Artist Series 2025 | Kylee Firlit

Kylee Firlit is a rarity, as she’s both an artist and a graphic designer—and she’s insanely talented at both.

She’s also a passionate skier, climber, mountain biker, and runner, which is why her resume is packed with brands like Black Diamond, Mountain Hardwear, Kühl, and now, we’re honored to say, Wagner Custom.

Kylee Firlit at home in the San Miguels.

Originally from Colorado Springs, Colo., and currently based in our backyard of Ouray, Colo., Firlit has found a connection between creativity, community, and the mountains in her new series of Wagner topsheets that feature iconic ski descents in the West. They’re color-drenched and gorgeous, with a perspective and balance that only an artist who also happens to be a graphic designer can strike.

We caught up with her recently at her home to ask her about how she got into art, what inspired her to work with Wagner Skis, and what it’s like to be a female hunter. (We couldn’t resist.) Here’s what she had to say.

Wagner: How did you figure out that art was your path?
Firlit: I grew up drawing a lot. Fun fact, I’m left-handed and, when I was really little, my dad would always try to get me to be right-handed. It’s so much more convenient to be right-handed, but they always say left-handed people tend to be more creative.

Growing up in Colorado Springs, I got really got into the art scene and drawing and painting in high school. I went to college in Bozeman, Mont., and started in architecture thinking that would be a good blend of the art side and the more practical math side. After a month, I was, like, I hate this. So I stuck with it for a semester and switched to graphic design and fell in love with that. I started to blend some of the art side with it, which brought me into my career.

Grand Teton Descent by Kylee Firlit

Wagner: How did you get to specialize in the outdoors?
Firlit: I love the outdoors and always wanted to work with outdoor brands. I moved to Salt Lake after Bozeman and worked for a few brands doing graphic design and drawing on the side. Then around COVID I decided to branch away from design in- house and fully integrate my illustration and graphic design and work for myself. I do a lot of art for myself but have a lot of client work with my art, too, which is super fun. It’s a pretty cool niche, being able to combine graphic design and art.

Wagner: Not a lot of people do both.
Firlit: I’d say most graphic designers I know don’t consider themselves artists. It was funny in college when no one else could draw, and they’d come to me and ask me to draw things. Doing both also keeps work busy, which is great, and keeps me able to play in a lot of spaces, which I think most people don’t get to do. And I get to use the logic side of my brain based on visual communication and make decisions based on what looks good and feels good and connects emotionally.

Mt. Shasta by Kylee Firlit

Wagner: What brought you to Ouray?
Firlit: I’ve been here for two and a half years now. I love it. It’s the best place to find inspiration, and the community is great. And for it being a small town, the art scene is pretty wonderful and very supportive, which I appreciate a lot. Wagner: What do you do outdoors? Firlit: I grew up snowboarding and switched to skiing in my mid 20s. I do a lot of backcountry skiing, too. In the summer, I do a lot of climbing, mountain biking, and running. I’ve been a runner for the longest, since, like, ninth grade. I love exploring the mountains, and I got into hunting the last couple years. That’s my in-between season activity.

Wagner: Talk to me about hunting—there are not many women in that space.
Firlit: It’s awesome. You see how the ecosystem works, and you learn about the animals. I never see women out there. This year I had an elk and deer tag, and I’ll probably keep doing something around that.

Mt. Shuksan by Kylee Firlit

Wagner: How did you come to work with Wagner?
Firlit: I hear Wagner tossed around a lot; they’re super respected here. I ski Telluride a fair amount and see them around. People are always super psyched about them.

Wagner: How did you come up with your designs for the topsheets? They are so, so awesome.
Firlit: It’s a super challenging format to have that very skinny composition. I’ve looked at how other people split the ski, and I didn’t want to go with that format. I figured out how to use the space and do a journey of a changing landscape, where you’re going from the bottom and seeing the epic vertical format that we experience in real life. I wanted to portray that on a ski with that vastness of space in the mountains. I think about it in terms of taking pictures on my phone: You want to take it vertical, but the horizontal takes the panorama and feels so confined. So it’s cool to take your own perspective.

San Joaquin Couloir by Kylee Firlit

Wagner: How did you choose the lines you featured?
Firlit: They’re all based on classic ski descents. I think the San Joaquin is a classic, but if it’s not, it should be. It’s super cool. For the others I looked at ones that I thought would be fun to draw, and I took one from different regions based around Wagner’s audience. San Joaquin was the first one because it’s so prevalent to Telluride and such a cool view to get to see als the time.

For more of Firlit’s work, check out her Instagram and her website.

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Article by Kimberly Beekman
Kimberly Beekman is the former editor-in-chief of the late, great Skiing Magazine (RIP), and a longtime editor of SKI Magazine before that. She currently uses the title of “freelancer” as a beard to ski powder all over the world. She lives in Steamboat, Colorado, with her wonderful daughter and terrible cat.