We recently had the pleasure of participating in and attending this year’s Bordo Bello, a local skateboard art fundraiser. Here is our recap of our board design & the event.

Just into its third year, Bordo Bello is a Denver skateboard art show & fundraiser which supports AIGA Colorado’s mentorship programs. A call for submissions was sent out to 200 artists (first come, first serve) who then designed their own skateboard decks. After that, the decks were displayed and auctioned off on September 30th.

The Board

As soon as we heard of the event, I was happy to represent our studio. I knew I wanted to create something unique and cool, but still stylish and professional enough to be used as a functional board, if desired. We’d released a desktop wallpaper for September featuring an illustration I did of James Dean as a lion (“Cool Cat”). I fell in love with the illustration and knew I could do much more with it.

It was shortly after this that I did some research and found out that James Dean tragically passed away on September 30th, 1955. Bordo Bello taking place on September 30th was such an odd coincidence, I decided to go ahead and make the James Dean tribute skate deck. I revamped the illustration, added much more detail, combined it with “Live Fast, Die Young” in League Gothic, and we had our 3roads submission:

Our submission for this year's Bordo Bello event

The Event

Having heard of Bordo Bello in the past and after seeing the stunning list of participating artists and designers, it’s not a stretch to say we are all extremely excited. AIGA Colorado’s Bordo Bello did not disappoint. There were delicious bacon & jelly biscuits from Denver Biscuit Co., free drinks from Odell, free event posters, buttons from Threadless, toys from Kid Robot, raffles all night, and of course, 200 outstanding skateboards!

The event was well organized, with boards displayed on different walls, based on a judged criteria (I was honored to see my design on the same wall as some very respected local talent). And one of the coolest parts of the whole event was the fact that there was so much incredible, diverse and original artwork, available at amazingly low prices! Where else would you be able to find that?

Our web specialist, Ryan, walked away that night as the proud new owner of this beauty, “Do Not Drag Me Down” by Ian T. Nordeck:

The spoils of victory...

I was honored to have my James Dean deck sold as well. My own girlfriend trumped 2 previous bids to purchase it and of course, help the fundraiser.

Cheers to AIGA Colorado’s Bordo Bello! We at 3 Roads Media look forward to next year’s event.