#410- Design A Skateboard Graphic

     It's with a heavy heart, and a sunburnt neck, that I have finally come to terms with the fact that summer is pretty much over. It's a bummer I know, but rather than sulk in a state of sesaonal depression before the leaves even begin to fall, I figure that now is a great time to write about what has to be one of the best highlights of the entire summer. Designing a skateboard graphic.

My Graphic!

     On January 1st, which is most certainly not summer, I got an email from Brian, a rad dude/friend/skater/fill-in-the-blank for Square State Skate (the skateboard lesson/camp I work for) asking if I would be interested in designing a board for the upcoming summer. I considered this to be a huge deal. Skateboarding and drawing are like my two favorite things ever (well like, I like Stef and my dogs too, but whose keeping track right?). Skateboarding, and the art that is so tightly tethered to it make up almost all of my adolescence.

The Original World Industries Sticker-rama Board

     I'd routinely ditch class to roll around a desolate parking lot, spend class lectures drawing skateboards, parks, and related skate iconography instead of taking notes, and avoided any and all normal social teen functions for a chance to ride around on my board. Maybe the teen version of me had a problem, but teen-me would argue that I had the answer, and frankly I'd have to agree with him. Skateboarding is the absolute best, I have it to thank for the qualities I value most, the friends I have, and the lessons I've learned.
     So when given the chance to design my own board, and in turn, insert myself as a tiny cog within the vast machine of skateboarding, it felt like a dream opportunity. I got to work instantly, and over the next four months, and countless renditions and revisions, I sent off my final draft.
     The design is inspired by an old World Industries graphic of a dirty downtown cityscape, full of vice supplying stores. The original board also included a sticker sheet full of a colorful cast of questionable characters; mostly prostitutes, pimps, and a dog peeing (oh and one dog that was also a pimp).

     Obviously, since the board was being made specifically for a kids skate camp, the more colorful content needed to be changed pretty drastically. In my version I traded the locked up liquor stores and dinged up cop cars for a more bubbly cartoonish feel of downtown Boulder, Colorado. If you look closely, you can spy the names of all the counselors hidden within the board. And my favorite part is the sticker sheet. Although there are no pimps or even any dog-pimps on mine, there is a hover boarding alien and a few cellphone-fueled zombies, which I would say is even better than a canine pimp any day.

First board, ridiculous smile

     This was a great experience. A long, arduous, and often never ending, but none the less great experience and I'd love to more stuff like it. Receiving the first board in early July (more than a half a year after starting the design) was somewhat surreal and very very cool. Thanks Brian and Square State!