Design inspired by high end craft surfboards, but with a snowboard twist. The top sheet utilized translucent inks over a wood grain texture and topped with an ultra glossy UV flood. Clear matte post prints gave it some depth by contrasting the gloss and matte. It was topped off with silver center piece foil stamp and white foils for the upper icon and lower board model callout. The base was hand drawn, scanned, sized and left in the raw graphite form under clear p-tex. The sophisticated top vs the raw bottom really popped this board off. One of my favorite board designs.
This was the season K2 really pushed the boundaries in board shapes. This catalog/lookbook created in collaboration with the K2 in-house team was lead by yours truly and shows a diverse range of work from layout design and photography direction, to board and boot designs also created this season for K2. The following is a sample selection of some the stressful days and long nights that went into the production of this catalog. The heavy weight matte cover and body paper selection with no print tricks really showcased the DIY feeling that was the 2015/16 campaign direction.
Streetwear inspired. The Darko has always been an industry leader in freestyle boots. Because of this we continually pushed this more to look like a shoe rather than a technical snowboard boot. It's an extremely tough thing to do with a snowboard boot but I think this collection does just about as good a job as any snowboard boot could do without sacrificing function.
Boutique style and detail. Each size comes with it's own tonal color palette. Opaque inks fade to a translucent through the center to showcase the inside technology of this all mountain destroyer. Minimalist clean design paired with a sophisticated color palette, high gloss UV and post printed matte black hits. Beauty is in the subtle details.
Last fall I was approached by DC Snowboarding to come in house for a short period to art direct, conceptualize and create the marketing campaign and tech spreads for their 2019 Snowboarding Catalog. I quickly accepted the challenge under a tight timeline, and with the help of DC’s in-house team, we somehow pulled off this Hail Mary in the 11th hour which in itself is a victory. Catalog builds seem to always be an exercise in stress and pushing timeline limits. Damon Way was brought back in to help bring DC as a whole back to it’s roots and in his words “I want it to have some grit, less cultivated and manicured.” Ultimately it still needed to remain on-brand. Going full zine style was squashed, but with the help of some moody photos and photoshop wizardry in the Outerwear Capsule layouts (spreads 4 & 5), we were able to hit that balance and make everyone happy. Can’t wait to hit the hills and see the 2019 product in action this winter!
This was year 2 of the Seek & Enjoy campaign and we focused on snowboard road trips as the overall theme of the year. For the ads we wanted to push toward simplicity. Showing the team having fun on the product. We juxtaposed that with the years color palette and the product they were on. Luckily for us, all the shots we used required a road trip in some capacity or another, and most were collected from one long team road trip we put together. The story from the road trip was told in the form of a 80 page zine and video which accompanied the campaign.
Through some old contacts in new places, Hangar Technologies reached out to me to create a logo for a new company in the works. A full service drone co. that would provide aerial data intelligence for Businesses. Still in it's beginning stages, I went to work with what they gave me to chew on while they focused on the market strategy. They asked that the logo to be a word mark, and the company colors be matte red and grey. The rest was up to me to come up with some options. A year later, that logo project has turned into an ongoing relationship of evolving brand identity projects. It's been an amazing experience to be a part of helping this brand grow. There was to many projects to choose for this post so I kept it simple with the basic foundation pieces. More to come soon.
I was given the opportunity by Liquid Force to create the look for Raph Derome's Pro Model wakeboard for 2018. After digging in a little bit to who Raph was, I knew I wanted it to be a stealth black aesthetic but still have some subtle detail. This is where we landed for the final design. The knockouts in the topsheet to show the wood core were a nice pop to the simplicity with out over complicating the design.
The next evolution to the Maysis. Brushed leather with bronze undertones. High density blind embossed pattern and leather patches with a suede flock designed in two color ways. The Maysis Plus looks as good as it performs.
Inspired by vintage hand shaped surfboards and the sheds they were created in, the Carveair uses it's unique shape to surf the mountain. The aesthetic was simple. A two-tone wash design with vintage type, high gloss finish with a clear matte accent print. We really sought to pay homage to the old school DIY movement with this one. Seek and enjoy the white wave!
I had the opportunity to create a zine/lookbook for 3DR and the following is a selection of spreads from the book. As a tech startup, 3DR had been focused on the technology and distributing that message. Drones have a certain stigma in public perception that is still somewhat contraversial. When I set out to put this book together, I wanted bring a human element into it, and focused more on human and drone interaction and what people are doing with their Solo as opposed to the technology. Obviously we wanted to include the tech, but it took a back seat in this particular piece. Below is a few spreads, with some photos I took and some our ambassadors took. You can view the entire book by clicking here
Lucas Debari's signature stick. We gave Lucas full control over the art, the only problem was he couldn't draw. For inspiration he emailed us three low resolution photos. One of the mossy trees lining the road on the drive to Mt. Baker. One of his favorite mountain that's he's climbed to ride down, and one of the Ravens seen pillaging unguarded food on the patio at the Mt. Baker lodge and wrote "I like the Lord of the Rings style art". I pulled out a pencil and merged the three to create the graphic. Raven skull with twisty tree texture, moss dripping from the beak and said mountain for the head. In order for this board to ever see production the timeline to complete it was extremely tight. This one went from concept to completion in less than two days. Translucent black ink flood on a bamboo top sheet. The raven was post printed matte Galaxy Grey over the red stripe and finished off with black foils. Lucas was pumped on the final product.
