Dominic Owen’s Z-Boys
Cardboard skateboards by the London-based illustrator celebrate a legendary crew of Southern Californian misfits
Home to many of our favorite drawers, London seems to be boiling over with talented illustrators as of late. The most recent to catch our eye is the young and restless Dominic Owen. His character-driven illustrations take on a life of their own with little more than minimal details and primary colors, a feat not easy to achieve. While perusing his recently updated site we came across Z-Boys, a collection of cardboard skateboards produced while Owen was still a student at Bath Spa University. As its name implies, the series of five skateboard sculptures pays homage to the legendary crew of young Californian renegades that revolutionized skateboarding back in the early ’70s.
Individually hand-collaged with So Cal themes central to the Z-boys’ story—backyard spot hunting, carving empty pools, running from “the man” and Zephyr skateboards—each board in the series is made to scale and features cardboard trucks, risers and wheels. While the Z-Boys collection has come and gone, Owen continues to use skateboarding as inspiration with a recent series of graphics produced for Piecelock70 and Heresy, an illustration-based clothing line he co-owns. Keep an eye on Owen‘s website for more to come.
Images courtesy of Dominic Owen
