This was my senior project for college. We had 6 months to create anything we wanted. I love motorsports, and I knew from the beginning I wanted to do something in that world, as there are so many avenues to go down with it. After some contemplation, I decided to go with a graphics kit for my dirt bike. I did this because I wanted something physical for our showcase, and something that represented myself and my own style.

One of the things I love doing with graphic design is taking something old and known and turning it into something new, something different, while still keeping the feel of the original. There is an artist whose work I followed throughout my life named Frank Stella. He is known in the motorsports world as he designed liveries for two BMW race cars, a 3.0 CSL Le Mans car and a M1 Procar. These became known as "Art Cars", and BMW still has artists creating new art cars to this day for either racing or promotion. These two are some of my favorite looking race cars of all time, and I wanted to apply this style to my graphics kit. I studied these two cars, as well as many of Frank's other pieces of art in order to really try to emulate his style on this new canvas.

After studying, sketching, and drafting I had a plan of what I wanted the bike to look like. On Franks CSL he had a grid covering the entire car, with thicker lines making various shapes and curves that added complexity. On the M1 Procar there was a somewhat similar grid, but turned on an angle, and he added large stripes and shapes of color to his pattern which it made it pop. I took both of these ideas and combined them into one. I started with the basic grid, but I wanted to add to it, so I warped the lines of the grid to make contours, corners, lumps, and divots on the pattern. I loved how this gave the 2D pattern so much more depth and form. After I had the grid laid out, I started to add the thicker lines on top. This has the viewer follow the pattern across the entirety of the bike, and it emphasizes the curves and edges on the body panels themselves. After that it was time for some color. I used the colors of the factory Honda racing team, blue and red. I added thick stripes and shapes underneath the grid, and a contrasting dark grey as the solid background color to make the patterns and shapes easily visible.

Then came the time for printing. I was lucky enough to have a template for my bike given to me from a person in the graphics kit industry. Dixie State University had just received a new vinyl printer the previous year, so printing was actually very easy and straightforward. I did have some troubles with the actual installation of the vinyl to the plastics of the bike, as this was my first time doing anything like this. After multiple attempts, I was able to put it all together in a presentable form.

When closing in on the final design for the bike, I felt like I could do more, and I had some extra time so I made two additional designs for my bike that I could show to better demonstrate my diversity as a designer. I made a simple, retro 90s style design using sharp angles and bright colors as accents. I also made a more modern design using one of my favorite colors to work with, fluorescent yellow. It is such a bright in your face color, but when used correctly it can look really good. I contrasted the bright yellow with some shades of dark gray as the background as well as some additional shapes and forms to give it a little something more as using it just for the background was a bit bland.

I am very proud of this project. Having something physical to look around and feel was the right choice, and I'm very glad I chose this for my final. I love the artwork I created; not only the actual bike but the other two designs I think would also look great if printed. If I could change one thing, I did for this project it would be using a thicker more robust vinyl, as it has started to peel and wear down in some areas over time.