Slipstream – Product design
Request
“We would like to have your art on one of our boards”
In my younger days, I used to do a lot of longboarding. It was a sports interest that also involved hanging out with my friends and exploring the challenges of balance and speed in the body.
Since I was also heavily involved in my illustrations, I received a request to create a design for Medium Distribution products. Why not, I thought, it sounded like a dream.
And it was, creating something and then seeing it in stores around Sweden.
Idea
I began by reviewing Slipstream’s previous products, examining the designs and patterns. What I gathered is that each product is created with the artist’s own niche, which, in my case, applied as well.
With that said, I started sketching, and of course, incorporating my little characters was important to me, ensuring that they too would get a bit of the spotlight.
But the question is, how can I implement these small, modest characters on a longboard? In a cool way.
Sketch
Now that I have received some ideas and gained insight into what might be designed, the next step was to start sketching by hand.
Drawing inspiration from what I have created before, it began to evolve into something
Cooperation
I had a contact person who worked as a product developer at Medium Distribution. I received recurring feedback on my work and on how their Slipstream logo should best appear on the board.
It was enjoyable to engage in some nerd talk with someone else when it came to the graphic aspects.
I had to iterate a few times to get this design to sit ‘right’ on the product and for both parties to feel 100% satisfied
