Founded in 2004 in Truckee, California, Automaton was born with the purpose of helping build the snowboard culture. Producing top-notch snowboards designed for freestyle fun. Brenton Woo, founder of Automaton, talks about the artwork and artists behind thier boards.
Snowboard: Trust Me
Artist: Joe Polillo
“I try to stick with universal themes so that people can relate to our graphics and message, but sometimes the graphics themselves end up being really personal to me. The theme that was “Honesty is the New Black”, and this model of board was the Trust Me. Obviously the theme is really about trust. Joe P is a local Tahoe shred I know from around, and I thought his style would complement the idea. Joe used a simple minimalist style, almost children’s illustration, to disarm the viewer looking at the smiling boy/girl/robot. “Trust Me” is written all over the background kind of subliminally because it’s not the focus of the graphic. Then on the opposite side, the art is of the reverse perspective of the character and he/she/it has a knife in its hand. I came up with the idea after an unfavourable experience with a girl that season. But I figure that 99% of people have gone or will go through the same situation. Just a part of life, I suppose.”
Snowboard: Time Fighter
Artist: Alex Funderburk
“I met Alex through Chad Carothers, who did several board graphics for Automaton in the past. Alex also happens to be the Senior Graphic Designer at Paul Frank. The theme for the year is: Shred Today (Because Tomorrow It May Melt). So basically time is running out, ‘cause it is. Coming up with ideas to graphically show this without using standard devices for time (like a clock) was kind of challenging. Alex is from the OC, and he sees cougars lurking on a daily basis. He pitched the idea for this graphic and I thought it was hilarious. It also works really well. The last time I was in Australia, my buddy called cougars “time fighters”, so hence the name. But I think he’s actually right. If you’re a grown up acting like a kid, you’re definitely fighting something. I mean, individual cougars have their own motives, but generally the big one is the same: time’s running out. It’s not any different than the middle-aged guy dating a 20 year old. Cougars and mid-life crises guys are generally going through the same thing and the result is that they run around not acting their age. But not everyone goes through a mid-life crisis. The people I know that haven’t are those that acted like a kid when they were a kid so that now they’re adults, they have nothing to prove to themselves and they act like adults. They lived their lives right. So Alex’s concept works really well with the theme.”
Snowboard: Independent
Artist: Chad Carothers
“Chad got his big break as an artist working with …Lost surfboards back in the late 90’s. …Lost was getting attention because of their art, and Chad was one of the guys behind all of that. The Independent graphic was done because we wanted to show one aspect of the theme “Stand Alone”. One way a person can be fully free is when they let go of the pressures of society like material gain, money, drugs, shady people. This coincided with a make or break time with Automaton. Snowboarding was growing so fast in popularity in previous years that at the time of the Independent, the industry as a whole hadn’t yet prepared for a plateau (nor the following recession). Every company seemed to be doing wacky things, trying to out do each other simply to gain attention, and hoping that somehow the attention will translate to sales. I like setting my sights on the future and all, but we live in the now and Automaton at that time just needed to do its own thing. I came up with the idea of Standing Alone and saw that one side of the key to it was accepting that each individual is inherently different, and the other is that freeing oneself from social pressure. The latter became the concept for the Independent. Chad threw down the paint.”
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…words of wisdom
Live it. Love it. Automaton boards are always fun to rock and roll on.
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