Autumn of 2014 I was approached with my first major project at Rudy's Barbershop. In collaboration with our haircare partner Davines and Sup Pop sister label Hardly Art, Rudy's was hitting the road. We were taking local legends Tacocat on a West Coast tour tagging along in our newly converted Airstream trailer barbershop or, if you will, Hairstream. The Hairstream made it's maiden voyage dolling out free cuts from Seattle to Los Angeles with filmmaker Lisa Bolden along to document the journey. 

My to-do list for this project:

I was ready to show off my design skills to my new friends at Rudy's. This was the perfect project to show what I was capable of. Anything I was inexperienced on, I had to learn mighty quick. This was my graphic design bootcamp. Inspiration for these designs came largely from vintage travel posters and the thrill of the open road. 

The most challenging aspect of this project, the graphics for the Airstream, went through a myriad of iterations. You can see some highlights of the project's evolution below. 

January 2016 rolls around and it's time for the Rudy's Cut and Ride Airstream to make it's second outing. This time a little closer to home. After years of anticipation Rudy's West Seattle was becoming a reality. Rudy's rarely relied on conventional advertising, instead we partnered with Delridge Community Center to introduce ourselves to some of the friendly people in West Seattle. For the month of January our stylists volunteered to give free cuts to kids and parents spending time at the community center. We donated Rudy's Brand shampoo, conditioner, and body wash for the homeless shelter's showers and we put some local kids through Delridge's basketball program. Together we raised almost $1,000 for the center and made sure a few more kids could play basketball this season.

For me this meant:

A fresh graphic for the trailer

T-shirts to give to our stylists and kid's basketball teams

Promos for print and web

This time around I had a lot of fun creating School House Rock inspired illustrations to use on the materials. Illustration and cartooning are some of my favorite activities. Drawing cartoons at work was a real treat. This slideshow contains some photos of the updated trailer via @RudysBarbershop on Instagram.

In May of 2015 we were invited to take the Airstream backstage at Sasquatch Music Festival in George, WA. This gave me the opportunity to redesign the exterior of the trailer one more time. I jumped at the chance. After spending some time with Rudy's I felt I had a much firmer grasp on what I wanted it to look like. A little rougher around the edges, a little bolder, a little more badass. Projects like this are the ones I reflect on the most, they're a living document of my growth as a designer over a short period of time.

While working on this design I was listening to a lot of Replacements and became fascinated by the graphics on WWII fighters. 

I was also tasked with designing t-shirts to hand out at the festival. Stylists jumped at the chance to volunteer, probably because they just love cutting hair. I don't think it had anything to do with free festival passes. I was overflowing with fun ideas and had three boxes packed with grey shirts that weren't in inventory. I ended up creating three distinct shirts. The Rudy's beer can was the most popular by far. Check out the shirt designs and some pictures courtesy of @PearlRudys on Instagram. 

The Cut & Ride Tour in 2014 was my first major project for Rudy's Barbershop and the Cut & Ride Tour in 2016 was my last. 

It's fascinating to look at the different phases of this project now. I think it shows how much I've grown as a designer. The latest Airstream outing was to promote the new Rudy's opening on Mississippi in Portland, OR. I wanted to revisit my original Cut & Ride designs from 2014 but with new skills and better sensibility. By this point I felt I had a complete understanding of what Rudy's looks like.