Vallely Barnyard

In the words of Mike V – about the Vallely Barnyard Graphic (2003)

The “Barnyard” board was the first symmetrical pro model board on the market and was a surprise seller for us all. I think it had more so to do with the shape of the board then the graphic although the graphic was quite striking and different then anything that had come before it. This graphic was the first in a series of great graphics that I collaborated on with Mark McKee and Rocco. The barnyard graphic was originally suppose to be a serious rendition of a farm scene, of animals grazing peacefully. I had this folk art style graphic in my head and the simplistic nature of it was suppose to convey the same symbolistic idea I had for the original Powell Peralta elephant. I basically wanted to get people to think, I wanted to present some idealistic scene to contrast the reality of factory farming. I was now a full blown vegetarian and I wanted to communicate something about that. This board was my coming out as a vegetarian in a sense. So, the bottom graphic was going to be this funky folk art piece of animals grazing and the top graphic was going to be a quote in simple bold black helvetica “Please don’t eat my friends.”

I left this idea with Rocco with perhaps a few of my own sketches and left for tour. While I was on the road Rocco got together with McKee and tweaked things. Somewhere along the way I think they Fed-Exed me a sketch and I was pissed. I felt like they were making light of my convictions. When I returned to Torrance and met with them they had the entire graphic completed. I hated it. To me it was stupid and childish. Rocco however really felt strongly about it and talked with me for hours on why this was a better approach and his reasoning for what the graphic now conveyed. He talked about George Orwell’s book ‘Animal Farm’ and how this graphic was a play on that with the animals rebelling and fighting back. He made a good case and I began to warm up to the design, it definitely looked different than anything I’d ever seen before. I slowly came around but I had two demands… One was that the top graphic be a continuation of the bottom scene with the quote “Please don’t eat my friends” worked into it and the second was to remove what I determined to be a vulgar and pointless image from the bottom graphic of a horse mounting another horse. In fact, the horse that was getting mounted is still on the board… you can see her smiling face peaking out from behind the barn. I heard the top graphic ended up being very costly and I think Rocco would have preferred to do without it but I wouldn’t approve the graphic otherwise.

The “Barnyard” board is easily the best selling pro-model I’ve had to this day. Back then I was pulling consistent $10,000 – $13,000 checks each month for almost a year thanks to that board and probably could have made more if World’s wood shop could have met the demand. Still, as great as a graphic as it was and is (and I think the top graphic is the best part of it) I still believe it was more so the shape that sold that board. Thanks to the insight Rocco, Rodney Mullen and I had as to the future of skating and board shapes we really hit the nail right on the head with that shape. It was all timing. That board really established World Industries as a threat and probably kept the brand a float but also helped progress skateboarding and skateboard shapes.

Beyond that there was the vegetarian message of the board that actually made a real impact. We sold a lot of those boards so there was a lot of young impressionable kids buying that board and receiving it’s message. To this day I have people come up to me and credit me and that board for introducing them to the ideologies behind vegetarianism.

Mike Vallely Barnyard Skateboard Decks – OG & Reissues