My brand is Taylor Made Street Skate and it exists to support new
beginnings. I have a goal to open a school that's integrated with a
shelter. The school will be similar to OSF, while the shelter will
provide safety while you're reaching for your goals. All funding from
Taylor Made Street Skate will go towards the operations of this school
and shelter, and will also provide work opportunities for students and
homeless youth. The theme of this board is the handmade. I am very
interested in fine art techniques and hand-detailing. Some of the
elements of the board that represent the handmade include the sewing
needle in the “e” at the end of “Taylor Made”, as well as a the dark
stained wood wood, which resembles handmade furniture or floorboards.
This board was started from scratch, with 7 pieces of wood veneer
glued together and hand-woodworked into a pintail shape. I glued an
extra veneer on top of the board to give the illusion of a street deck
inside of my longboard. I started by spraypainting the board with
metallic gold paint, and then used wood stain to stain the street deck
veneer brown, in order to contrast with the shiny gold finish. To
create the logo, I cut out tape into a stencil and spraypainted my
logo in gold to tie the pintail into the street deck. When I created
my design, I wanted to emphasize symmetry and balance in the placement
of the logo – these traits are not only important for the design of
this board, but are also key values for my brand.
One thing that I would do differently if I made the board again would
be to carefully sand the board before it gets spraypainted. I would
also apply the woodstain before the spraypaint, so any imperfections
could be covered by the spraypaint. Lastly, I would take more time to
think about my design so I wouldn't be rushed. For my next board, my
goal is to create a woodburned design that incorporates mandalas.
