Hit the Slopes
In July of 2023, Colorado State University's Alumni Association team partnered with Meier Skis to create a set of custom, limited edition skis and snowboards for their collection.
Meier Skis is located in Denver, Colorado, and produces skis and snowboards using locally sourced materials and products, including Colorado wood such as beetle-kill pine. They strive to be the world's most eco-friendly high performance skis.
I sketched three initial ideas, including color explorations. the first sketch used CSU's traditonal school colors, green and gold, and featured a mirrored ram charging the length of the skis. The second sketch used CSU's tertiary color palette, and a scene that spanned across both skis. The bottom of each ski had iconographic representations of some of CSU's traditions, including Old Main Bell, Comatose the 75mm cannon, and The Oval. The third "sketch" (more of a typographic exploration) showed a bunch of CSU phrases, including lyrics from our fight song or alma mater.
The team chose option 2, with a few modifications to the traditions icons on the bottom; we decided to remove the icons so as not to exclude any specific traditions at CSU. I also adapted the ski design to a snowboard, adding in some tertiary color stripes to the middle section.
The skis and snowboard are available on Meier’s website: