Revive Skateboards, Design a Lifeline Competition - My Pizza Monkeys Entry Submission

Pizza Monkey, Revive Lifeline Deck by TET.

About a month ago Revive Skateboards launched their #DesignALifeline competition where entrants had to purchase a specific Lifeline template skateboard deck, draw their design on it, and then post a photo of their finished board to Instagram with the hashtag #designalifeline.

With only 200 template boards being made available, I liked those odds, and bought a deck within an hour of seeing the competition announcement video on the day it was posted. The deck cost me US$40.00 and about that again to have it mailed to Australia. It's the most expensive competition entry I've paid for to date.

The winner gets to have their design released as an official deck as part of Revive's Spring 2020 product release. As well they get three copies of their deck along with a sponsor pack (which typically consists of a number of decks, clothes, wheels etc. from Revive's range). Four runners up will get a sponsor package only.

If you're thinking you might like to enter, unfortunately all 200 decks have sold out. Surprisingly I've seen a few comments on Revive's Instagram (@reviveskateboards) saying people have bought the template board just because they like the board and have no intention of entering... my chance of winning has gone up.

At the time of writing this only 65 posts have been made to the hashtag #designalifeline on Instagram, and not all of them are final designs. There's a few 'just got my decks' and 'work in progress' posts. Entrants have until the 31st December 2019 to post their finished designs.

I planned to enter with almost no hesitation because it was a great opportunity to get Reddy the Color monkey (who began life as a skateboard monkey) released as a graphic on an official deck by a legitimate skateboard company. In essence his chance to turn 'pro'. My finished entry below, the Pizza Monkey, Revive Lifeline deck.

The finished Pizza Monkey Revive Lifeline Skateboard.

About My Lifeline Design

The way I see it, Revive Skateboards is all about family friendly fun. A lot of their decks are quirky, humorous, or an odd juxtaposition of ideas. They particularly favor vibrant color and pop culture themes, memes, and anything else that sells fun. They tend to do their more edgy, street graphics with their other company, 3 Block (although even that is leaning closer to being the same as Revive these days).

Since licensed themes was not really an option in this comp, and I always knew Reddy was going to be the focus of this deck, I needed to find things that would make Reddy relatable to Revive. Though he already had the fun side of things covered.

It occurred to me pizza was a recurring theme on Revive decks so I started exploring interesting ways to show Reddy with pizza. I drew quite a number of different ideas, then chose four to feature on the deck.

Joint owner of Revive Skateboards, Andy Shrock, has a thing for red shirts, shoes, and skateboards. It's the reason why I thought if Reddy had any chance of being on a legit company deck, this competition was it. He's red, Andy likes red, need I say more?

I thought a red background might be too much, but I figured Reddy would still stand out if I went with a darker red. So Reddy is bright red, while the background is more of a Stop sign red.

I left the lifeline logo white because it's generally white on a standard Lifeline deck, and it stands out here without overpowering the four Reddy's.

See my process from start to finish

If you would like a blow by blow of my thoughts through the design process from template to finished deck look through the Flickr Slideshow below. You'll see all my rough sketches and work in progress.

While some of the entries have been really good so far, I didn't spend US$80.00 if I didn't think I had a shot. I think I've captured what Revive is all about but art is subjective. They may want to go with something that's a complete departure to what they normally produce (risky but can be a great payoff if you discover something new that your existing market likes).

Good luck to everyone who entered this competition. I'll certainly let you know how I go after December 31 when the winners are announced.

In the meantime, if you have an Instagram account, head over to my entry post and give it a like, and especially leave a comment. It's not a popularity contest but it can't hurt if the judges see specific entries are getting a lot of social media love.

Update, 9th Dec 2019: Watch the video below where I talk about and show the completed deck, and you get to see a bit of my skateboarding too.

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