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THE GRAPHICS BEHIND COLORADO-BASED SKIS + SNOWBOARDS
ART UNDER YOUR FEET Words by Laura Mills
CARLY FINKE
“Since we are often working with custom skis, we are less worried about brand identity but, rather, have graphics that fit what people want,” Weinberg says. “We really give our designers a lot of room to do what inspires them and what’s interesting to them.” The team at ROMP prides themselves on their unique and diverse range of graphics and styles, as well as their custom projects, which has motivated them to work with a variety of designers over the years. Their current designer is Chris Hanna; you may know Hanna as the coowner of Crested Butte Publishing and Creative. With a strong background in graphic design, Weinberg believes Hanna is the perfect person
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for the job, taking inspiration from everything ost of us are familiar with the feeling of
around him — even the scalloped design of a
walking into a shop and seeing the colorful
Kleenex box or the haphazard arrangement
array of skis and snowboards lining the wall —
of bumper stickers in front of him as he drives
some with sleek minimalist designs and others
through town.
with intricate graphics. No matter the visual, a
From private pilots who want their aviation
lot of work and time has gone into the design of
background represented on the sticks that
these pieces.
make them airborne on snow to llama-loving
In Colorado, we are lucky to have many
shredders who want nothing more than to see
high quality ski and snowboard companies that
their favorite animal on their skis, Hanna has
originate locally. When investigating the graphics
done it all.
behind skis and snowboards created here, two
Hanna not only works on the custom
brands stood out: ROMP Skis out of Crested
graphics for ROMP but also contributes to the
Butte and Weston Backcountry, originally out of
batch of designs available to the general public.
Minturn but now located in Denver.
He takes inspiration from the skater days of
ROMP Skis is owned by New Hampshire-
his youth, the smooth organic lines from the
born brothers Caleb and Morgan Weinberg.
Colorado landscape and everything in between.
The Weinberg brothers made their move to the
Skiing is a sport that fits a wide variety of people
snowy mountains of Colorado back in the 1990s
and, therefore, a wide variety of visual interests.
in search of deep powder and happened to make
“It’s something that takes me a long time,
their way into the ski industry. Spoke+Blossom
putting down my thoughts and coming back.
had the privilege of sitting down with Morgan
I try to make each ski its own theme and
Weinberg to discuss the brand as a whole and
own individual look,” he explains. “It’s super
dive into the detailed graphics they provide for
rewarding, and because ROMP is local, I’ll be
their customers.
skiing with my wife and daughter, and look over,
