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“New Skateboard Graphics,” from Mark Batty Publisher, celebrates hundreds of the dramatic concepts and illustrations that distinguish the market today
February 2, 2009
Contact: Joel Samberg
Telephone: 973.857.8070
New York, NY, January 19, 2009 — With more than 70 brands of skateboards now being manufactured in the United States, and a growing number of hardcore enthusiasts who take very seriously the board designs they prefer to possess, an extensive photographic documentation of the scope of modern skateboard motifs is a welcome idea. Mark Batty Publisher, a leader in distinctive books covering the graphic and communication arts, has heeded that call with a new book called “New Skateboard Graphics.”
Put together by graphic designer, artist and skateboard aficionado J. Namdev Hardisty, “New Skateboard Graphics” is one of the most comprehensive books to present the wildly diverse and energetic artwork created for today’s dynamic skateboard market. With more than 500 photographs showing skateboard designs from 60 companies, and in-depth interviews with more than 20 artists, the result is an illuminating and very colorful overview of skateboard graphics in the U.S. today.
The skateboard images in “New Skateboard Graphics” represent a vast range of styles and genres, from artist self-promotion and the graffiti-inspired, to simulated dreams, nightmares and fantasies and the psychedelic, to personality and world-view statements and much more.
“Skateboarding has never been more visual than it is now. The iconic graphic may be gone, but it has been replaced by the iconic brand,” Hardisty said, referring to the devotion many skateboarders have for certain companies once they find a series of designs they feel speak to their own traits, behaviors and thought patterns.
“Branding rules skateboarding now. The visual image that a company projects is everything. This is a reflection of how our individual personalities are allowed to play a part in the direction of skateboard graphic design.”
Hardisty, a Rhode Island native, admits that some of his early schooling was interrupted so that he could spend more time skateboarding. After tapping into his artistic talents, he attended and graduated from the Minneapolis College of Art & Design, and now resides in Minneapolis, where he designs for an advertising agency and works on other graphics-related books. Keeping close ties to skateboarding, he noticed more people were thinking of skateboarders as artistic performers and of skateboards as canvases.
“There is a lot of great work being produced and no one is documenting it. Almost none of the companies are keeping online archives of their graphics,” Hardisty said. “I wanted to celebrate the artwork being made, as well as create a snapshot of the industry today.”
Skateboards have a relatively short life on the street because of increased usage of bigger gaps, longer rails and higher stairs that skateboarders enjoy. In addition, many designs are seasonal, used on skateboards for a few months and then replaced, a justification of Hardisty’s goal to create an archive for the best and most innovative among all the modern designs.
