So, I’ve been working on a few different projects over the past month, and now I can finally reveal one I’ve been sitting on for a while (not literally, though, I don’t think my laptop could take my weight).
Nitro Snowboards UK recently ran a competition to design a snowboard top graphic to be made into a Limited Edition production run and sold in TSA stores throughout the UK. There was no theme restrictions either, it just had to include the logo. Naturally, as a budding snowboarder I leapt at the opportunity! Snowboard and skateboard graphics are notoriously vast and quirky. Some are very plain, some are just strange, and some are so intricate you need a magnifying glass to admire every detail.On researching previous Nitro boards, a lot of the board designs seemed very neat and graphics orientated, or very intricate. It’s always a gamble trying to design something like this, as the wow factor and images of semi-naked ladies tend to be part of the appeal. At the same time, you do just get some down right beautiful designs, so it really, really does vary tremendously.
I wanted to look at the relaxing, peaceful side of snowboarding; standing on a mountain looking out at the world, it’s a pretty powerful and awe-inspiring place to be as I discovered earlier this year. Plus, I have a soft-spot for anything Native American so I drew up a dude to put in there too, on either end of the board. The quote is from John Muir, which just sums up the snowboarding mentality! My poor 4-year-old laptop struggled immensely to work with a template so large, but slowly and surely I managed to piece it all together in Photoshop. Remember me talking of scanning in textures to use digitally? Well that’s what you can see! All the colouring of the board had to be digitally done due to the size, so the textures were scanned in and played with to give the different effects I was looking for. Overall, I’m pretty happy with the design; The competition winner will be announced on the 15th July, so I have my fingers and toes crossed for that day.. I’ll be piste if I don’t win.. Get it? Ha! Ahh.. Not really, it was mega fun just making my design. May the best boarder win!
As it definitely isn’t able to cope with this sort of work-load anymore, I have exictedly poured my mediocre savings into upgrading my laptop in a ‘shut up and take my money’ moment of desperation. With lots of storage the best processor I could get, I’m pretty excited for it to be built and sent out mid-July! Finally I’ll be able to reference Chrome and use Photoshop simutaniously without having to twiddle my thumbs for 15 minutes whilst I’m waiting for Photoshop to catch up. How exciting.
Anyway, that’s it for now. I’m finishing up another project today which I will be releasing to the world next week, so keep an eye out for that. Over and out! x