
“It’s just all the extra little details, because I have to live with it,” Logan says, explaining that he’ll take the time to make sure that landmarks and natural features are oriented in the right way.
In addition to the several murals Logan has completed across the county, he was tapped about two years ago to create a piece honoring one of the county’s most famous features: the Giant Dipper. Once again, drawing on memories, Logan used his wealth of experience to inspire his art, creating a mural to commemorate the ride’s 100th anniversary.
He completed the piece in just about two months, the last few days of work completed with his then-newborn daughter at his side.
“It was very surreal,” says Logan, explaining that he included her handprint in the mural to mark the special moment.
As an artist, Logan explained, going on the road with the band was invaluable. He got to see America and experience another side to life. But coming home is just as special.
Usually when you do artwork, you have to work up through your community, says Logan, “I feel like I skipped that part, I went traveling, and then I got to know all the stuff on people outside of it, so now I want to give back to the community.”
PULL QUOTE: Over the next decade, Logan honed his craft on greenroom walls and the occasional bar napkin, while cultivating relationships and an artistic respect for the other musicians and bands touring alongside them.
