Student designs custom equipment

Amelia Clermont, a junior art and communications major at the University of Rhode Island, has a long road of success ahead of her.

Clermont, who has made art her whole life, hopes to take her artistic abilities to one-day work with a snowboard company and design the graphics on snowboards and skateboards. She has worked on about 40 snowboards so far for friends and various companies such as Board Head, Board Crossxing and Board Strides. She said that each board she works on is designed based on the person and how well she knows them.

In order to begin her design process, Clermont will ask the person what some of their favorite colors are to begin drawing up ideas.

“When I work on a board of someone I know, I find it to be a lot easier,” Clermont said. “When someone I don’t know gives me free range I definitely ask them a lot more questions to figure out how to make their board unique for their liking.”

First, she sprays the board with white spray paint and sands it down. From there, she will begin writing down ideas for potential drawings, sketch out a center piece, and make the two sides look alike. She admitted that she normally doesn’t have the whole plan in her head, so she just starts with one idea and goes from there.

Clermont, originally from Shrewburry, Massachusetts, said that she started drawing when she was a kid and has been painting since she was a senior in high school. Her first piece of artwork was made when she was in first grade.

In high school Clermont knew she wanted to be an artist after taking one art class after the other. She drew a self-portrait with blue eyes in the beginning of the year and at the end of the year she drew herself with green eyes. She joked that “apparently my eyes change color!”

“Art turned into something I could do when I was upset or needed to vent,” Clermont said. “I’ve always loved it.”

Before Clermont’s freshman year at URI she started making canvases of people with various inspirational quotes on them. She said that this was more of a fun thing to do, but definitely not as exciting as working on snowboards.

Clermont described her artwork as “it almost looks like I’m on drugs, or at least that’s what people tell me.” She explained that the greatest feeling is when she sees her graphics on a snowboard company’s website, or when she gives a board back to someone and they love her work.

“People’s reactions to my work really reminds me that I actually do love to do this and I actually do want to do something with this in the future,” Clermont said.

Ron Hut, a digital design professor at URI is Clermont’s favorite art professor. He majored in finance when he was in college, and Clermont said it was interesting to see how he ended up as a digital design professor.

Clermont recently just finished a surfboard she was working on that had a graphic of a candy skull dripping down the bottom of the board. She said it was the most plain graphic she’s ever done, but she liked working on it.

Ally Corey, a junior at URI, had Clermont design the back of one of her snowboards and described the design as “mesmerizing.”

“I’m obsessed with it,” Corey said. “I plan on hanging it on my wall as artwork, because it’s so good. She even customized it to have my favorite flowers on it and our favorite spot to watch the sunset.”

If you are interested in checking out some of Clermont’s work, start with her Instagram page, @icecoastcustoms.