Thrasher: A Magazine Specimen
Matthew Chu
Skateboarding culture as advertisement has developed its own visual design, appealing to a targeted youth more than a general public. Thrasher magazine, a catalogue which appeals to skateboarders has been a place where ideas of design and urban influence have crossed since the 1980s. This project Thrasher: A Magazine Specimen is a study of a product that acts in the same way: as a magazine, it collects and itemizes resources to present to those who are unfamiliar to the skateboarding world, further dissecting these elements as an approach to find the forms of a culture at its core. This publication is divided into four parts, each focusing on a different aspect of the magazine: content, imagery, color, and typography. By studying this subculture and utilizing an analytical approach, this project dissects and breaks these barriers for those who are not involved in skateboarding and creates a new angle of understanding skateboarding and its archetypes.