Designed an SMA inspired logo for Sidewalk Distribution

My friends over at Sidewalk Distribution have joined forces with the legendary Steve Rocco. When I saw the press release, my-teenage-fan-out-brain somehow realized that Rocco’s original SMA logo could work as the SWD (Sidewalk Distribution) logo. So I fired-up Adobe Illustrator and sent them the logo. I am extremely happy to see the logo in use on their newest Insta post/ad/press release! Gorm Boberg, added the distressing to my design. Thank you Gorm and Sidewalk.

My new SWD logo in use.

Roccos’ Original SMA ad/logo from the early 1990s.

My photo used for the 2024 DGR date announcement/post

What a great surprise to wake up and see my photo plastered all over Instagram! Out of 106,000 rider, 893 cities, 107 countries, and I cannot even imagine how many photographers, my photo was chosen to be the 2024 Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride date announcement/post. Check out the posting, as well as the original photo. To see more on my DGR shoots, please click the following links. 2023 DGR Gallery. 2022 DGR Gallery. 2021 DGR Gallery. Can’t wait to the shoot the 2024 event!

Found some old work from pre-2005

All of this work was done right after College. I attended George Brown The City College in Toronto Canada and got my 3 year diploma in Graphic Design and Advertising. Below are some email-outs that I was sending out in the early 2000’s. Resolution was a lot lower back then. I have made so many magazines.

Mentioned on the The Nine Club - Stop and Chat - Episode 81

It is always nice to be publicly praised for you work. I was tasked to put the iconic (in skateboarding circles) rider intros from the enjoi skateboarding’s 2006 full length video Bag of Suck onto decks. When I was first told this idea, I felt that it would not be possible do to resolution issues. Blowing 15-year-old video grabs (and some ancient digital photos) up to print resolution for a skateboard deck (9ish” x 32ish” at 300dpi) sounded like my worst resolution nightmare. I spent hours with A.I. upscaling software, photoshopping out Jpeg compression artifacts, digitally repainting and replacing elements, stitching and composting multiple images together all to get the look of the original video intros onto these boards. I was stressed and worried the end result would not be satisfactory to comemorate this fan favorite video. Watching the reaction of the members of The Nine Club made it all worthwhile. Thank you for the shout-out Louie! So happy to be a part of this deck series and a little piece of the Bag of Suck story.

The finished deck series above (decks also photographed by me). And a digital market asset made with the original video intros below that I put together. The original Bag of Suck video was filmed and photographed by Matt Eversole and Kyle Camarillo.

Photo Sighting in the "Wild"

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I saw this photo pop-up on ballistyxskate’s Instagram feed the other day. I shot that photo! Very cool to know it is printed out on a shop wall almost life-size. This was one of my earliest and most high- pressure shoots (April 11th, 2018). I was fairly new to flash photography. Shooting indoors on a poorly lit ramp was definitely a challenge at the time. I got the shot, but seeing the setting I used now makes me cringe. I am very thankful for RAW files. The image was also printed in the July, 2018 issue of Thrasher Magazine and used for multiple web and social media assets. Below is the Full images used for the campaign.

Skater, Louie Barletta for enjoi skateboarding.

Concept/Creative Direction: Chris Bywater. Editing Kimberley Rabbitt

Zumiez: The Six Steps of Skarate

Click the image to go to the Zumiez YouTube page.

Click the image to go to the Zumiez YouTube page.

enjoi is always doing great collaborations with someone. Here’s a fun one that is happening with Zumiez. I didn't have anything to do with the video above other than designing the Skarate logo that appears on the karate gi at the end of the video and on these decks. You can’t go wrong with Frank Gerwer and Louie Barletta Looking forward to learning what the six steps are!

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Retailer Product Photography

With the Global Pandemic still effect I am not seeing many physical product samples before they hit retailers. We are using digital thumbnails for product catalogs and marketing almost exclusively. While surfing the web this morning I downloaded a sampling of products that I designed and were photographed by either CCS or Skate Wharehouse. We are very thankful for their continued support during these strange times.

My Little Pony — Illustration

enjoi works at such a fast pace, it is often easy to lose track of what I have actually made. We drop a new catalog’s worth of products every 2 months or so. That’s a lot of graphics. Deck graphics, t-shirt graphics, wheel graphics, digital marketing assets, print ads, you name it. A random Google search result reminded me that I totally forgot I’ve illustrated officially licensed My Little Pony artwork for an enjoi/Hasbro collaboration. This Sweatshirt turned out pretty rad. Images from Grailed.

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Legacy Transport — Logo Design

Years ago, and old friend from junior high school hit me up to make him a logo for his transport company. He recently requested that I send him the file again. Today was the first time that I saw a picture of the logo on the truck.

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Selling some és Koston 3s

I have been hanging on to these és Eric Koston 3s for forever and I’m going to sell them. Trying out the instagram account Chomp On Kicks to help. I took these quick studio shots of the shoes on my lunch break. Happy how they turned out. The Shoe is a size 12 but fit a little small, that’s why they survived. There is some cracking in the foam parts of the sole as seen in the pictures. Not exactly sure how a 20 year old shoe would really hold up to being worn…most likely just a collector’s piece.

Jeff Grosso's Loveletters: Canada

It’s very cool to see a mini documentary on the Canadian skateboard scene. It really makes me wish I had picked up a camera much sooner as I was around many of the people and events depicted in this video. From working at Hogtown Skateboards and SBC Skateboard magazine, going to Slam City Jam, seeing Rick McCrank for the first time when he was on Cherry Bombs right before he blew up…migrating to California to work at Skateboarder Magazine and now working for enjoi skateboards and seeing Bill Weiss at the Dwindle offices all the time…it has been a cool ride so far.

Mentioned on The Nine Club by Andy Howell

As a teenager in Toronto working behind the counter at Hogtown Skateboards, I was heavily influenced by the art of Andy Howell. Fast-forward to 2019 and I am coloring Andy’s linework, doing layout and production for the enjoi X New Deal collabo. Then, being called an “awesome dude” by Andy on The Nine Club is a truly incredible and surreal experience. I am very happy with how the skateboard series turned out, and I will post the final product once they hit the shops. Thank you Andy. (The section about the enjoi collaboration starts at 3.25.25).

Andy Howell, Paul Schmitt and Steve Douglas. The creators of New Deal Skateboards (and many other things).

That’s me with Steve Douglas, (Chris Bywater), Andy Howell, and Paul Schmitt! Photos by Ernie Diaz.