Blue Reef – Longboard design

Client:
Blue Reef UK Ltd.
Project:
Longboard Design

Longboard design for California sunshine

Blue Reef have branched into longboard design, but historically they have built custom handmade interiors for Volkswagen camper vans.

Owner, John Wingate, is a talented carpenter and joiner with a love for surfing and boarding. It makes sense that he would combine his passions to create a range of bespoke longboards using the finest woods.

The brief

We had already created the Blue Reef branding and website a couple of years prior. So, John contacted us to extend the branding on to the longboards. This was music to our ears! Designing anything that is sport related doesn’t feel like work to us, it’s more a labour of love. We effectively followed the same brief as the branding, retro Americana with a drop of California sunshine 🙂

Our solution

First of all we sketched out lots of ideas. We then designed a number of boards, focusing mainly on the undersides. We also gave consideration to how the grip would look on the top. The script font of the logo was featured prominently and a vintage style of graphics fitted the project perfectly. The result was a set of boards that the client loved.

Client feedback

“Wow… They are all perfect, they really capture the look and feel I’m after… retro, vintage Americana dripped in Californian sunshine! Well done BLU:72 :-)”

John Wingate, Director – Blue Reef UK Ltd.

Footnote

In the 1980’s our creative director Mark, used to be into BMX and skateboarding and used to paint designs on the underside of his boards to make them individual. This was way before he even realised what he was doing was classed as graphic design. Who would have thought that would become his career. Now he’s come full circle with this longboard design project.