April 11, 2014
Helmet Design Winner!!!!

Nutcase Helmets today announced the winner of its Helmet Art design contest that ran through the end of March.  Of the 55 contest submissions, it was the drawing above by Sandra Ramirez, 35, an artist and designer from Colombia, that wowed the judges (i.e. the Nutcases).

Ramirez is now collaborating with Nutcase to turn her entry into a final product. When she does, Ramirez will take home the $1,000 prize money.  “I never thought I’d have my art on a finished product,” Ramirez said. “A friend of mine sent me a link to the contest and I just started drawing. The only thing I could think of was how awesome it would be to see my monsters on a helmet.”

Ramirez draws whimsical, kooky, upbeat creatures she calls monsters. She started decorating helmets for friends and family about two years ago, using acrylic markers and Adobe Illustrator. Her first decorated helmet was inspired as a gift to give her bicycling boyfriend.  The monsters, however, have been in her repetoire since early teenage days. Ramirez said her ‘funny creatures’ spring directly from her ugly thumbs.  “I have weird thumbs, as a child I used to hide them, I was so embarrassed, but then I decided to draw eyes on them and they became my favorite monsters.”

Ramirez says her art and design influences are grafiti artist Koch1No (her mentor in Colombia) as well as Picasso, Dali, and Sponge Bob. Nutcase expects to have Ramirez’ design on a pilot helmet in time for the Eurobike show in Friedrichshafen, Germany at the end of August. See more of Ramirez’ monster designs here.