Destination Hollywood

At the debut of the Hollywood Red Line this month, riders will be handed a colorful commemorative poster not by Charles Ray or David Hockney, but by 23-year-old Gensuke Okamoto, an artist as fresh as the ticket machines at the Hollywood-Highland station. Some months ago, Metropolitan Transit Authority representative Fran Curbellow visited Los Angeles City College, near the Vermont-Hollywood station, to look at student graphics. The result was an MTA-sponsored poster contest at the school. Okamoto took home first prize.

“Normally, we’d go to an artist like Frank Romero to design our historic posters, but I liked the idea of involving the community in Metro coming to Hollywood,” Curbellow says. Okamoto’s entry, which beat out 35 others, is a computer-generated grid of cinematic iconography--a film camera, Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, a Walk of Fame star, even the famous Marilyn “subway grate” image--that spells out “Hollywood” as cleverly as the sign above Beachwood Canyon.

Okamoto, a Tokyo native, happens to live near the Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street station, though he didn’t visit the famed intersection for inspiration. “They gave us pictures and the theme ‘Destination Hollywood,’ and the ideas just popped out!” Okamoto says. His award? A $1,000 check, a trophy and seeing his work at the subway station. Or not. “I like my Chevy,” he admits. “But, who knows?”