![\"Creative](\"https:\/\/crazyleafdesign.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/creative-skateboard-decks-header.jpg\" "\\"Creative")
<\/p>\nCool skateboard designs have been around ever since the beginning. Skateboarding emerged during the 1940s and 50s when Californian surfers began applying wheels to their boards for surfing on land when there were no breaks on the ocean. Over the decades since then, as skateboarding techniques, design and culture has evolved and grown in popularity, so too has the artwork that adorns their undersides.<\/p>\n
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The lozenge shape of a skateboard, and the accommodation of wheels and trucks, provides a unique \u2018canvas\u2019 with it\u2019s specific constraints of shape and size. This format gives a unique surface on which artists, designers and illustrators can create designs. There are many recurrent motifs in skateboard art and culture, but also an enormous variety of experimentation with every kind of visual style possible to be found in skateboard deck designs.<\/p>\n
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This post brings together 20 examples of awesome skateboard decks showing a range of different styles \u2013 many of these artworks would be more art home on the wall of gallery than enduring Ollies, flip tricks, grinds and slides on sidewalks, skateparks and half pipe ramps.<\/p>\n
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American conceptual artist John Baldessari is best known for his pictures that juxtapose found photography, appropriated images and text. Baldessari created these three skateboard deck designs in collaboration with Supreme, employing simple, bold colour schemes and a quirky photographic nose motif.<\/p>\n
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Florida-based artist Bryan Allen Collins hand painted this surrealist deck design for the Montana Skateboard Association for an auction to raise money for the organisation\u2019s projects to promote skating and build skateparks in and around Montana.<\/p>\n
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Artist, designer and illustrator Colm O\u2019Connor painted this unique design on a high quality Canadian Maple wood deck. O\u2019Connor works across a range of media including tattoo design, a field of art reflected in the deck\u2019s sugar skull and rose petal imagery.<\/p>\n
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A selection of four brightly coloured, psychedelic and slightly freaky skateboard deck designs from graphic artist artendrju.<\/p>\n
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Kazakh image maker and designer Den Kazakov created this cool deck design using a vector graphic waveform and attractive turquoise and lemon yellow colour scheme.<\/p>\n
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Born in Taiwan and currently living and working in Los Angeles, artist James Jean works across a range of visual media including distinctively styled paintings and drawings which he exhibits across USA. Giant Robot commissioned Jean to create this triple deck design to celebrate the magazine\u2019s 15th anniversary. His creation, entitled Exit Eden, was released at Comic Con in San Diego in a limited edition run of 150.<\/p>\n
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UK artist Arthur Smit works under the name of The Hermit Design, producing eccentric graphics with an individual style. Here he applies his oddball characters to an awesome deck design.<\/p>\n
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This skateboard deck design uses imagery from Animal Farm, George Orwell\u2019s classic allegorical tale of Stalinist totalitarianism set in an English farmyard. On the topside of the deck is the novel\u2019s central phrase, \u2018All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.\u2019<\/p>\n
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Luis Diaz hand painted this stunning deck design for the Loaded Deck Skateboard Show at ALT Space in Coconut Grove, Miami.<\/p>\n
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Atlanta-based artist Jeremy Worst produced this amazing skateboard design, hand painted in acrylic and paint marker. The design is a great combination of graffiti style lettering and Mexican sugar skulls.<\/p>\n
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New York artist Jason Freeny produces a bewildering range of artworks exploring anatomy, including sculpture revealing the innards of Lego men, Kewpie Dolls and Nintendo\u2019s Mario. He also creates a variety of graphic work such as this eye-popping deck design.<\/p>\n
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Graphic artist Wardell Brown created this cool deck design representing the hip-hop and lowrider culture of his hometown Oakland, California. Brown designed the deck for One Love Skateboards.<\/p>\n
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Digital artist Jeremy James created this skateboard deck design for his brother and provided two colour scheme options, both equally cool.<\/p>\n
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German graphic designer Michael Hanauer produced this elegant vector-based design in a selection of three colour schemes.<\/p>\n
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Titnedo\u2019s triple skateboard deck design features characters from the immensely popular mobile game app Angry Birds including the iconic wingless multi-coloured birds and one of their enemies, a green pig.<\/p>\n
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Artist Trevor Truscot produced these four design concepts for a commission from Am I Daemon. The expertly rendered black and white imagery is at once sinister and extremely cool.<\/p>\n
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Silke Werzinger is a German graphic designer who specialises in editorial design and illustration, with a distinctive style and technique using ballpoint pens to create absolutely stunning drawings. Best known for her work in magazines, Werziner has also applied her graphics to other fields including skateboard design, such as these fine examples with brilliant pen drawings of retro technology.<\/p>\n
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These beautiful board designs are from Dubai-based artist Victoria Viray, employing her trademark imagery and exceptionally fine finish.<\/p>\n
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Spanish illustrator and designer Borja Bonaque is inspired by the geometric shapes and pure lines of the urban landscape, as demonstrated in these exquisite examples of skateboard art.<\/p>\n
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Finally, this collection of awesome deck designs is from Brooklyn-based design collective Makeset, which is a partnership between designers Damien Correll and Mike Perry. The duo created these skateboard designs for the Zoo York Institute. The decks\u2019 astonishing graphics feature familiar landmarks and neighbourhoods of New York including Times Square, Brooklyn Bridge, Flatiron District, Coney Island, and Chrysler Building.<\/p>\n
These, along with the other examples we have seen, show how skateboard deck design is an ever evolving art form, a field that allows artists, designers, illustrators and all kinds of visual creatives to unleash their imagination.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"