Using Creative Brand Collabs To Grow Your Business [Finding Inspiration In Street Art]

Social channels for discovering new brand partnerships, street art and design.

In a world of instant connectivity, finding the inspiration to create your next great product or brand has never been easier. We use Pinterest, Instagram, Dribbble, Behance, Artsy, and Ello as powerful social channels to inspire our designs. We browse and curate street art and contemporary art through these emerging graphic design focused social apps.

Before all these great online resources existed however, it wasn’t as easy connecting to the web. Designers and product managers would visit other related industry trade shows. If you’re just getting started with your first brand, building a new product, or sourcing new customers, we recommend this route. In fact, we still adhere to the same principals of attending trade shows early on in a new project’s development. In fact, Steve Jobs got the inspiration to create the first Mac and start Apple through a trade show [start with SIA & Outdoor Retailer, for the outdoor industries].

If you’re eager to innovate, sometimes a better place to uncover a new direction is to actually study a completely unrelated industry.

The Graphic design ‘hierarchy’ in board sports

Being curious about the creative aspect of building and designing, we always found our search for creative emerging trends for board graphics tended to trickle down from the skateboard industry.

Being that skateboarding is based in the streets, a skateboarder would befriend a street artist. Eventually, the street artist’s work would make its way to board graphics [if a skateboard company listened to it’s customer base ie. other skateboarders].

After years of observation, we found the design chain hierarchy within ‘action sports’ went something like this:

skateboarding > surfing / snowboarding (BMX) > wakeboarding (moto, snow skiing, etc)

So how did skateboarding lead the way within the hierarchy of design for board graphics? The most obvious answer is skateboarding was very accessible and had more time to mature than the other activities except for surf. That brought in more participants and a larger, more diverse following.

Naturally too, skateboarding had a connection to the streets. Immediately it was more accessible to a wide range of creative personalities. The cheaper manufacturing cost and more readily available materials allowed for experimentation in production and design. This led to a higher rate at which they could produce new designs and experiment.

The crossover appeal of street art

As skateboarding took off in the 1990s you saw a crossover of gifted street artists & designers also skating. Skateboarders were hanging in social circles with artists of all backgrounds. Skaters were becoming artists. Artists were becoming skaters. NYC & LA was ground zero for this, with skateboarder Jason Lee becoming a prime example of that. Skateboarders were connecting with film makers, contemporary fine artists, street artists, musicians, fashion designers, photographers, you name it.

Recommended Watching: Dogtown & Z-boys, Riding Giants, Abstract: The Art of Design

Skateboarder and illustrator Todd Francis may have summed up working in skateboarding best, “For some folks, it’s a chance to finally work in an industry they’ve followed their whole lives. It’s a chance to create artwork with very few rules or restrictions.”

Then the internet hit.

The explosion of social networks dismantled the design hierarchy above. As the concept of sharing design on the web became ubiquitous, it also increased the speed at which new designs were shared and ‘picked up’ in other industries. While the web certainly made it easier to discover new design trends, it also made it more difficult to uncover and create an entirely new direction.

So where do we draw our inspiration for our wakeboard graphics? In short, a mishmash of outdoor inspiration, movies, music, street art and fashion (streetwear). We like to provoke a secondary meaning with dichotomy of nature and technology. When you start combining what inspires you, you’ll start to notice a new perspective or interesting direction.

Over the past 30+ years street artists have gone from art world outcasts to getting coverage in mainstream media.

Their success hinges in large part from street artists & brands finding a common connection in overlapping interests or shared social causes and then elevating each other’s message.

On rare occasion, when done successfully collabs open up new audiences for both the brand and the artist.

Take popular street artist Shepard Fairey as an example. While still quite well known in street circles at the time, Shepard created the iconic ‘Hope’ poster.  He eventually won the official approval of the Obama campaign during his run for the white house.

Fairey built a small following with his work initially, leveraged a new audience to share his designs & message (however good or bad the press that followed), and the success of his brand Obey Giant soon followed. Balancing the fine line of artist and corporate work is not easy.

Well known streetwear brand Supreme has developed a cult-like following from launching limited edition artist collabs and partnerships. They’ve been doing it for a long time. Supreme’s new products drop weekly and sell out immediately.

The limited edition street art pieces has even created their own secondary resale markets. Supreme opened the doors to many of the brand x artist collabs now common throughout industries outside of streetwear.

Here’s a look at some of Supreme’s most successful collaborations over the years with artists.

As an artist, designing a product for a product collaboration without a traditional canvas can be tricky.

Sometimes the product a designer must work with is limited by material, awkward forms and shapes, or even color.  Now add to this long hours, heavy competition and low pay and you see why the designer must have a strong connection with the underlying industry he or she is designing for. Fear not, if implemented correctly it can also lead new brand partnerships.

Our recommendation for new artists is to start small by building a portfolio of work for friends. This usually leads to recommendations to other brands. If you’re successful in finding work with another brand, don’t approach a competing brand in the same industry for more work in a short time frame. We find this happens often.

As a brand, we think it’s important to forge a connection and spend time with the artist and find out why the artist style fits with your audience or brand. So in short, have a clear direction of what you’re looking for.

The main point to remember for both artist and brand for commercial collaboration is to keep the outcome in the interests of the audience. In short, the golden rule is know thy audience.

5. Adam Haynes
Adam Haynes was Nike’s go to man for much of their media campaigns and branding. His illustrations are a dreamland of shred-able terrain.

4. Todd Francis
Todd has been creating graphics for skateboards since 1993 among the other “crud” he does. He’s worked with Anti Hero skateboards, Stereo Skateboards, and Real skateboards before being Element’s main man starting in 1999. Todd has a very diverse style and adds humor in his designs, which we appreciate.

3. Christian Hundermark
Runs C100 Purple Haze studio with Clemens Baldermann out of Munich, Germany. They work with an impressive list of clients large and small. Conception, art direction, typography, design and illustration – you name it – they do it. Crisp, clean, thought provoking style. They have a street art book called “The Art of Rebellion“. They’ve got some great notoriety through Rome Snowboards.

2. 123klan
We are long time fans of 123klan. They are a French duo that has a long history of awesome work with apparel brands and street art scene.

1. Steve Cousins
Steve is one of the key members of Jager Di Paola Kemp Design where he has helped Burton Snowboards build every aspect of their image since 1989. This is the man behind the global powerhouse – enough said.

The Humanoid Creator Collective produces limited graphic runs showcasing standout artwork from artists in their field. The very first artist is OG sci-fi / fantasy illustrator and painter Frank Frazetta.

Interested in working with us? Drop us a line. We’re always on the hunt for new brand partnerships and collaborations.