Life Lessons in a Look at Our Favorite Snowboard Graphics
Every year, the Burton hardgoods team one-ups itself.
In routine fashion, they’re back at it in 2018. Burton’s women’s product is developed by women, and here’s our guiding principle: this should be one of the best relationships you’ll ever have. The importance of connecting to your snowboard — both in the performance and in the artwork —cannot be overstated. That’s why we put so much into it, and throughout the process, we learn more about the connection between snowboarding and the art of living. Here are the stories behind three of our favorite snowboard graphics from the 2018 line.
Genie
There’s a straightforward complexity that plain textures, layers, and real shadows can achieve compared to trying to replicate that dynamic with digital design. Artist Helen Musselwite’s calling is building out gorgeous landscapes and images from intricately arranged hand-cut paper. The brightly colored ferns and fiddleheads on the Genie remind us of getting lost, so we’re about to follow this fox full-steam ahead. That owl adds a subtle reassurance to use our heads as we navigate our way downhill.
Lip-Stick
The Lip-Stick has always been a statement about the freedom we have to do this thing our way, and the graphics that grace her are historically bold and irreverent. Parisian artist Francoise Nielly is a master of color and light, and in the 2018 Lip-Stick graphic, she adds dark beauty and vibrant expressive highlights to this deck’s powerful freestyle performance. Is it just us, or does this look like the face of a friend that would’ve joined us at the Women’s March in Washington, DC?
Feelgood
Here’s a fact: There’s a trust that builds between you and your board over time. As the longest-running, most legendary women’s board, one could argue that the Feelgood is Kelly Clark’s spirit animal. To honor where this duo has taken women’s snowboarding, we brought Kelly in to help us develop the graphic featuring mountain ranges, her golden retriever, and her personal motto: Bend Knees and Go Fast. Kelly adds, “I mean, who wouldn't want my cute pup Iris on their snowboard?” Great question.
At the end of the day, there’s one life lesson that ties these three graphics together: focus on the good stuff and follow your heart. You know…get down, rise up. ∆