Phantasm Snowboards

Phantasm is a new snowboarding company that blends contemporary snowboarding design and technology with Victorian aesthetic and spirituality. These folks are the believers, risk-takers, and theorists that enjoy challenging human experience and knowledge.

The identity for Phantasm emerged from this fascination my wife and I have with horror as well as Victorian art and architecture. During the Victorian period, there was a push for broad industrialization in every field, including the realm of fine art. As a means to remain grounded in nuanced human experience, the Victorian art movement served as a reaction to industrialization by promoting hand-made work, nature, and mystery.

The logo is a geometric interpretation of typical Victorian typographic forms. To start, heavy downstrokes and thin horizontal strokes evoke the feeling of a script handwritten with a flat calligraphy pen. Then flourishes such as the terminal on the “P” and the curved legs of the “A” and “M” help to reinforce that handwritten feel. All the while, the orthogonal alignments and repetition of the shapes, pull the typeface back to a contemporary audience.

The colors of the identity also serve to reference the Victorian period. As many iconic homes were built during that time, homeowners sought to give their residence a personality of its own. In addition to using unique or underutilized forms in the construction of their home, these folks also painted their homes vibrant colors to achieve this personality, thus adding to the extremely rich visual experience.