I currently work for a clothing brand named SURFICTION (SƏR-FIK-SHƏN) as an illustrator. The clothing inspired by 80s Japanese anime with futuristic stuff and surf, it's a weird combination but it's turn out awesome.
The idea of the Surfiction based on the owner that forced to live in the countryside, so he cannot going to surfing anytime he want, so the tagline of Surficion is Sayonara Ocean.
The Surfiction universe is set on futuristic beach, where there are surfer girls with mecha that protected the beach. In the Surfiction universe, you are not only surfing in the beach but also in the sky using a high-tech surfboard, so you can surf anywhere and anytime!
Surfiction has 2 logo that used in their artworks and clothes, the one in the left is the official logo, while the one in the right is use for several artworks. The main idea of logo is different, logo in the left inspired by 80s anime main title in the opening song, while logo in the right heavily inspired by Tokusatsu logo.
I use 3 main colors on the logo, Blue represent the sea, red represent the spirit / power, and yellow is represent the sun. I pick the colors based on the few 80s anime title logo that I found, mostly is from Gundam and Super Robot anime like Mazinger and Getter Robo.
I use 3 main colors on the logo, Blue represent the sea, red represent the spirit / power, and yellow is represent the sun. I pick the colors based on the few 80s anime title logo that I found, mostly is from Gundam and Super Robot anime like Mazinger and Getter Robo.
Below this, is the several designs I made for pitch.
So far, I made 7 artworks for Surfiction. The style of illustrations is heavily influenced by City Hunter, one of the best anime in the 80s. I love how Tsukasa Hojo-sensei makes their characters look cool and sexy. For the coloring, I watched a few 80s and 90s anime like Sailormoon, Patlabor, Getter Robo, and City Hunter (of course!), and I was screenshot many scenes just to pick colors and put it on the palette.
This is the first artwork for Surfiction. The main idea of this artwork is a chick who wants to go surf in the sky, so we didn't show the sea but the blue sky like a sea. I designed the surfboard and we decided the name for it, ジェッ トサーフボード (Jet Surfboard).
This is Toyota MR2, a classic retro car. The story of this artwork is about someone that wants to surf in the sea again, notice that I made the surfboard normal, not the Jet Surfboard. I made the car still looks the same but for the futuristic touch, I change the car into something hover panel, like the cars in Overwatch video game.
We call it Surf Mecha, it's a big size mecha that protect the sky from giant alien that attack the earth, it also surf too. This is the first design of the mecha, and yes it heavily references from Macross and Patlabor. I want the design is simple and have not many detail, like in the super robot genre of the 80s.
This is the artwork I personally love, even I put every character separately. If you notice, I make the Surf Mecha different because I already fixed the design from the previous one. I'm taking reference from Voltus V and VF 1S, it looks much better now. Since this mecha is a defender of the earth, it needs a weapon. I actually want to make it similar to Patlabor's handgun, but I remembered the design of Robocop gun, so I decided to use it as my reference.
left: SAYONARA SURF / middle: NICE WAVE, BOY! / right: HELLA FAST BOARD , JET SURFBOARD
This 3 design is actually designed after hypebeast artwork style (I dunno what the name of this kind of artwork, I mostly see this on hypebeast brand). The idea for all of three based on fictional advertising on the Surfiction universe.
Some process of the artworks
