Opinions on graphics

L.O.W. 928 · Posted: Mar 29, 2005 5:13 pm Post subject:

Stef Tor Model?

kyle13 · Posted: Mar 29, 2005 6:15 pm Post subject:

SleuCrew, my advice is something a bit like what scott was saying. Mess around with sizing and placement. I see your might be going for a simple look but it almost seems a bit standard and boring. Honestly I'm not a huge fan of the artwork, but to each his own...but i would say play around with it a little more. Just my opinion...

wakemitch · Posted: Mar 29, 2005 7:21 pm Post subject:

L.O.W. 928, that board is ugly

wakeskatefooo · Backside 180 Joined: 11 Oct 2004 Posts: 908 City: odessa

put

I WISH I WAS COOL really big on the bottom

JamesBoardr · Posted: Mar 29, 2005 8:12 pm Post subject:

i agree with what matt said 100%. it needs balance. im not to artsy fartsy myself, but the feng shei it def. not complete. if worst comes to worst just invert the colors and make it white. everyone loves white

wakeskatefooo · Backside 180 Joined: 11 Oct 2004 Posts: 908 City: odessa

just make it a wood deck with a big penguin on it

wakeskatefooo · Backside 180 Joined: 11 Oct 2004 Posts: 908 City: odessa

and call it the snow bird

electricsnow · cassette Joined: 14 Sep 2003 Posts: 10756 City: Jefferton

Sleu, I'd never seriously recommend completely biting a skate graphic. but you know, you can find influences all over the place and adapt them as you wish. I have some vague ideas, like themes you could possibly run with, but I'll PM them to you.

El, you should post some of your artwork because I'd love to see it.

Pirate, graphics are a HUGE selling point of a board, and it's also a way for the rider/graphic designer to express themselves. If graphics didn't matter, we'd all be riding blank boards, plain and simple.

That whole "if you're a wakeskater then you shouldn't be concerned about the graphic comment" is bulljive. A lot of wakeskaters like art so there's no sin in enjoying what your deck looks like. In fact, that whole first paragraph is bulljive and judgemental. I'll just leave it at that, and I'll say that one fairly significant selling point FOR ME between the first integrity team deck and the tolstoy was the graphic.

el · Backside 180 Joined: 07 Oct 2003 Posts: 1739 City: The Sea

I'll get a hold of a roommate's camera soon and take some snaps of the stuff I've been up to lately... I've been doing a lot of ink on paper lately, but I also paint on wood occasionally.

electricsnow · cassette Joined: 14 Sep 2003 Posts: 10756 City: Jefferton

cool, el! I can hardly wait!

SleuCrew · Posted: Mar 30, 2005 2:49 am Post subject:

el, Sounds good im stoked to see it... i have been working on a few other ideas but i totally want to see what other people think and want.

Josh · Posted: Mar 30, 2005 3:58 am Post subject:

el, I'm interested to see anything you've got as well.

scott a · "a" is for angel Joined: 17 Feb 2004 Posts: 4126

SleuCrew · Posted: Mar 30, 2005 6:09 am Post subject:

scott a, The deck that they used "Vision Mark Gonzales" is actually one of my more favorite boards of all time, and at one point in time i actually considered doing something with the graphic... I just think they did a very poor job on a board that was very monumental at its time, i really just think the graphic and the Gonz deserve a little more respect.

And the more i look at that board the less i want to take something from a great skate era and alter it to better suit my needs... I think the original graphics from the late 80s early 90s were beautiful, I guess in my mind they should be left to rest the way they were.

maybe this will clarify where i am coming from on that subject.

scott a · "a" is for angel Joined: 17 Feb 2004 Posts: 4126

out of curiousity- what do you think they could have done to make it look better?

obviously when you do something like this its bound to piss people off. it is entirely possible that there are people out there who are pissed that tolstoy's mug was stuck on a wakeskate because everyone knows that we are just of punks that play bad music loudly and bother fishermen...

lantz · Faceplant Joined: 30 Jul 2004 Posts: 11 City: Hotlanta

About the Melissa deck, IMO....If the artist lays claim that the design is original and is found out later he/she lied, that is wrong.

If the artist comes out saying the design is an homage to the original then that is all good. Basically like covering an amazing song that you love, but interpreting it slightly different.

There actually was a really big mess over this with the SWATCH company in the late 80's. Their designers totally copied old swiss posters for their "original" designs, only later to back track as they were found out.

