I designed this series of prints for Craft Sportswear. The collection forms the official racewear for Unbound Gravel, the US’ biggest gravel cycling event. The concept behind the design is to honour the unique and beautiful landscape of the Kansas Flint Hills viewed from from the air and turn that into a unique and vibrant pattern for the riders to wear.
More words I made up…
“…to me as a rider, races are about places. We cycle to engage in the magic of the landscape – to be a part of it and to be consumed by it. Races are the magnification of that experience. Frantic and friendly, competitive and crazy, it’s a social feast and literal landmark in our calendars. When I was asked to make artwork for CRAFT’s collection for the newly renamed Kansas Hills gravel event ‘Unbound’ I was immediately drawn to the unique and graphic landscape of the area. The peculiar grid like divisions of the country, the aesthetic struggle between swirling natural features and the 1 mile squares of the old farming boundaries. Flint Hills is quite literally the very middle of the United States, and it’s big skies stretch away from you. We have new ways of looking at landscapes now because of aerial and satellite photography, we see new patterns, and we can travel virtually across distant lands. I would call this modern type of virtual travel almost a kind of psychedelic experience, and the amazing patterns, textures and colours you can see are all there in my artwork…”
