After all, It’s just a board! TADA!!!: Design Mysteries Series

Penny Skateboards, Tony Hawk Foundation | Back to the Future Skateboard made from a board and old roller skates.

The magic that we call design!

Christian finds a Skateboard.

Walking in Manhattan the other day with my Grandson Evan & my son Christian searching for skateboard shops, it hit me, in that moment in Back to the Future when Marty grabs the “scooter” made from a board with a handle and metal roller skate wheels nailed to it and rips away the handle flying away from Biff and his friends, that it’s just a board with some wheels on it. But what a board! Designed to transport the rider on a “quadruple 360” or whatever with Logos, artists images, and meaning ingrained into every fiber of that board. Wow, it’s just a board, but how that simple board can change our lives. The mystery of great designs is how they transform a simple thing into a complex, meaningful part of our lives. How does that happen? Ahh, now that’s a mystery worth exploring. How design brings meaning to such a simple thing and how that meaning creates so much complexity. Something we can all agree on is that it does happen, the why and how and where and what are just terrific points in the discussion.

Tony Hawk taught a generation how to fly on a skateboard, while Marty McFly transports us back in time to witness a magic moment when a kid’s homemade scooter changes into a skateboard.

#DesignMysteriesSeries [#26]
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Design Mysteries Series
Bruce Hannah 2018 ©

History and Evolution of Skateboarding
Subcultures and Sociology
Grinnell College