TEAM UNDER ARMOUR
Roster: Jonathan Guisbert, Ako Xiang, Satoshi Sutoh, Seth Peterson (CMF)
Day 5 already! Today was awesome because we finally put pencil to paper. Although we couldn’t start concept sketching, we did warm up sketches which were cool because it taught us how to pay attention to subtle details like the small articulated molding outlines or the little ridge where the heel meets/is glued to the midsole. There were also numerous professionals that came by such as designers from adidas, Nike, and even a professional placement agency called 52 Limited. The designers were really great to talk to and bounce ideas off of for our individual concepts. It’s crazy how young some of these guys are, just shows how much talent is coming up and how much more we have to push ourselves to be successful. Talking to 52 Limited was really great because it opened the class up to the idea of working with agencies as a major way of being discovered and gaining experience. Lots of important connections were made today, can’t wait for the next few weeks!
Warm up sketches. We were tasked to sketch one of the samples we had here in class. The idea was to sketch to improve, each one should be better than the last. This was actually pretty difficult because sometimes you get something right in one, but when you go to do the next sketch, what you had right in the previous one won’t always come out exactly the same. It was a great exercise to pay attention to details and the small nuances that are in the profile of a sneaker. Ako Xiang was here sketching as well. He has some really interesting things going on with his design and started to work out some of his ideas on paper. He also has some really great insight about construction as he has worked with footwear production for a few years, great addition to the team. Modern architecture is about using traditional materials in a new and simple way. One of the oldest materials around is bamboo. I think lots of people are aware of its strength properties, but it is also antimicrobial, flexible, absorbs moisture, and even gets stronger with age! I’m researching some new ways to incorporate this into footwear, along with the help of the CMF designer on the team, Seth Peterson and materials expert Suzette Henry. It’ll be interesting to see what we come up with!
