22/23 Spectrum Graphic Designer: Michal Smolarek
Michal (artist)
Please tell us the link between Gigi’s brief to you and the finished art work.
I sent few ideas to Gigi and he chose one of them. I started to work on it adding more details and colours. He gave me total freedom with it.
Tell us how you and Gigi first connected.
During the lockdown, I started to think about chasing my long-time dream of designing snowboard graphics. I sent a DM to Gigi asking if I could design something for him and he said “Yeah!!”.
That’s it 🙂
Talk to us about the graphic and what it means.
I had an idea about making the snowboard graphic look like carpet and while searching for patterns, I found a silly fake tiger skin carpet and decided to just go with it. Plus, I love tigers!
How would you describe your art in general?
I’m not sure. Funny character doodles maybe.
What work have you done in the snowboard/action sports world before?
I’ve designed a few skateboards in the past but this Spectrum is my first big one. Snowboard graphics were the main reason I learnt how to design on a computer 20 years ago. However, my career went in a totally different direction but thanks to Gigi I finally did it and I hope there’s more to come.
Where can we find your work?
On Instagram. You can find me at @miau_polarek
Where will you hang your snowboard?
I’ll ride it all winter long and hang in my office for summer
Gigi
How do you know Michal?
Michal contacted me on IG wanting to design a board.
What was the brief?
He already had few sketches and illustrations ready to pop-off our conversation. Him showing me explicitly thought out layouts with Slash wording got us going. Clearly the nicest part working with Michal is his professional approach to quickly get the idea across and then work on fine-tuning with astounding attention to details.
What does the graphic mean to you?
The Slash Spectrum has had a cat themed graphic before, so Michal’s adaptation seems fitting with the sublime Slash written inside the fur. If you turn around the Spectrum and look at the base, it’s like you’re an archaeologist – showing your “bad to the bones” moves will stand the test of time