I have met some great people in the motorcycle community through the Los Angeles Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride. This year’s was my 4th year shooting and 2nd (maybe 3rd) year as an Official Photographer. I will be posting photos from the ride soon, many can already be seen on the LADGR’s Instagram. In the meantime, I was extremely surprised to see this video of me shooting the ride made by Jason Ohn. Thank you Jason. Check me out hard at work in Jason’s video below.
More Sidewalk/SMA logo (that I designed) sightings :)
Amazing work Ian Michna! Jenkem just posted an interview with Steve Rocco. So cool to see the Sidewalk Distribution logo I designed pop-up at the 3 minute mark (the logo can also be seen in my previous blog posting HERE). Sidewalk also printed T-shirts with the logo for Tampa Pro. Will post soon. I miss skateboarding.
Designed an SMA inspired logo for Sidewalk Distribution
My friends over at Sidewalk Distribution have joined forces with the legendary Steve Rocco. When I saw the press release, my-teenage-fan-out-brain somehow realized that Rocco’s original SMA logo could work as the SWD (Sidewalk Distribution) logo. So I fired-up Adobe Illustrator and sent them the logo. I am extremely happy to see the logo in use on their newest Insta post/ad/press release! Gorm Boberg, added the distressing to my design. Thank you Gorm and Sidewalk.
My new SWD logo in use.
Roccos’ Original SMA ad/logo from the early 1990s.
My photo used for the 2024 DGR date announcement/post
What a great surprise to wake up and see my photo plastered all over Instagram! Out of 106,000 rider, 893 cities, 107 countries, and I cannot even imagine how many photographers, my photo was chosen to be the 2024 Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride date announcement/post. Check out the posting, as well as the original photo. To see more on my DGR shoots, please click the following links. 2023 DGR Gallery. 2022 DGR Gallery. 2021 DGR Gallery. Can’t wait to the shoot the 2024 event!
Found some old work from pre-2005
All of this work was done right after College. I attended George Brown The City College in Toronto Canada and got my 3 year diploma in Graphic Design and Advertising. Below are some email-outs that I was sending out in the early 2000’s. Resolution was a lot lower back then. I have made so many magazines.
Deedz' first Pro Model I designed seen in Jenkeme interview
Feels nice to see your work out in the “wild” especially if it is a first Pro-model graphic.
Read the full interview HERE
Mentioned on the The Nine Club - Stop and Chat - Episode 81
It is always nice to be publicly praised for you work. I was tasked to put the iconic (in skateboarding circles) rider intros from the enjoi skateboarding’s 2006 full length video Bag of Suck onto decks. When I was first told this idea, I felt that it would not be possible do to resolution issues. Blowing 15-year-old video grabs (and some ancient digital photos) up to print resolution for a skateboard deck (9ish” x 32ish” at 300dpi) sounded like my worst resolution nightmare. I spent hours with A.I. upscaling software, photoshopping out Jpeg compression artifacts, digitally repainting and replacing elements, stitching and composting multiple images together all to get the look of the original video intros onto these boards. I was stressed and worried the end result would not be satisfactory to comemorate this fan favorite video. Watching the reaction of the members of The Nine Club made it all worthwhile. Thank you for the shout-out Louie! So happy to be a part of this deck series and a little piece of the Bag of Suck story.
The finished deck series above (decks also photographed by me). And a digital market asset made with the original video intros below that I put together. The original Bag of Suck video was filmed and photographed by Matt Eversole and Kyle Camarillo.
Photo Sighting in the "Wild"
I saw this photo pop-up on ballistyxskate’s Instagram feed the other day. I shot that photo! Very cool to know it is printed out on a shop wall almost life-size. This was one of my earliest and most high- pressure shoots (April 11th, 2018). I was fairly new to flash photography. Shooting indoors on a poorly lit ramp was definitely a challenge at the time. I got the shot, but seeing the setting I used now makes me cringe. I am very thankful for RAW files. The image was also printed in the July, 2018 issue of Thrasher Magazine and used for multiple web and social media assets. Below is the Full images used for the campaign.
Skater, Louie Barletta for enjoi skateboarding.
