During the 2020 quarantine, I set out to create something purely for myself, a small design series that brought together the things I love most: skateboarding, bold colors, Brazilian culture, and my dog Queso. With so much uncertainty at the time, designing these boards became a way to stay inspired, productive, and connected to home.

I created three custom skateboard decks, each one themed around a piece of my life:

• Queso, a board dedicated to our dog, the true ruler of the house
• Love, Beer & Chicken Hearts, a very Brazilian pairing and one of our favorite comfort foods
• Beijo Tchau, a tribute to travel, distance, and the sentimental way us Brazilians say goodbye

The final boards were printed and now live as wall art in our home, a colorful snapshot of a strange year and one of my favorite personal projects to date.

Because this was a fully self-directed exploration, the biggest challenge was designing boards that felt cohesive, expressive and polished, without becoming overly busy. Skate decks have a tall, narrow format, so compositions had to flow naturally while maintaining visual balance. I also wanted each board to feel meaningful and personal, but still unified as a series.

This was a completely solo project, illustration, design, layout, color, and production. My only “collaborator” was Queso, who posed for reference photos.

I pulled visual references from Pinterest, gravitating toward bold, contrasty color palettes, organic shapes, and playful illustrative styles. I knew I wanted textures and splatter details to keep everything from feeling too flat, and I wanted each board to have a strong motif grounded in something personal.

I designed the three decks around themes that reflect different phases of my life:

• Queso: the present. He’s the heart of our home and the little soul that made us feel like a real family. Getting him right after we got married changed everything, and he’s part of every moment and every plan.
• Beer + Chicken Hearts: the past. A playful love letter to Brazil and the way we celebrate. Barbecue, beer, laughter, and chicken hearts are part of my culture and always will be. Comfort, joy, and roots I carry with me everywhere.
• Beijo, Tchau: the future. A nod to our love for traveling, new chapters, and staying open to change. “Beijo, tchau” is what you say in Brazil before setting off on an adventure and it captures the spirit of the stories we still want to create.

The boards were illustrated in Adobe Illustrator, starting with rough sketches and then refining each composition around the curved deck silhouette.

My workflow included:

• Drawing Queso by hand based on a favorite reference photo
• Experimenting with organic vector shapes and expressive lines
• Adding splatter-style textures for depth and movement
• Filling empty areas with small circular motifs for balance
• Extending the artwork into bleed to ensure clean printing
• Preparing each deck for production using the manufacturer’s layout template

Because this was a personal quarantine project, I didn’t share early drafts with anyone, which ended up being incredibly freeing. I refined each deck by trusting my instincts, rearranging elements, adjusting the color palette, and imagining how the artwork would look if someone actually rode it.

The final result is a set of three bold, colorful skateboard decks with expressive illustration, high-contrast palettes, and motifs rooted in my life and culture.

Even though they were designed as art pieces, I approached each board as if it were meant to be ridden, flowing compositions, balanced spacing, and elements oriented to look good in motion.

Printed on high-quality decks and hung as artwork, they now bring color and personality into our home. They’ve become a little visual signature behind me on video calls, and people always ask about them.