Skateboarding is the ultimate visual laboratory. Long before it was co-opted by LVMH and Nike, the skate industry served as a raw, unfiltered space for building brands where authenticity is currency. It is a world where identity is lived rather than merely seen.
Skateboarding
Street Machine:
the Paris underground
In the early 90s, Europe was in the midst of a street skating explosion, and Street Machine was its Parisian epicenter. Joining as the shop’s first sales “kid”, I parlayed a pure obsession with skate culture into a role as a self-taught graphic designer driven by DIY instinct.
This wasn’t just a retail space; it was a social and cultural hub where the Parisian streets met the aesthetics of Amercian skate culture. My time at Street Machine was a foundational - learning to translate our localist perspective into everything the shop produced. From flyers and shop logos to appearing on skate magazine covers myself, this era proved that the most impactful design isn’t always taught in a classroom.
