Murakami-Decorated Skateboard Decks in Flanged-Lip Plexibox Frame



That title is a mouthful, but it accurately describes what our shop manager, Dana Fisher MCPF, designed and created for her client. Japanese artist Takashi Murakami is a big deal in the design world. His designs are used in a lot of different ways to create an eye-popping decorative face for just about any product. Dana's client brought in three skateboard "decks" (wood platforms that are used on skateboards) that were decorated by Murakami and asked Dana to find a way to frame them so she could display them on the wall of her home.


Having done work like this before, she designed a framing treatment that employed a white exterior picture frame, with a flanged-lip plexi box projecting out the front of the frame. This allows you to frame nearly any 3-D object. The object is attached to a sturdy base, either masonite or alumalite (a sandwich of aluminum and corrugated plastic(. The base gets covered with either fabric or mat board and, in this case, wooden mounts were created that the decks were sewn onto, thereby affixing them without any metal hardware. The client did not want to see any screws or metal hardware attaching the decks and Dana figured out how to sew them in place onto custom made wooden mounts for the decks.

Once completed, and messengered over to her client's home, Dana and another member of our framing team traveled there and installed it for the client.
The client was absolutely thrilled!

Materials: The frame is a matte white Omega wood moulding  80741 that is 1 9/16" wide x 1 3/8" tall. Inside frame size: 40 3/4 x 39". The white matting behind the decks is Crescent 2262 White Conservation grade rag mat board. The flanged lip plexi box was fabricated by Acrylic & Framing Service, one of our long time friends and business associates.

All photos except for the installed frame photo by Brian D. Flax, CPF
Installed photo by Dana L. Fisher, MCPF
Images shown by kind permission of our client (identity of our clients withheld to protect their privacy)