I was tasked with designing a skateboard with a visually busy and intricate design. Because I do not skate and haven't been around much skating the research aspect of this project was very useful.

For My concept, I chose to work with a zen tangle because I find the forms quite mesmerizing. I tried several zen tangles, some included circles and other more organic shapes. I settled on the tangle of all triangles that interlock and interact because I felt like the culture of skating has a bit more of an edge. I did not feel that flowing lines that seem to never end represented the skating culture as well.

To create this design, I started with the basic outline of the board to know what size to design from. I used a rectangle to make sure the sen tangle still made sense within the dimensions of the board. After that, it was just tedious work filling in the shapes with the complicated forms. For the front of this board I chose to play with the concept of altering the grip tape because I found that most of the top of the board should still be grip tape to be able to use the board. I chose to hand letter my type as to add another element and showcase another of my skills. This was done my scanning in the lettering and vectorizing it.

From this project I learned a few things. I worked more with the pencil tool and got the chance to improve my hand lettering skills. I got to experiment with a wide range of colors and how they reacted before settling on the final arrangement. Through all of this I think there is one lesson that stands above all, research. Because I didn't know much about the culture associated with the object I was designing, I got the chance to look into a bit more of the details and find what styles I was going to try and achieve. I feel like learning as much as you can about what it will take for a project to be successful and knowing how to please a demographic (or client) is what can really help throughout the rest of my design career.