WORDS AND ART BY NOELLE PHARES
When you’re skiing you should be looking up and out, not down - right? Wrong! As a visual artist, I’m always drawn to striking design on the mountain. When I first saw 4FRNT skis in the wild I was immediately attracted to their trademark design strategy of placing vibrant art atop exposed natural wood texture because I often do the same in my own paintings on wood panel. The high gloss finish of the MSP Collection skis are perfect for showcasing topsheet design in crisp, high-resolution and popping saturated colors. Bonus that the functional shape and material design is top notch, making for world class skis that will also have people asking you where you got your gorgeous skis from all day.
"As a visual artist, I’m always drawn to striking design on the mountain. When I first saw 4FRNT skis in the wild I was immediately attracted"
I pitched a collab to 4FRNT and they bit. We worked together to design the 2021/2022 MSP line, their most popular and diverse collection of skis suitable for skiers novice to expert, from groomers to pow. We decided to work from digital images of paintings I had already created, selecting a series with prominent mountain-scapes and striking geometric features in palettes that would pop off the snow from a distance.
I couldn’t be happier with how they turned out. 4FRNT- you guys were so fun to work with. I hope you enjoy this line, I am looking forward to seeing some of you out on the mountain on these skis this winter. The line will be released in limited quantities, so get them while you can!
The design process began with selecting artwork. I provided the 4FRNT design team with imagery of some previously completed paintings to choose from and they narrowed it down to three different paintings - 2 on paper, 1 on canvas. From there, the 4FRNT design team translated digital imagery of these three paintings into designs that would fit the layout of their skis and we iterated on those designs together until both sides were happy with the final product.
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