Over the course of a year, I had the the incredible opportunity to collaborate and create typographic
designs for Adidas ZA through Creative Studio-Room Studio.
These typographic and illustrative designs were created to go onto a range of apparel, inspired by local subcultures that thrive within the two major cities in South Africa - Cape Town & Joburg.
I created artwork for the Adidas Superstar, Forum, Stan Smith, NMD, Ozweego and Ultraboost sneaker models.
It was an amazing dream opportunity to work with the brand with the three stripes, as i grew up wearing, and still wear their clothes and sneakers. Their products are a huge staple within Hip Hop culture.
Below is a breakdown of my design rationales and process artwork through to final artwork that went
onto the Adidas City Series T Shirt range.
IMPOSSIBLE IS NOTHING.
Design Rationales/ Over- Arching themes and Concepts
Ive divided the design process into two sections i.e. one side focusing on Heritage, the Originals, retro sneakers and the other section focusing on Technology and a future focused lifestyle/ look.
The overarching theme I took was to focus on local "Sub - Cultures" as my inspiration as opposed to literal landmarks.
The Superstar artwork was inspired by local street typography and the vibrant upbeat tone that emanates from corner shops and local spaza hangouts. The naive and spontaneous letters inspired by grocery/ hand painted typography lend themselves to the classic street essence of the Superstar.
The 2nd element in the Superstar design is a spray can doing a toprock with a Walkman in hand. Inspired by my background as a b-boy/ break dancer. The Superstar was the first sneaker i ever owned, a true iconic of hiphop and b boy culture. Songs that directly inspired this design were RUN DMC’s “My Adidas” and RUN DMC’s “Its Like That”.
The Adidas Stan Smith Designs and Monograms are an homage to the legacy and clean cut/ sophisticated style of the Stan Smith sneaker, as well as an ode to the Cape Town and Joburg youth fashion streetwear scene which is ever growing and impacting fashion on a global level.
The T-shirt has always been the bread and butter of streetwear.
High fashion has been known to borrow elements of streetwear then make it their own, hence i proposed to use a theme titled - "TENNIS HAUTE COUTURE" a term reserved only for high fashion, but here we use it on a T-shirt, a "pastiche", a response of satire to the High Fashion world.
The abstract Stan Smith Monograms are inspired by the "Dadaism" movement and and vintage/cologne-esque typographic monogram designs were the aesthetic inspiration for the typography.
The Forum designs were directly inspired by the street basketball scenes of the city, again sticking within the retro 80s/90s basketball world.
I have made them specific to each city by giving them a sort of early 80s Mixtape/ vinyl album cover style. Cape Town is "Mother City Vol1" and Joburg is "City of Gold Vol 1". With Hip Hop as a culture turning 50 this year , I felt like taking it back and giving it that vintage classic type style, so each T Shirt design is like a “Greatest Hits” record. The circular design in the alternate versions is inspired by a 45” record shape.
Basketball and hanging out on the court, listening to Hip Hop and breakdancing was my first experience of Hip Hop Culture. These City Mixtape designs are an homage to the rawness of Hip Hop's early stages and to the sport of basketball and its influence on the culture.
I have made them specific to each city by giving them a sort of early 80s Mixtape/ vinyl album cover style. Cape Town is "Mother City Vol1" and Joburg is "City of Gold Vol 1". With Hip Hop as a culture turning 50 this year , I felt like taking it back and giving it that vintage classic type style, so each T Shirt design is like a “Greatest Hits” record. The circular design in the alternate versions is inspired by a 45” record shape.
Basketball and hanging out on the court, listening to Hip Hop and breakdancing was my first experience of Hip Hop Culture. These City Mixtape designs are an homage to the rawness of Hip Hop's early stages and to the sport of basketball and its influence on the culture.
Ozweego - I've made this set of designs very illustrative focused, i.e. the actual sneaker is the hero in the design/ main focus point.
The design style is inspired by the mixture of the tech fashion scenes from both Cape Town and Johannesburg. The type used is a "glitch" & "tech", "ticketing" style, paying homage to the travelers, hustlers, moving between the two cities and the fast paced nature of working and living within the two big cities.
NMD - Here I'm pulling design cues from a 90s internet, pop up adverts/ tech style and elements of underground electronic music posters. The design is also inspired by racer graphics, so it seems like it's moving fast or being downloaded from somewhere.
Im experimenting with themes like "JOZI LOADING" or "CPT LOADING" .The main themes in the design being tech music, underground EDM club posters, pop up internet adverts etc
Ultra Boost - "ENERGY".
Inspired by the “Energy” Return, and technology of “BOOST”. My inspiration behind this design was the original 3D boost logo as well as the small circular shapes of the actual ultra boost material. Ive used a very pop art-esque and bright/multi-colored palette.
The puffy 3D lettering is designed to be onomatopoeic in the way it notions at, and describes "boost", the bouncy, 90's internet- style is meant to take from the past in its tone, but stay contemporary.
I really like how the word energy fits together with the sneaker and I've made the letter "E"s in the word "energy" reminiscent of the number 3 so it ties back to Adidas.
While working on the revised design, it dawned on me that there's something about the word that also blatantly communicates "positivity" and the notion of "fuel". It gives me the vibe of a futuristic power station or fuel company.
