theBOMBsurf - how to make a surf mag cover, old school

A while back, the awesome SA surf mag 'theBOMBsurf' where going to run an art issue and looking for a once-off cover - concept and execution. In addition to the cover they were also after DPS artwork for the editorial pages, representative of the ‘surf art through time’ theme.

Unfortunately this issue has been put on the back burner for the time being, John McCarthy told us that they have some plans to get it back on track though - so all you art and water lovers out there, watch this space!

Attached are some images we presented to them along with a bit of blurb on our thinking… hit us with some feedback.




Inspiration for the submission was taken from artist/designers Robert Rauschenberg and David Carson.

Rauschenberg was born in 1925 with productions around the 50's. His art, which combines a mix of graphic design and fine art, involves a lot of cutting and pasting of found materials and photographs. He also uses paint and texture to create some superb pieces, his work is truly amazing.

Surfer and graphic designer David Carson, born 1952, still designing and giving lectures was inspiration for the graphic design side of things. He's all about blurring the boundaries between design and fine art. I can remember reading somewhere him being referred to as a 'graphic artist' and not a graphic designer. He also says "don't mistake legibility for communication" which became the premise for the artwork.

The whole idea was to create an art piece that evokes emotion and feeling. We did this by doing some pretty bad photocopying of waves (all on purpose of course) at our local library. We then tore up the photocopies and stuck them down to recreate our own wave. It was painted over in all different shades of blue and then photographed and boshed into the macintosh for some designing.

PS if you look closely the figure of the surfer is made up of text, it repeatedly reads 'the bomb surf, every surfer gets it'.







‘Surf art through time’ theme - again, artists Rauschenberg and Carson where inspiration for the editorial intro DPS.

We researched and collected images on all different disciplines of surf art, from when it all started until today. We lined up the images from oldest to the most recent on the computer. These include images of; petroglyphs, cave art, bas-reliefs, sculpture, pop-culture, surrealism, painting, graffiti, graphic design, photography and installations.

As the computer and camera play huge roles in todays surf art, this inspired us to create the initial artwork on the computer and then take a photograph of the screen. The photograph went through some post production and then re-worked in InDesign.

Below are some further cover submissions we sent through. We played around with projected images and experimented with digital drawing - check out the close-up to see the pixelation.