Style combination · Pairs well
Punk × Skateboard Deck Graphics
Share rebellious tone and hand lettering; swap the photocopied collage for a single inked figure to turn a punk flyer into a product graphic.
01
What each style brings
Each part of the design comes from the style with the stronger say in it, and each style gives at least two.
Punk & DIY Zine Skateboard Deck Graphics
- Type from Punk
- Colour from Skateboard Deck Graphics
- Form from Skateboard Deck Graphics
- Composition from Skateboard Deck Graphics
- Surface from Punk
-
Skateboard Deck Graphics avoids photocopy & distress: this is where the two pull against each other.
02
The type
Open fonts standing in for each style’s own type, which is often hand-drawn or commercial.
Text · Skateboard Deck Graphics
The graphics printed on the underside of skateboard decks, developed by Californian skate companies in the 1970s and 80s (the scope here; later photographic and parody decks are not covered). An artist-drawn image, usually a monster, skull, hand or cartoon figure in heavy ink outline, fills a tall vertical board in a few flat screenprinted colours, with a brand logo that repeats across a collectible series of models.
Archivo; Skateboard Deck Graphics used Santa Cruz logotype, hand-drawn by Jim Phillips and Hand-lettered brand logos in thick outline
03
The colours
The ground and leading colours come from Skateboard Deck Graphics, with a counter-accent from Punk. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.
Punk & DIY Zine Skateboard Deck Graphics
-
#f2ede0ground · 36% -
#111111ink · 14% -
#f5d312accent · 18% -
#ff2fa0accent · 14% -
#e8202aaccent · 10% -
#1e7fcbaccent · 8%
As CSS
:root {
--ground: #f2ede0;
--ink: #111111;
--accent-1: #f5d312;
--accent-2: #ff2fa0;
--accent-3: #e8202a;
--accent-4: #1e7fcb;
--font-display: "Rock Salt", cursive;
--font-text: "Archivo", sans-serif;
}04
The two styles
05
More combinations
With Punk
- Russian Constructivism Pairs well · Borrow Constructivist diagonals and red-and-black bars to give punk collage the agitprop structure post-punk sleeves later adopted.
- Risograph & Indie Print Culture Pairs well · Run punk collages through a riso in fluoro pink and black to keep the DIY ethic while gaining richer, layered colour.
- Corporate Identity Modernism Contrasts · Deface a clean corporate identity with xerox collage to make the critique of polish and authority explicit.
- Frutiger Aero Contrasts · Glossy optimism is everything punk rejects; one torn xerox fragment on an aero gradient reads as instant sabotage.
- Fluxus Graphics (Maciunas) Contrasts · Both mix found type with appropriated pictures, but punk tears and photocopies while Fluxus keeps a clean offset black, justified blocks and a tight edge-to-edge grid; use the Fluxus version when cheap materials should still look ordered.
- Natural Wine Label Art Pairs well · Alice Feiring calls the earlier natural-wine scene punk rock: of Gut Oggau she says 'This is where things grow up and stop being so punk rock' (Punch, 2021). Take punk's refusal of professional polish but drop the collage and the anger: one felt-pen picture on a white label carries the same do-it-yourself stance in a friendlier voice.
- Grapus (French Militant Graphic Collective) Contrasts · Both scribble over photographs, but punk's photocopied blacks and ransom-note type are cheap and nihilist, while Grapus prints bright offset colour, mostly on white, in an optimistic, party-backed voice.
- Situationist Détournement Graphics Contrasts · Punk reprised the situationist prank in the late 1970s, but it packs torn photocopies and mixed type into crowded pages; détournement keeps a few recognisable fragments and lets each one say the opposite of what it said. Borrow the rewritten balloon when a punk layout needs a sharper argument.
With Skateboard Deck Graphics
- American Traditional Tattoo Flash Pairs well · Both use bold outline and flat limited colour on a single emblem; borrow the flash sheet's emblematic symmetry, but keep the deck's comic humour.
- Underground Comix Pairs well · Both draw distorted, humorous figures in ink; add a vertical single-image format and flat screenprint colours to move from comic page to deck.