Image via Ikonick
You might not know Jeff Cole by name, but you’ve probably come across some of his graphics on Instagram.
He’s morphed a pair of “Vermillion” Adidas Yeezy Foam RNNRS into a Pokemon Charmeleon head. He’s turned the Avengers into Squid Game cast members. He’s turned Kanye West into the Jordan Jumpman logo. And he’s created his own album art and logo packs for Drake’s Certified Lover Boy. But one of his main sources of inspiration is Michael Jordan, who was his hometown hero.
“He became my idol. Everything I did was about the Bulls or Jordan,” Cole tells Complex. While he didn’t know it at the time, Jordan’s competitive mentality would influence his approach to art. He noticed what received the most engagement on social media and this informed what he would make next. The likes and reposts from his IG account, which has 837,000 followers, allowed him to see a gap he was filling in the art world.
“I don’t believe that art is objective. I challenge myself to believe that art can be objective and can be tallied and scored. I think there is a scoreboard, there’s a very weird side that I’ve developed with art in competitiveness, which was obviously really impacted by [Jordan].”
Cole’s latest project brings his lifelong admiration of Jordan full circle. Ikonick, the art company he founded alongside his longtime friend Mark Mastrandrea in 2016, has signed a licensing deal with Upper Deck which extends their relationship with Jordan for a collaboration with Ikonick. This gives the company, which produces motivational wall art using a range of pop culture icons from Dennis Rodman to the Monopoly mascot, clearance to use officially-licensed images from across the NBA legend’s career. While they still have yet to meet, when it came to deciding what images specifically to highlight, Cole says that he wasn’t just looking to use any nostalgic image of MJ. He wanted to focus on photos that evoked the most emotion.
“I would like to think that we’re kind of the first company to reinterpret these iconic moments. If you look at any of the other people who have been putting out Jordan or LeBron art, it’s kinda just photos. Companies are not actually intertwining them into the brand DNA,” says Cole. “People have been knocking off Jordan pieces left and right for decades. But I really wanted to take the new findings [from The Last Dance] and bring that new personality and that dog, the real Jordan. I wanted to bring that to the market.”
The first items from Ikonick’s Jordan collection arrived on Feb. 28 at ikonick.com with prices starting at $149. The five-piece assortment includes canvases that pay homage to Jordan’s illustrious career. In one piece, he is hunched over in exhaustion, a snapshot from the infamous “Flu Game” of the 1997 NBA Finals, accompanied by a message of resilience, “Keep Going.” Another uses the image of MJ hugging the Larry O’Brien trophy after capturing his first championship in 1991 with “Worth Everything” written across it. In another piece, Cole placed one of Jordan’s early dunks over clouds to make it seem like His Airness is literally flying through the sky. “Take Things Personally” is etched across a photo of Jordan in a defensive stance with an intense look of focus on his face, which cannot help but drum up thoughts of a standout clip from the 10-part Last Dance documentary.
“The whole point of my art is to, when you’re scrolling, stop and be like, ‘whoa, what the hell is this? These things aren’t supposed to be together.’ I’m kind of creating my own multiverse,” says Cole. Other Ikonick partnerships have included Fubu’s Daymond John, boxing legend Muhammad Ali, entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk, and even the Peanuts gang. Each has allowed Cole to reinterpret the source material through Ikonick’s unique lens. This partnership with Upper Deck has been no different. “The opportunity to work with Upper Deck to expand their Jordan relationship for additional collectible products has been great so far. They’ve given me full reign to flex that muscle. I’m very excited to show people probably the best you’ll ever get of unleashing my creativity and really what I wanna put out through Ikonick with this Jordan collection.”
Along with Jordan, Ikonick has also obtained the rights to offer collectible artwork for sports legends Tiger Woods and LeBron James by collaborating with Upper Deck. Canvases reinterpreting touchstone moments from across each of their careers with Ikonick’s signature twist will roll out in the coming months. But Cole isn’t only creating canvases for homes and offices. He’s still very active on his IG account, usually posting daily.
One of the earliest posts that Cole recalls was a photo of Kanye West’s face recreated using “Red October” Nike Air Yeezy 2s. At the time he only had a couple thousand followers. In 2016, he reinterpreted the idea using the Adidas Yeezy Boost 350s. He remembers the image getting re-shared by a ton of accounts on Instagram, which was a big boost to his notoriety on the platform. Brands eventually took notice. Nike, Jordan, and Adidas have all tapped him to work on projects in the past such as art directing Jordan Brand’s 11 for 11 campaign that launched on the SNKRS app back in 2020. His influence at these brands has gone beyond just the work he has done for them though.
“A lot of people at these companies have actually admitted that they used my page to spring up ideas for marketing campaigns and shoe designs,” says Cole. “The official stuff that I do with them is cool. It’s kind of, in my eyes, somewhat underwhelming in some instances. But using my work as inspiration internally to kind of inspire real products, real campaigns, is everything to me.”
Art has been part of Cole’s life since he was young. He recalls taking studio art classes as a kid at 6. By 10, he was already selling his creations at local art fairs. Much of the work was inspired by Jordan. As a way to make money in his 20s, he taught himself how to use Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator and took on more freelance work such as designing graphics for online retailers like Karmaloop. While majoring in illustration during college, he landed an internship under art director Alex Haldi at Def Jam. He got the label’s attention by sending cover designs he had created to Mac Miller and Wiz Khalifa via Facebook Messenger.
“I think of myself kind of as a chameleon. I can do illustration at the highest level. I can do 4D at the highest level, 3D at the highest level,” says Cole. “That’s been a huge advantage for me, just to be completely multi-faceted and not dependent on one style.”
Despite his vast skill set, Cole creates most of his work for Ikonick and Instagram through Photoshop and Illustrator. While he won’t reveal how long pieces usually take, he does say that he follows an 80/20 rule. Eighty percent of his time is dedicated to research and development, while only 20 percent is the actual execution of a particular piece. He says he’s probably made about 90 percent of Ikonick’s output thus far. As the company grows, it also has brought on a small team to help craft graphics, which Cole oversees. When it comes to the future of the company, Cole and Mastrandrea just want to keep inspiring others through art. While he hasn’t been able to work directly with Jordan yet, Cole remains hopeful it will happen one day.
“To me that’s like the pinnacle of life, to work directly with the man himself. I’m putting myself in the best position every day to do that,” says Cole. “I’ll just say that this is one step forward to that.”
