Hey hey, happy new year everyone! Been a bit busy working on a side project (divulged below) and RIDING! Was out in Utah from the 31st to the 9th, had a great time riding even though I messed up my board on a powder day. We even went through a wide range of temps, from moderate to -12° temps to spring riding conditions. Annnnnd Jonlin and I launched our official blog for our snowboarding company, blog.rideqi.com. Jonlin isn't much of a blogger so uh, I've been hogging the posts. He does seem to like Twitter so you can catch some of his comments on the Twitter feed. Cross-posting the StOked Obama post below, but check the rideqi blog for the other entries!
Jonlin was a bit hesitant to link any political stance with Qi so for the record let's just say Qi has no political affiliations whatsoever. Cool? But personally, and perhaps this should go on my personal blog (I'll just cross-post), I'm glad I finally voted for the candidate who eventually won. Since I was legally allowed to vote I've always managed to pick the loser whether it be on the national or local level. Obama's the first candidate who has gone all the way for me. Huzzah! Poor McCain, I like the guy, but his party really ruined his campaign thrusting Palin onto the ticket.

I already mentioned the StOked die cut in a previous post (in case you didn't see it on my Stairmaster) and there's not much of an explanation to it. As with most of America, I was enthralled with the election and Obama's rise to prominence. So when I set out to create some other die cuts outside of the Qi identity I decided on a typographical design, working with the term Stoked which is in every rider's vocabulary. It only seemed natural to incorporate the logo designed by Sol Sender. Stoked for a pow day (or just to go riding at all) and of course, stoked for the inauguration in twelve days.

Here's to hope, change, pow and all the other good stuff in this world. I didn't score tickets to the inauguration so I'll be rocking my support on the slopes. I did hook up a close friend who will be attending with some die cuts, perhaps we can generate some PR for Qi? Oh as for the photo, that's the StOked die cut on my trusty ThinkPad (yeah, no Mac for this wannabe designer, can't afford them).

Additional Photos:
Additional photos from Utah