The first Thrasher Skater of the Year poster I got to create. This was also the first year Thrasher made 100 limited-edition 11x17 screenprints to give away at the annual party. It's important to note I utilized the ARTO SAARI type treatment that had already been done for the magazine interview by my friend and previous Thrasher art director Nico Berry.
This poster design/DVD advertisement was based on the DVD cover I created but also contains three logos of varying quality that I designed. The "interstate" logo (requested by the photographer) is embarassing to admit I touched, but I do really like the way "highway to hell" logo came together, and 10 years later that logo still gets plenty of action—they just update the year on his forehead! The "Available only on THRASHER DVD" branding was my blatent copy of the omnipresent Disney DVD marketing of the day, but that logo + branding has also stood the test of time and is still in use too. That's my "handwriting" in the logo, and yes, Brian Anderson did actually sign this poster for me:)
This poster was to promote the release of the 2005 DVD. I'm not crazy about this one-time use "Beast Creeps East" logo I designed but I do really like the way my hand-scratched type pops and the poster composition overall. For me it passes the most important "would you hang it on YOUR wall? test.
Daewon Song's limited-edition 2006 Thrasher Skater of the Year poster was a 2-color screenprint on heavyweight 11x17 cardstock. My handwritten SKATER OF THE YEAR type would end up becoming part of the "official" Thrasher SOTY logo branding from this point on.
I had been promoted to Creative Director and Dan Whiteley was the art director at this point, but I include this poster so you can see my Thrasher Skater Of The Year logo in effect. From a branding standpoint, before this logo was established we would often see instances of skaters using "skater of the year" on their boards/shoes/ads/video without any Thrasher branding whatsover! Not to mention the fact that there's an ice skater of the year, hockey skater of the year, Australian skater of the year, etc…This logo was developed specifically to emphasize Thrasher over SOTY yet also reproduce well in one color at small sizes on screenprinted boards, embroidery on shoes, and in ads and video.
After seven years of 11x17 posters this 22x8.5 2-color print stands out as one of my favorites. Art director, Dan Whiteley did the poster design this year too, and my good friend Phil Rumion pulled the screens. At this point the annual holiday SOTY party madness had become thankfully somewhat routine, as the SOTY party falls in the middle of mag deadlines and the holidays.
This was my sharpie-and-whiteout update of Ivan Hosoi's original Skate Rock skull logo for the 2005 relaunch of the Thrasher Skate Rock brand. The anarchy sign and "same shitty attitude" line was an inside joke that stuck. I had access to the hand-drawn artwork Christian Hosoi's dad, Ivan had originally sketched in the 1980s, but it didn't reverse onto black automagically. Many of the details were unclear, and most importantly we wanted to make sure skaters knew Thrasher Skate Rock as a disctinct brand unique from the skate rock fansites that had popped up over the years.
The original 1989 Skate Rock logo by Ivan Hosoi.