In the first year of the Seek & Enjoy campaign we wanted to showcase the K2 Snowboard team and encourage simply getting out there and doing something. "Start where you are. Use What you have. Seek & Enjoy" was the slogan. We employed a faded color palette and grungy theme to tie it all together.
For a short stint I had the project of re-branding TrackingPoint from top to bottom. New logo, new look. This is the ad I laid out that they opened with. Simple message, clean design.
Keeping with the clean boutique DNA of the Slayblade, the beauty is in the details with this one again. Painstakingly hand drawn graphite lines printed in dark silver over a black flood, then finished off with a high gloss UV, black and silver foil stamps, and a considered logo package.
Stylish and techie, the design brief was simple... Make it look cool and pick some good materials to accomplish that. We finished it off with a clean, stylized logo package and considered placement tailored around our seasonal color story. The Maysis does a good job of flowing freely between the techie and style forward consumer market.
One of my my favorite things to do is make a zine. I think it's because the minute you tell someone you want to make a cheap zine, the expectations aren't high at all. It's a fun place to let loose on stuff. Use images and designs you wouldn't normally use in brand collateral. You can pretty much throw all rules of design out the window and no one will question it. Time after time, these zines seem to be the sneaker surprise of the campaign. This one was for our Road Rage campaign year and below is a small sampling of some of the spreads. It was created over the course of 2 weeks when we stuffed 10 of our team riders into 2 RV's and took a cross country road trip documenting the whole thing. The spreads are as randomly laid out as the trip plans were and they both routinely went off course.
You might notice some resemblance to the Darko here, and that's because the Ender was built as a Darko step up. The interior tech got a big boost and as a result the design budget got one as well. I was finally allowed to use that tough, durable and waterproof denim we'd been shut down from using on the Darko due to costing.
Powerful angular design. The design just needed to be acceptable and powerful. This ones pretty black & white. What you see is what you get with a retro style racing model name logo in the tail. The images do not do justice to this boards aesthetic viewed in person.
The 2012/13 Season was K2 Snowboarding's 25th anniversary. The theme was simple... pay homage to the Pacific Northwest where K2 grew up. They rented a house down the road from Mt. Baker for the winter and invited the whole team to come stay. They also outfitted the house with a full time photographer. All the shots from this campaign were taken in the Pacific Northwest, primarily Mt. Baker. For the aesthetic I scoured through the gigabytes of imagery, and pulled background imagery of the trees and foliage specific to the Northwest and littered them around the edges to make every ad not only unique, but also just like the Northwest and it's overgrowth of mossy Evergreen trees and ferns. There's no way you're mistaking the locations for the Rockies, Northeast or Europe. Mission accomplished.
The Stark was the introductory boot for the K2 Kwicker split board system. The idea was simple, so they said. Needs to be look tech, but also outdoorsy like a hiking boot, and needed to be an easy selling black boot. Black didn't give the look of a hiking boot, but brown leather didn't give the look of technical, so I went with a grey faux suede with black technical PU's in select spots and techy graphic package.
With print knockouts to expose the wood core, gold foil stamps, translucent inks exposing under textures, gold insert rings, high gloss UV finish and a killer base graphic, I didn't want to ride this thing... I wanted to hang it on my wall, but I rode it anyway and it still looks good.
Art created for a Washington Island Wedding. For the groomsmen gift, the groom wanted to give them all a Best Made hand axe with custom laser etched art for commemorating the event with a Pacific Northwest theme. Since getting to the island required a ferry trip, I started with that and used some of the patterns from local indian tribes and a northwest style tree for the decor. The rest of the items placed out for guests came from the J&L shield that was the centerpiece of the axe. The axes came out really nice and by adding a clear glossy finish it really pulled out the wood grain and laser etch.
The 46 page catalog plus cover was one of the smaller page count catalogs we've put together, but probably had one of the biggest budgets. For the cover we used a nice heavy weight satin stock with a soft touch flood. We finished it of with an embossed logo and red foil stamps for the art elements and spine titling. All the body pages were hand fed satin prints with silvers and UV spot hits in considered areas to pop the product. It was also one of the tightest turnarounds we've had since the photoshoot didn't wrap up until the day before going to press. In order to have the catalogs delivered in time for Shot Show, we put in an all nighter to have it ready for edits the next morning. Luckily revisions were minimal and we got files in just in time to hold our press spot.
2012/13 Zine was a complimentary piece to the 25th Anniversary theme of the Pacific Northwest heritage. This zine was our first run at producing one to tell the story of the season from the Mt. Baker house K2 set up complete with a photographer and videographer. The video was released as the campaign dropped along with the zine and series of ads. The success of zine prompted more issues.
