SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA ENTERPRISE : The Short, Graphic Career of David Halili : Artist: Controversy over an Ice-T rap album he designed hasn’t hurt. At 26, he earns six figures.

David Halili isn’t bothered by a little controversy. In fact, it has aided his short career as a graphic artist.

The first time the 26-year-old Fullerton native realized he was doing something noteworthy was when he saw then-Vice President Dan Quayle and actor Charlton Heston on television holding up examples of his art.

But Quayle and Heston were hardly fans. Rather, they were criticizing “Body Count,” a hard-rock album by a group led by rap music star Ice-T. Halili had designed the cover of the 1992 release.

One of the album’s songs, “Cop Killer,” prompted a call for a boycott of Ice-T’s record label, Time Warner, because its lyrics advocated violence against law enforcement officers.

Halili had also designed the cover for Ice-T’s next album, “Home Invasion,” and just before its release Time Warner decided to change the album cover to a single, solid color because Halili’s proposed designs were likely to spark too much controversy.

That was when Ice-T asked to be freed from his contract with Time Warner and released “Home Invasion” on his own label--with Halili’s artwork on the cover.

Since then, the relationship has grown. Ice-T is now a music industry entrepreneur, and Halili is a major part of his operation. The rapper’s Rhyme Syndicate company has its own line of Halili-designed, hip-hop-style clothing that is sold through the mail, at concerts and in the Rhyme Syndicate’s store in Osaka, Japan. Halili also started his own clothing company, Halili Style.

“We think David is a phenomenal artist,” said Jorge Hinojosa, Ice-T’s manager. “He is talented and very professional, and we are constantly being unreasonable and demanding things in two days. He always delivers, and it is always great.”

Halili said orders from retailers for the Rhyme Syndicate clothes line are growing, with most of the demand coming from outside the United States. Hinojosa said Ice-T continues to work with Halili because he has succeeded in creating images and drawings that accurately reflect the message of Ice-T’s work.

Halili’s art career started at Ladera Vista Junior High School in Fullerton. Students were required to cover their textbooks, and he earned extra money making book covers out of heavy-duty construction paper and customizing designs on them for $2 apiece.

“When I was a kid, my role models were those guys on PBS who banged out paintings of mountains,” he said.

At Fullerton High School, Halili extended his business to taking orders for custom-designed T-shirts from classmates. But his popularity with his peers did not translate into success in the classroom. Halili nearly flunked out of his art classes in high school, he said--not because he couldn’t keep up, but because he found the assignments boring and simplistic.

“They would do things like put a plant at the front of the room and make us draw it,” he said. “It was a letdown and a disappointment.”

Despite his obvious talent and love of art, Halili said he never imagined being a professional artist or starting his own company. But while he was a student at Fullerton College, he started to get jobs.

Among the first was an order in 1989 from the television show “Married . . . With Children.” The show’s executive producer, Michael Moye, had the choice of using T-shirts supplied by Columbia Television or having his own made.

Moye’s assistant found Halili Style through somebody who had seen the shirts Halili made in high school and set up a meeting. Moye, according to Halili, was an important contact early in his career because it led to work with other television shows such as Fox’s “Pump It Up.”

So, at the age of 20, Halili made the decision to open his own studio. “I kept asking myself if it was a good idea to spend all this money getting a place and renting the equipment,” Halili said. “But it has worked out.”

That $4,000 investment has paid off well. Last year, Halili’s gross revenue was “in the six figures.” And, as his reputation has grown, so have his rates. Halili’s album cover designs now fetch between $5,000 and $10,000 each.

Besides his work with Ice-T, Halili has designed logos and shirts for such well-known bands as Stone Temple Pilots.