Upon settling in Colorado, I encountered a design contest on social media hosted by the Gilson ski and snowboard company. While contests are often frowned upon in the design community as they can be used to exploit multiple artists to work for free, picking their favorite work to use for profit; this contest was quite the contrary. The organizers left the subjective decision-making up to the community of followers to select a recipient and award the most “liked” artwork with a brand new custom snowboard detailed with the recipient’s graphics, Gilson was actually giving back to the community while promoting their service of printing custom graphics on skis and snowboards. It was an honor to be the 2018 design winner and snowboard recipient! A momentous accolade and unforgettable first time having a creation of mine recognized in the world of action sports.