The field manual year. Inspired by vintage Forest Service and Military field manuals that got worn in from use. We ran around town to surplus stores collecting old topographic maps, patches, military storage crates and boxes, old field guides, and nautical accessories to outfit the photoshoot. Then took inspiration from the step by step illustrations in the things we found to create the informational tech spreads. Of course we put our own little stamp on the work to bring it into the modern vintage trend happening.
3DR was looking for a packaging redesign to go with their revamped identity. The solution was simple... Matte grey with the 3DR green accents and make it look good. Hit Machine took it from there and scoured through a library of new photos to use, placed some product images and finished it off with a soft touch flood to get the matte look desired and added some spot gloss UV hits and foil stamps for a refined finish that matched the Solo's sleek drone design.
To be honest, I'm not quite sure where the concept for this seasons Ultra Dream came from. Maybe it was in a dream. Who knows. But in the end this was the chosen direction. High quality opaque inks overlaid with translucent pearls were used on the colors and translucent blacks were used for the rest. In the right light, you can see through the blacks to the interior construction of this board and it was a really nice touch. Finish off with some gold foil stamps and you got yourself an Ultra Dream.
Another one from the K2 Enjoyer Series. The WWW is one of K2's highest selling boards so why not release a 2nd graphic package this year. The twist was, cater to the DIY theme of the season. With the recent trend in snowboarding being to self mutilate your board tip and tail, usually causing water damage and delimitation problems, K2 created a composite that mended to the wood core at the tips and tails specifically engineered to be chopped into your own custom shape. For the graphics we wanted to keep it just as raw the DIY pattern so it was all done with sharpie and a pencil and then digitized for print. The tip and tail composite translucent and in knowing this we faded out the opaque flat black to a semi translucent black distressed pattern at the tip and tail that was noticeable on snow and became more obvious when you took a hacksaw to it to create your own shape.
Strong and mean just like the intention of this board. Made for charging big lines down the mountain. There's nothing soft about this board.
Nothing fancy here, just a couple of T-shirts pressed to promote the brand out of the water. Or in the water if you're lucky enough to be able to shed the wetsuit.
K2 is a hardgoods brand and the apparel presence was pretty minimal, but we tried to do the best we could with the small seasonal offering. A few of our selected pieces are pictured here. We aimed to make them sellable as opposed to image pieces.
This was K2's color block overlay year. The thought was to hopefully grab the viewers attention through use of color overlays over team athlete photos corresponding to the product color scheme that was featured each month.
Not exactly my favorite concept for a campaign theme, but definitely one of my favorites to create. The campaigns vision was a traveling shred carnival. It was met with mixed emotions by the in-house crew. The challenge... Don't make it a cheesy carnival.
This was also the year the K2 budget controllers started thinking that traditional print ads weren't worth the investment anymore. A design blunder on my part at ad 4 made them think otherwise. As embarrassing as it was, in my hurry to get the ad out before leaving on vacation I spelled the word "Strongest" wrong in the headline type treatment. "The STONGEST board on earth" only ran in one publication and was caught before sending to the other outlets, but garnered a ton of attention. The internet rousing also pulled a ton of attention to the boards technology pumped sales. After that we were convinced print's not dead. Any publicity is good publicity, right?
The K2 Ultra Split for the ultra backcountry roamer. Basically we took the guts of the Ultra Dream, chopped it down the middle and created a fresh tracks powder seekers dream board. The design brief was to create a graphic that could transcend trends and time and remain relevant years down the road. Easy. I hit the back ally's of Seattle with a camera in tow to grab some textures from old weathered wood garages, fences, etc... and slapped some color blocking on it. The design can last a few years, unfortunately the technology gets better every year, so the design will most likely outlast the board.
Tocabe is a Native American Indian-owned and operated restaurant and online commerce site. Tocabe is on a mission to nourish people from Seed to Soul. They purchase from Native producers to promote food sovereignty, strengthen local economies, and revitalize Indigenous cultures. Tocabe’s goal is to create a sustainable supply chain that makes wholesome, high quality, culturally meaningful food accessible. I’ve had the privilege for the last year plus to help update and refresh the brand through design. To the right is a small sampling of some of the projects I’ve worked on in that time. More to come!
Along with designing the 2018 Raph Pro Model for Liquid Force they asked that I tackle the women's Jett as well. Haven't had the opportunity to design many women's product so I was happy to be able to add some diversity to the portfolio. It worked out well. Not overly feminine for the aggressive female wakeboarder yet not too masculine. Obviously some of the elements were still a little on the masculine side as the center graphic made it's way into the men's apparel which you can see below. I'm calling it a victory for both sides.
Not to long ago, I was approached to help lead in the re-brand of a brand that actually started in my home town, Steamboat Springs, CO. They’ve since gone global, but I didn’t hesitate help get them going in their new location in Denver, CO. Mostly spent most of my time updating a solid chunk of their collateral. Catalog, POP displays, vehicle wraps, designing looks for conference rooms, their in-house bar, and more. It was a wide net of projects, and really fun. Here’s a small sampling of some of the projects. I’ll add more as I get them collected.
