Needless to say, I had a lot of time on my hands at the beginning of April 2020. This video displays the culmination of my creative endeavors. Featured here is a ramp that I built with my dear friend and collaborator, Yuk, fleece beanies inspired by Clique Worldwide, that I reverse engineered with my friend Bros, skateboards designed for the SOMOS 2020 release, and SOMOS sweatshirts inspired by Yuk's sloth-like manner.
As an appetizer to this project, I wanted to show the ramp that Yuk and I built. It's not necessarily our design, but it represents our collaborative efforts over the years. With skateparks being closed down, and just shy of $100 in our pockets, Yuk and I set out to build our own fun for the afternoon...
And because the ski resorts were also closed, Bros and I decided to redirect our stoke towards making hats for the next winter. He had found a small company called Clique that made stylish fleece hats with a distinctive "crown" appearance. Short on cash (after the ramp), we sought to figure out how they made theirs.
The first attempt: Bunny Ears
Second attempt: the Box Top
Desired shape: the Pinch
Here were our first prototypes. We knew from YouTube that there were two pieces of fleece. Our initial attempts were fine hats, but we still desired the "pinch" at the top. After about a week of trying new designs daily, we arrived at the shape in the last picture.
The full-sized Pinch
As another side, this is the skateboard deck that I'm riding. A component for the 2020 SOMOS board release, this graphic features a comic I drew about giving my dog Joj a bath, specifically adapted for a vertical skateboard format.
The main course is the sloth graphic that was inspired by Yuk's fun-loving and mellow spirit. We brainstormed the vibe and color together. Yuk had a messenger bag that he was very proud of and the elbow pad was his creation. He also really like the color of the year in 2019, coral, and the rest was history.
Here he is cruising in the Presidio of SF
Our immediate thought afterwards was to make a silkscreen emphasizing the coral color.
Showing my friend MCM how to print with the screens
Here are Yuk and Yuk!
