Hey, remember when I said I'd try and do these once a week? Life sucks and this website pays for it. Anyway, first and foremost, up there's the new "full" logo with the name. I tried to go for a suitably punk font. Here's the link for that: 1 Punk

Now, I promised I'd talk a bit more about SOULxSKATER (yes there's an x in it now, more on that later) last time, so I'll start with the themes, since I talked about the premise last time.

Since this is a story about skating, the main themes will be individuality and freedom of self, as that's primarily what skateboarding thrives in. If you want a good frame of reference for what I'm talking about, watch STORIED's interview with Rodney Mullen. His tangent about how it brings people from all walks of life -- like social outcasts and at-risk youth -- together for the love of skating, how it provides meaning and a passion, creating a community cohesion and language wholly unique to itself is something that's stuck with me for a long time now. Skateboarding is an art form without confinement; you craft your own style, and the world is your canvas. It's like an extension of yourself.

Oh but see, SOULxSKATER won't just feature skating but a few other extreme sports in general. Specifically freestyle BMX, freestyle motocross, and aggressive inline (rollerblading). Originally I was also going to write for snowboarding and surfing, but those are so confined to the environment they're based around it just wouldn't work with the setting. Every character represents their own style and/or sport, and they're all uniquely color-coded. Like a Sentai or Power Rangers team, yes, that's exactly what I'm going for. It represents their uniqueness and independence, but when brought together they form a glorious rainbow of enthusiasm.

On YouTube, I've been working on a music playlist to complement the project and give you something to listen to when reading. Music is historically a huge part of skating's culture and I knew immediately that I wanted to do something like this. It'll consist of about 250 tracks of music in many languages, but focusing mostly on English and Japanese to evoke the main character and her situation. In terms of genre it's primarily punk and hip-hop from across the ages, but there's a lot of other stuff sprinkled throughout. Think like a Tony Hawk's Pro Skater playlist, but jacked up to 11.

As for why the name changed? When I was making the full logo, I put an X in the middle just on a whim, but immediately it clicked like "this is what it should be". You know how some anime and manga have titles like that (ex. Hunter x Hunter, Spy x Family)? Sometimes it can mean something in context, like two concepts being brought together, or a crossover of some kind. In this case, it relates to skating becoming entwined with your very soul to a point where it comes as naturally as breathing; like a martial art or a dance you've memorized.

Next time I'll talk about the characters and other what-have-yous. Maybe some concept art!