ALAN VALEK » Portfolio

Baker Skateboard Graphics

avalek — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 17:30:23 +0000

Designing graphics for skateboards is an interesting process. First off, you’re creating something that will be destroyed in a matter of seconds! Regardless, these designs need to have strong shelf appeal by conveying the team rider’s unique personality, which is a huge selling point in this industry. I’ve worked with Baker Skateboards for more than 10 years coming up with these board designs in collaboration with the Creative Director, Brand Manager and numerous team riders.

Selected skateboard graphics were licensed to TechDeck brand finger boards for international and domestic distribution in such stores such as Target, WalMart and Toys ‘R’ Us. Some skateboard graphics were also licensed for use in Activision’s Tony Hawk Pro Skater and Electronic Arts’ Skate video game franchises.

Hawk Clothing Print Ads

avalek — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 16:10:26 +0000

These print advertisements were created with input from the Hawk Clothing Creative Director & Brand Manager. The brand direction before this campaign was looked at as “too kiddy” by Quiksilver (they had recently acquired the Hawk Clothing brand), so we all wanted this campaign to have way more of an edge to it. The campaign was a success and the brand was eventually purchased by the Kohls department store chain were they still continue to use some of these elements in their marketing & advertising.

Flip Extremely Sorry DVD

avalek — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 15:01:00 +0000

With Flip Skateboards launching their 3rd and final installment of the “Sorry” series they commisioned me to take care of the packaging & DVD menu design as well as orchestrating the entire project with all vendors. This film used multiple claymations made by Edgar Alvarez & crew, so needless to say there was no shortage of ingredients when it came to designing this piece.

DVD Menu & Navigation

Once the box art was done I started working with Jeff @ Cirrius Media on the DVD menu design & navigation. After two weeks of collaboration, this is what we ended up with:

The Packaging

The box shape had already been picked out by the Creative Director prior to me coming on board with this project so it was just a matter of mashing all the elements together and coordinating with the packaging vendor to ensure quality and timelines were met.

Lauren x Jared Wedding Invites

avalek — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 03:20:26 +0000

Once and a while you get a client that comes along with a great idea and this is definitely one of those times — Lauren x Jared’s Dia de los Muertos wedding invites. The main invite card features the words “Amor Eterno” (eternal love) draped across the banner and appropriately placed with the bride & groom skulls as the main focal point. The “Guest Información” card accompanies a reply card asking if you’ll be in attendance or “be there in spirit.” All cards were printed on a HP Indigo Digital Press using 100lb. felt uncoated cover stock and were Illustrated on a Wacom Intuos 4 tablet. Well, I need to get back to filling out my reply card because I’m actually attending this wedding — hey Lauren x Jared, “chicken por favor” x 2 plates

Heather & John Save the Dates

avalek — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 03:46:20 +0000

Wedding planning can be a daunting task, so the less for the bride & groom to worry about the better — I stepped in to alleviate some of that pressure by designing this save the date for Heather & John’s Summer 2010 Wedding. Under a tight one week turnaround time for design I think we came up with something that the guests will find memorable and hopefully feel guilty about throwing away. The main card was digitally printed on a HP Indigo Press using #100 felt uncoated cover stock, the fabric overlays were then stitched on and rubber stamped with chalk ink purchased from The Paper Source — gotta love that place. The main invites are next….screen printed wood planks anyone?……

Baker Skateboards Web Catalog

avalek — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 07:56:58 +0000

More and more of my clients are reducing the amount of print collateral they run — case in point with Baker Skateboards’ Spring 2010 Web Catalog. They requested that the pages be designed as if it was for a print catalog, but wanted them shown in a slideshow presentation on the web instead. The final designs were handed off to a third party agency for jQuery implementation & coding.

View the entire Baker Skateboards Spring 2010 catalog at the Blitz Distribution Website.

+ Launch Site

T-Shirt Graphics

avalek — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 00:38:15 +0000

Select t-shirt designs created for Fury Truck Co., Baker Skateboards & Glory Hogg MX Apparel & Graphic Kits.

Thank You Very Much Card

avalek — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 08:06:39 +0000

With our Vegas Wedding in the books that meant the thank you cards were next on the list…what to do?..Elvis of course, glitter and all — Thank you…thank you very much.

The Process

Go head over to the blog for the step by step design process & material overview for this project.

Alan Valek Business Card

avalek — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 01:03:42 +0000

When it came time to design my business cards this time around I really wanted to go with something minimal, but wanted them to have a technical printing flair as well. The cards were printed by Dicksons in Atlanta, GA who specialize in custom jobs — highly recommended. Black Royal Compliments paper was duplexed to achieve a 200lb. card stock with die-cut round corners and white engraving on both sides.

Tony Hawk Web Contests

avalek — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 09:27:36 +0000

With every new Tony Hawk video game release comes an Activision contest that that gives away copies to a few lucky fans, I’ve had the great opportunity to be able to work with them on designing these contest pages. Activision supplies all the elements from the game, then I design the pages to match the overall vibe of the skate brands (Baker Skateboards & Fury Truck Co.) without straying away from the original branding of the game. I have also coded all these pages using CSS, AS2 & HTML — Baas Interative came in to set up the database to accommodate the thousands of contest entries.