Influence Skate Deck

Through my research and work I have discovered the thing most important to me in my design work is that it have purposeful impact. That I take into consideration the audience, their experience/biases, my own biases, and how I can make design decisions that help us take one more step toward equitable design.

It makes sense then that the quote, “To design is to influence” from the book Ruined by Design by Mike Monteiro, stuck with me and has become a bit of a personal and classroom mantra.

When I had the opportunity to create a custom lettering piece as a process example for a student workshop, I immediately thought of this quote.

My deck began with lettering and tracing in Illustrator, laser etching, then diecutting vinyl to use as a stencil, and spraypainting. In the workshop I walked through each step of this process with the students. Once we went through the process with this skateboard deck they each had the opportunity to create their own designs and use any of these processes to create their own designs.

Art Direction + Design + Production:  Mikaela Buck