surfing as design inspiration >> second in an occasional series >> hang ten

as the title suggests this the second post in an occasional series pick out things that I have noticed on my design journey I have made. I regularly refer to and learn from surfing branding and design . even working as a designer for surf companies as well. today I am having a look at the hang ten brand (originally set up in california in the early 1960's it soon became one of the major players in the surf industry). 

hang ten (named after the longboard surfing manoeuvre of hanging ten toes over the nose of the board while ridding) has always had a special place in my mind. when I first started surfing in the late 60' s early 70's their shorts were the ones to have, not just because of the advertising hype but they were really good quality. 

almost a victim of its own success it started to licence its brand to any thing and every thing and in so doing diluted the brand so much so its original customers left it to flounder amongst the strength of the Australian based brands of billabong, rip curl, and quiksilver. 

they licenced prints for all sorts of things including bed linen and even operating theatre scrubs as below, I don't really like the pastel shades (glad dr ciapparelli wasn't wearing one last week)
until very recently the brand was in trouble loosing its place amongst the brand leaders in the major markets of the usa, australia and europe. though managing to keep a firm foot hold in asia, especially japan. it just so happens that I am wearing a pair of 'new' hang ten board shorts today see logo below.

to end this very brief design history of the hang ten brand it is sort of good new as the brand it the process of becoming part of the now large quiksilver operation which should guarantee that hang ten will be set to continue and re-appear and hopefully not go down the road of more bad licensing decisions. below the redesigned logo for 2008

noise 13 >> mint collection >> california

what is it about california, I have never even been there but always end up reading about, looking at companies based there, and of course the surf. I was looking for a specific web designer from sweden (for another day now) and somehow got side tracked by noise 13. I like the way their web site looked and liked the way they work, especially as their site for the mint collection. as it has made me reconsider the way to use flash in a web site. I have been avoiding using flash in websites for years after my initial 'mistaken' over use some years ago. though I still using it for animation projects with students. perhaps it is time to re-think flash web use for me?

back to what you know >> george greenough

it wasn't going to be long before I returned to my love of the ocean and surfing and whilst looking for something else I found a few pictures that I had to share the first one especially. even though I grew up on the south coast of england I have a few photos of me as a 12/13 year old looking like one of my all time surfing hero's george greenough. I was born a few years later than him but with out knowing I seemed to have had a similar interests and dress sense, until I decided to be david bowie for a year or so.


the man who did more for surfing in general not just kneeboard surfing which he is most usually only credited with. his designs for smaller surf boards along with revolutionary attention to the detailing of the skeg (fin) broke new ground in the late 60's and 70's and to this day the hydrodynamics of a pretty much all surfboards in some way have been influenced by george's designs. the site I was looking at was california surf museum.

be sure that I will return to mr. greenough as his influence is firmly embedded, in both my surfing and design life.

> kneeboard >> should be good today > north coast, cornwall, uk

I had to put this photo up it is (kneeboarder) karl ward, surfing in the world kneeboard championships at santa cruz, california earlier this year. to me it shows power & speed as well as total commitment.
the north coast of cornwall should be getting a good'ish clean wave, check surf98 for more details.
special mention to pushing tide & surf in oregon both well worth a look if you get the chance.