THE BREIF
This project gave me one constraint and a lot of freedom: visualize the idiom 'wild at heart' on a skateboard deck using imagery, not words. The design had to communicate the idea entirely through its visual language.
DELIVERABLES
Full-scale skateboard deck design with front, back, and edge views, plus process documentation showing the collage construction.
THE CONCEPT
The phrase 'wild at heart' could go in a lot of directions — dangerous, romantic, feral, free. I landed on something more playful and untamed than aggressive, inspired by cheetah energy: bold patterns, unexpected textures, and a collage composition that felt like it had been assembled with instinct as much as intention.
I built the design in Photoshop by layering personal drawings over photographic elements, letting the two sit in tension — the handmade quality of the drawings against the photographic depth of the collage. That friction between controlled drawing and raw photo material felt right for the idiom itself.
Skateboard deck design has a specific visual culture: it should feel like something someone would actually want under their feet. It can be weird. It should have some personality that isn't trying to be universally appealing. I leaned into that license.
KEY DESIGN DECISIONS
COLLAGE
Hand-drawn elements layered over photographic material in Photoshop — letting the tension between the two carry the energy of the idiom.
METAPHOR
The visual theme of cheetah patterns and movement communicates 'wild' through symbol, not text.
COLOR
High-saturation, dense composition that demands attention from the floor up.
SYSTEM THINKING
The design leans into the permissive, expressive tradition of skate graphics rather than sanitizing it.