Concept/Creative Direction: Chris Bywater. Editing Kimberley Rabbitt
West LA Courthouse session
An impromptu meet up with Louie Barletta, Jeff Davis and Olympian Roos Zwetsloot lead to a few clips, pics, and a good time!
Photos and Design featured in The Undefeated: Monochrome on ESPN
I am very honored to have my photos (portrait and product) and skateboard graphic design included in The Undefeated: Monochrome on ESPN. Credited as “enjoi”. The original full color photos I shot are posted below the black and white screen-grabs from the 30-minute documentary. Really great doc. Definitely check it out.
Samarria Brevard shot in the Globe Footwear studio, 2017.
Samarria at a BridgetoSkate .org event
Always cool to see my work out in the wild. Here’s Samarria Brevard at a Bridge to Skate event. I designed the deck and enjoi sweatshirt. 10 Uprise completes were donated to their skateboard library! Swiped the photo from HERE.
Zumiez: The Six Steps of Skarate
Click the image to go to the Zumiez YouTube page.
enjoi is always doing great collaborations with someone. Here’s a fun one that is happening with Zumiez. I didn't have anything to do with the video above other than designing the Skarate logo that appears on the karate gi at the end of the video and on these decks. You can’t go wrong with Frank Gerwer and Louie Barletta Looking forward to learning what the six steps are!
Retailer Product Photography
With the Global Pandemic still effect I am not seeing many physical product samples before they hit retailers. We are using digital thumbnails for product catalogs and marketing almost exclusively. While surfing the web this morning I downloaded a sampling of products that I designed and were photographed by either CCS or Skate Wharehouse. We are very thankful for their continued support during these strange times.
My Little Pony — Illustration
enjoi works at such a fast pace, it is often easy to lose track of what I have actually made. We drop a new catalog’s worth of products every 2 months or so. That’s a lot of graphics. Deck graphics, t-shirt graphics, wheel graphics, digital marketing assets, print ads, you name it. A random Google search result reminded me that I totally forgot I’ve illustrated officially licensed My Little Pony artwork for an enjoi/Hasbro collaboration. This Sweatshirt turned out pretty rad. Images from Grailed.
Legacy Transport — Logo Design
Years ago, and old friend from junior high school hit me up to make him a logo for his transport company. He recently requested that I send him the file again. Today was the first time that I saw a picture of the logo on the truck.
Thrasher Magazine Take Over
It’s always cool to get a Thrasher Magazine take over. This one is promoting Panda Patrol: Episode 10 and The Bird Rails.
#tbt Skateboarder Magazine's Sunset Rampage 2
Throw-Back-Thursday! This is a logo and video-intro that I Art Directed from way back in 2011. You can see the entire video HERE. It was shot and edited by Roger Bagley of The Nine Club fame. Still really happy with how this project turned out. The illustration is by Steven Glandville. And the animation was done by Mind Over Eye which I now believe is called Studio 10.
Selling some és Koston 3s
I have been hanging on to these és Eric Koston 3s for forever and I’m going to sell them. Trying out the instagram account Chomp On Kicks to help. I took these quick studio shots of the shoes on my lunch break. Happy how they turned out. The Shoe is a size 12 but fit a little small, that’s why they survived. There is some cracking in the foam parts of the sole as seen in the pictures. Not exactly sure how a 20 year old shoe would really hold up to being worn…most likely just a collector’s piece.
Shot Andy Howell for a New Deal Skateboards Ad
Photo: Chris Bywater — Ad Layout: Ernie Diaz — Skater: Andy Howell
I shot the photo above and participated in the making of the video below with Louie Barletta and Roger Bagley. Thank you for the interview Andy!
FUN FACT: You can see the moment this photo was taken in the video below at 9:31
See my previous post for even more info on the enjoi x New Deal collaboration
Didrik "deedz" Galasso debut pro deck and pro launch marketing assets
Video title animation and video thumbnail photography.
I re-edited the offical video into at dramatic movie review style trailer and did all the motion graphics and editing.
Deck graphic. Studio photography.
Thrasher Magazine website takeover skin and ads
International print advertisements
Print catalog layout (also did the rooster illustration). Digital catalog.