Surf & Type

Surf inspired phrases + typographic layouts.

[surfandtype]

About time for that 5 mill. 

[surfandtype]

[surfandtype]

[surfandtype]

[surfandtype]

Right before the last time you close your eyes. 

[surfandtype]

mind surfing a layback snap.

[surfandtype]

Bodhi Forever. 

[surfandtype]

STORY

Been really diggin' single fins and retro shapes a lot these days. Been getting real stoked watching movies like, Expencive Porno Movie, and I Had too Much to Dream Last Night. I enjoy seeing those types of boards being ridden more than the typical hi-performance shortboards. It's just more stylish and natural. It really does have a nostalgic effect to it as well. Anytime I see someone out on a really good day riding some sort of strange craft I instantly have more respect for them. It's not easy to ditch the norm and ride these classic styles. It feels like that oldschool logger and single fin era is coming back, though, and I'm really excited about it. 

The phrase came from a stick-n-poke tattoo that my friend Gavin did on his foot that simply reads, "SINGLE LIFE" for his love of single fin designs. I thought it was sick. 

WORK PROCESS

I always start with thumbnail sketches where I just draw lines and shapes to lay out the type. I had a few ideas really quickly, but fell in love with using the word "single" as the actual fin. I didn't have much time to make this piece so I quickly vectored a longboard image I found online. The contrast and negative space idea I already had set in my head, but I think subconsciously I was inspired by a kama sutra book cover that I saw a while back. The texture effects here were done in illustrator using a vector texture I got from shutterstock. I wanted to be super subtle about it since I thought I was overdoing the distress vibe on all my other pieces. The eraser tool was used a lot to achieve the subtle distress look. I don't know what it is about distress, but I feel like it gives certain designs a more natural feeling. Without it, designs feel too clean. It's the same effect you get on a bad screen print. Even though it comes out shitty, it has a cool vibe to it that makes it seem cooler because it's not perfect. I've always enjoyed that. And before I forget to mention it, the font I've been using for almost all the shit I've done on this project is called Patagonia. I can't remember who made it, but it's free and you can find the link to it at the bottom. 

REFERENCES & ATTRIBUTION

Patagonia font

Kama Sutra book cover

[surfandtype]

STORY

What Youth is an Aussie surf publication and blog that I've been following since they first started making shit. I love the aesthetic they have, and it's a direct reflection of the artists, filmers, and surfers that they work with. They generate so much fucking original content it's kind of insane. I check their site pretty much every day and it never disappoints. 

I was texting a friend one day about a playlist that he was making on Spotify. I told him it needed more reggae and he quickly dismissed it. Without thinking I replied to his dismissal by saying, "Damn not what youth enough?" And I guess he thought it was really funny, and now we use the term "what youth" in that sort of context. "You're very what youth" just means that you embody that kind of style and aesthetic that the brand created for themselves. It's probably a good thing, but I can see how some people might think of it as an insult. To each his own.

WORK PROCESS

The What Youth logo has a rhombus shape behind it, so I kind of started with that and laid out the text around it. I wanted to position the type in such a way that it looks like it should be moving clockwise to create a sense of movement that the eye could naturally follow. Once that was laid out, the "+" in the middle was added as I began to see what I was making as a compass. I thought it was a nice little touch, I suppose. It's definitely not necessary, though. The image in the background is of the hot ass model from Dear Suburbia. Apparently she dates Anthony Kiedis from the Chili Peppers. Kind of crazy. Again, I was stuck on the filled and stroked text that Casarro got me hooked on. The texture is the same illustrator process I talked about in the last post, as well as the raster texture in photoshop.

REFERENCES & ATTRIBUTION

Dan Casarro

What Youth

Spotify

[surfandtype]

STORY

The phrase came out a funny conversation in the outer banks. A friend of mine teaches surf lessons down there over the summer and they had a program that had a funky rhyme attached to it. I can't remember what it is, but we were freestyling back and forth on different names the program could be called. "Kook to Duke" is just something I randomly blurted out, but I kind of liked it and put it in my back pocket. With all that being said, I was thinking of how long it has taken for me to consider myself just "okay" at surfing. I've been bodyboarding since I was a little grom (I'm 26 now), but only started surfing in my later years of high school when I moved to VA from Hawaii. Ironic, I know, but the closest spot to my house in HI was a boogey spot. Anyways, I've been surfing for roughly eight years and, if I'm being honest with myself, am a super average surfer. Now that I'm somewhat older and have a good chunk of experience under my belt, I'm finally realizing that getting good at surfing takes a shit ton of water time and commitment. Hence the phrase, "going from kook to duke takes time."

WORK PROCESS

Went with the Dan Casarro x Matix clothing sort of style again, combining filled text with stroked text. I always make sure the layout and composition makes sense, and that there's hierarchy and balance. Hopefully your eye travels straight to "kook to duke" 'cause that was the intention haha. The badge outline was added at the last second because of a strange obsession I've been having with patches. I love vintage patches. I think they work really well as tee shirt designs and there's a lot of inspiration you can draw from some of the layouts. The texturing process was done with the roughen tool in illustrator, then with a raster texture in photoshop. I've gotten a good amount of textures from shutterstock and they work pretty well. 

REFERENCES & ATTRIBUTION

Dan Casarro

Shutterstock

[juanjuanwonwon]

[surfandtype]

STORY

I founded a surfing club here in Richmond, VA during my days as a college student at VCU. Since I was new to the area I thought this would be the best way to find other surfers, or at least people with similar interests as mine. A small core group of surfers eventually came together, and year by year that small core grew a tiny bit in size. I've made some of my best friends and memories because of the club, and I'm so damn happy that I started it way back when. 

Flash forward to now, and we've got a new name: "Richmond Surf Club". The main reason for the name change was to make sure non-students and the rest of Richmond knew that you didn't need to be a student to join. It's still a pretty small group, but it's definitely a quality over quantity bunch. 

WORK PROCESS

The piece was done as promo for a shirt I designed and printed to raise surf trip money for the club. You can find a link to it at the bottom of this post. I hand drew the illustration with some help from images of skeletons and bikes that I curated online. After finding the right images the process simply consists of drawing, tracing, tracing, tracing, erasing, scanning, and digitizing on Photoshop and finally Illustrator. The texturing process comes from a few different effects techniques used in both illustrator and photoshop. A lot of the texturing process I learned through different tutorials online, experimentation, and a couple of skillshare classes with Jon Contino and Simon Walker. The layout and aesthetic come from some work that The Studio of Dan Cassaro did for Matix Clothing. I've always been super into this vintage type, black and white, grunge americana signage thing. It's been getting pretty popular recently and I'm a bit torn on how I feel about it being everywhere. It just doesn't seem as special anymore, but I love it all the same. 

ATTRIBUTION & REFERENCES

Jon Contino

Simon Walker

Studio of Dan Cassaro

Skillshare

Richmond Surf Club Tee