Tuesday, July 26, 2011

"Is It Winter Yet?®"

A little over a month ago, Liberty Skis out of Avon, CO announced their "Is It Winter Yet?® T-Shirt Contest.
The rules were simple:
Each entrant may submit up to two T-shirt designs.
Each design must feature the words “Liberty Skis” and “Is It Winter Yet?®”.
T-Shirt designs can feature a front and a back.
And the deadline for entering was July 24, 2011.
Public voting will be from July 24, 2011 through August 8, 2011
Judging will be from August 8, 2011 through August 11, 2011
Judges will announce the winners on August 15, 2011

Now I will admit, when it comes to having a chance to win something, I enter just about EVERY drawing/contest I see float past me. I wasn't too inclined at first to enter this particular contest, mostly because I didn't think I was going to have time to come up with a design. But the thought of possibly winning the prizes made it so that I just couldn't pass up the opportunity.

The prizes...follow with a gasp/grin:
The Grand Prize, winner will receive one pair of new Liberty Skis, plus 6 T-shirts with your winning design entry. (Enter gasp!)
2nd Prize, second place will receive one pair of Liberty poles, plus 6 T-shirts with your design. (Enter grin!)

Okay okay, let me think about it for a bit...

So, I thought about it. And I thought, oh man is Liberty asking the right question for me or what?!
When I thought about the question, "Is It Winter Yet?" I knew instantly what my design should be. It should be the one place I find myself ALL Summer and Fall long, just waiting for Winter to come...lounging around in my ski gear, looking off at the not so distant mountain, waiting not so patiently for there to be snow on it once again. Bingo!

To give an example, here was myself a few weeks ago. At the beginning of July, out on the front porch, sitting in my Adirondack chair, sipping coffee, all dressed up in ski gear...
So you have the basic concept for my design, let me tell ya a little more about the graphics in it. Obviously the skier chillin in the chair facing the mountain. I chose to make the chair and Adirondack chair because of my own chair, and because many times I have sat in one of these chairs at a ski resort, nibbling on a burger and sipping a tasty beverage. These chairs flood the snowy "patios" in front of the mid mountain restaurants.

The skier I wanted to be an anonymous silhouette, an image to represent anyone and everyone. Doesn't matter who, this skier could be you!

The skis on the skier, I went to great lengths to create. They are Liberty's own Double Helix skis. I wanted to keep them as simple as possible while still making them recognizable as the Double Helix. The Double Helix is also the ski, out of all the skis out there, that I have chosen to be my next ski.

On to the mountains. If you have read my posts in the past, you would know that I like to make ball point pen doodles of pictures I have taken. These mountains are a ball point pen doodle I sketched of the mountains seen looking South from the top of Breckenridge Resort in CO (here is the post from last September...http://nolasvoboda-accidentalartist.blogspot.com/2010/09/doodling-with-ball-point-pen.html). I felt that adding some very much Colorado-esk mountains was very important, being that Liberty is a Colorado based company.

The rays of sun rising over the mountains. I live on the western slope of Colorado, so for me, the sun always rises over the mountains that I love. My day starts with looking East towards the mountians while the sun rises over them, wishing for Winter to come. And on a very special morning, the sun rises and there it is, Winter has come to the mountains once again. So the rising of the sun represents the rise of another Winter. The rays are representative to those on the East slopes of Colorado as well. For those folks chase the sun up into the mountians when winter comes. And their day ends with the setting of the sun over the mountains they love. And on that one very sad afternoon, the sun will set on that season and the long wait for Winter to come commences once again.

Bamboo, quite possibly the most important supporting graphic. Liberty makes high performance skis rooted in functional innovation and respect for the environment. Liberty prides themselves on being the first and remains the ONLY ski company to use bamboo in all their skis. Bamboo is strong, light, eco friendly. On top of the renewable amazingness of bamboo, Liberty also operates on 100% wind power. Adding the bamboo was a very important aspect for me as I am constantly in an attempt to be as green as I can. I also chose to make the bamboo green to give the design a summer feel. Almost like the skier is sitting on a bamboo jungle like beach.

Well now that I have told you all about it, here is my design! If you like it and you are a Facebook user, please go vote for my t-shirt! As great as winning a pair of skis or poles would be, I would love more than anything to have a t-shirt with this design on it! It would be my most favorite shirt that I would never stop wearing! And you too could purchase this shirt for yourself! Public voting will be going on through August 8, 2011. https://apps.facebook.com/contestshq/contests/130235/voteable_entries/25855290
©nolasvoboda•accidentalartist

©nolasvoboda•accidentalartist