Week 7

For the past few weeks I've been working on designing new graphics for Gravity, they have an upcoming wheel line and next fall a new line of pro-series board graphics will come out. I work mainly with illustrator and photoshop, I appreciate the trial and error that these programs afford me. I'm interested in working in graphic design more in the future, I'd like to arrange the layout of ads in magazines and design the look and flow of websites. In Bill Buxton's book, "Sketching the User Experience" he talks about how image and design are oftentimes more important than the product being sold. The different demographics advertised to in skateboarding are interesting to me, there are old-school skaters, punk rock skaters, beer-drinking 'hesh' skaters, hippie skaters etc. and for each of these groups there are different brands and pro skaters that exist. Gravity has a solid position it its own niche which would most likely be classified as "old-school and longboard skating". I've only been aware of Gravity for the last few years but I've always liked their board graphics and the look of their ads. With all the boards, wheels, t-shirts, stickers, and all the other product Gravity sells, there is a demand for new graphics that have a "fresh" look. I've been working on drawing a rendition of Ralph Steadman's piece from "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas", substituting the bodies of Hunter Thompson and his lawyer for Gravity team riders Brad Edwards and Sergio Yuppie that could perhaps be used as an ad-campaign or board logo. I've also spent some time in Photoshop and Illustrator coming up with other potential graphic ideas that I'll include.