Tobias_Neumann · Posted: Mar 30, 2005 9:22 am Post subject:

My 2 cents (whatever they´re worth)

First of all I don´t come from a skate/xtremesports background. I played soccer(or football as they call it in the rest of the world)all my youth and I still do. I work within the arts and play and write jazz and classical music. With that in mind you can safely read on.

I think most wakeboard and wakeskate graphics are extremely ugly. I get monoski and waterski vibes on most of the graphics. Some companies has opted for another path and their designs are completely different. These are the ones I like. I´m not saying I like every single Cassette board out there but they are not like for example Hyperlite feeding off the Heavy Metal culture from the early 80s and putting death skulls etc. on their boards (I have to admit that I liked the 2004 Scapes - pretty wierd as graphics on a board). Last years Gate is about the worst I´ve ever seen. I like the new Lemons board because of the balance between the colors and the diagonal line. I´m not a big fan of the Tolstoy although I accknowledge the originality.

The Robocop girl design is something that was hip among airbrush experts in the 80s. The artist did a great job, no offence but it´s not that original.

You have to ask yourself if you want to go with or against the stream. If you decide to go against it, more power to you, you´ll find that alot of people won´t like what you do. People have a hard time accepting new things. One of the most basic truths in advertising/marketing is that originality is the hardest thing to sell. How true that is.

I´d like to see some more abstract stuff on the boards. I´m a big Kandisky fan and his 'GelbRotBlau' is something which an artist could feed off.

In the end it´s just a matter of personal taste. As we say in Sweden "The taste is like the butt - split"

PIRATE · Guest

electricsnow, YOU get my point though. anyway have you ever noticed how your all about "free thinking" and respecting everyones opinion but then you say that mine is bulljive ??????? anyway i heart you still.

SleuCrew, do what you want, do what you believe in and people will respect you wether or not the agree with you.

Tobias_Neumann · Posted: Mar 30, 2005 9:53 am Post subject:

I thought I´d post a few pictures by a couple of friends, although without their approval. Willy is making more traditional manga type girls with boards while Fredrik is much more original. He travels all over the world with his art. These two paintings by him are roughly 6 by 6 FEET high.

electricsnow · cassette Joined: 14 Sep 2003 Posts: 10756 City: Jefferton

Pirate, most of what I've tried to defend is people expressing themselves through art, whether it be through a board graphic or avant-garde video editing. I don't support some things you've said because recently, it's either been about forcing an opinion on someone (ie. dump your trashy wood deck and ride integrity because it's the best (which is subjective, by the way)) or in this thread, saying that all true wakeskaters don't care about the graphics on their board and if they do, then they wouldn't support a rider owned company. Where's your proof? It's your stereotype of your "ideal" wakeskater. That stereotype is not art, which is why I'll dispute it to my grave (or for the day, whichever, I guess). If the designer of that board, or the pro that came up with that graphic put their heart into that graphic and it means something to them, then why can't it mean something to me, or why is it lame for me to care about it and buy a board because of it?

Scott, you bring up a good point, but I think sleu said it best for me as well. It's a sick graphic and the gonz has utilized his artistic license and changed that graphic up a number of times--it's his. And this may not be "logical" but it simply erks me that a company like liquid force would take a legendary graphic like that and make it their own. They just took mark's graphic and made it melissa's...I don't like that. And seriously, melissa was probably two or four years of age when that board came out Very Happy

Seriously, if she likes the gonz, LF should have comissioned a piece from him instead of maiming his. And again (like you said), this evidence that they'll never please anyone.

Also, I'm not sure that the trucks would symbolize that she actually had that deck. Putting trucks and wheels on the bottom of a snowboard graf was a somewhat common thing to do in the early to mid 90's because it was cool to show that you had a true skate background (or it was a cool thing to capitalize on). Two riders that did this were andy hetzel and noah salasnek (who was actually a pro skater).

So with that said, the trucks and weels could symbolize that she has a skate background and wants to show that off. Or they could symbolize that the concept for the graphic originally came from a legendary skate graf. And finally, it could be a combination and they're simply trying to attract some rad shredder by having an old gonz graph and skate trucks on the bottom. YOu know, that freaking madrid deck had trucks and wheels on it. I think they're trying to let people know that they were an old skate company, and maybe they're even trying to attract a few of those people from the "hey-day." Or whatever...it's open to interpretation and now I have a headache.

Oh, scott a, I can tell you that my art professor freaked out when he saw my tolstoy deck! He told me that my pic is now the background on his computer.

Finally, you're always a prick, so you don't need to say that or anything. Wink

Doesn't anyone find it odd that both LF and hyperlite came out with these rubber top wakeskates in the same season, and they both took on a famous skate graphic in the same season as well? Anyone? Bueller?