Words Noah Lederman Art and Captions Geoff McFetridge LOOKING out across the endless gray of the Swiss Alps, snow-frosted and stoic, skiers at Laax were perplexed by the sign. It was shaped like a traditional blue square marker, the universal indicator of intermediate terrain, but in 2015 something about this one was different— it was a simple graphic of a skier bombing down an invisible 45-degree slope, a fork and knife for his skis pointed toward a mid-mountain restaurant. Another sign announced “powder,” featuring the curve of both a snowboard and a smile—two legs, two dots for eyes, both imaginary torso and face covered in a cloud of snow. ACID SNOW was a faux skate/ski shop I built for a collaboration I did with Vans Vault. The “shop” was actually in my studio and based on the first shop I ever went to—a hockey goalie store. Mixing two things I love together and creating a personal narrative out of a film/design project was a dream come true. Photo: Ely Phillips All across the mountain, simple surreal graphics brought skiers to a halt as people pondered the provocatively funny and undeniably informative indicators. A black sign that read “halfpipe” showed omnipotent hands reaching down from above to remove the peak of a traditional mountain rendering, leaving behind a semicircular void in place of the triangular top. At Laax, skiers saw signs for twisted-up riders that had carved too quickly in the glades; for two hands and a head, and a body lost in deep and treacherous snow. The ski-to-a-stop, illustration-style art was for Minis in the Mountains, a campaign for the tiny car company. But for Geoff McFetridge, it was also a chance to combine two of his many worlds on the same canvas. One of the most sought-after graphic designers in the world, McFetridge was 3 years old when he started skiing, beginning a lifelong love affair with adrenaline sports. From following childhood trail signs at Alberta’s Sunshine Village to making them for one of Switzerland’s premier resorts, there was some poetry to the Mini commission, but it didn’t end there. By 2020, K2 had proposed a new artist collaboration—a full spectrum of on-ski graphics—and McFetridge felt a strong pull back to the mountains, reconstructing his relationship with flying downhill along the way. 086 The Ski Journal
The Ski Journal Volume 16, Issue 2: Page 86
