2020's Milestone Streetwear Collection

clothes Collection Fashion graphicdesign print stickers streetwear trends tshirt Urban

The Lettering, Calligraphy, and Surface Design subjects combined
proposed an assignment in which the pieces must be related to each other,
through the same Moodboard. For the first of them, we elaborated wheatpaste
posters, and for the second one, we applied the prints on t-shirts, creating a
collection.

On the pre-production stage of the project, we were oriented to choose a free format base as an inspiration, from abstract concepts to more concrete ones, like the work of a certain artist - which was the direction I went on. I selected the Imaginary Beings series, by illustrator Johanna Goodman for its childish tone that, superficially, democratizes materials on costume designs, appreciating users while questioning excess as aesthetics, an extremely common theme in 80s fashion and a big inspiration to Johanna.

Throughout the project, I noticed a strong connection between what I had made and the urban theme we often see on postmodern graphic design, so I decided to emphasize that specific approach. As the posters already had a link to that idea, merging the graphic and the physical spaces, in sometimes unpleasant compositions, I chose them as my promotional support. I also added to the already plural Moodboard trends from the Patternbank patterns website: more specifically Geometry and Technicolor Tribe, for the affinity between them and all the material I’d gathered.

RELEASE

Strongly inspired by contemporary trends based on gradients and geometric shapes, I idealized “2020’s Milestone”. The brand relies on these resources to build an observation towards the year of 2020, that would initially suggest optimism and perfection with its symmetrical composition. However, these ideals were transformed with the months pass, and certainty became uncertain. I chose “Future” and “Success” as main concepts for this reflection, adding more of a postmodern, not so idealized view.

FUTURE

For a while now, space exploration has been representing prosperity and technological development, as well as a form of escapism. Once my intentions were to bring a much skeptical postmodern perspective, an olden and abandoned feel was added, the concept of an “old future”, which has been used in sci-fi movies like Blade Runner and Star Wars. Around that theme, I also tried to work on the distance of that said future, commonly perceived centuries ahead of us, abstract, resembling fantasy instead of factual scenarios. That future I define as present, because, as though in a different rhythm from what we’d like, there’s no denying the progress is real. That being said, I end up adding some sort of optimism to the equation, a bit of saturation in between grey tones.

SUCCESS

Another optimistic concept, and somehow vague, is part of my approach. With the uprise of social media, we’ve been scrolling mosaics of achievements and happy faces, all connected by a web of hashtags and song lyrics. However, I could also notice profiles that wish to go beyond the pixel, sharing their process, their fears and torments as well as their accomplishments. Interaction platforms have become a plural medium content-wise, and a more complex environment. Unknown profiles become known without us noticing. It can take a while, it can happen instantly and there’s no formula to it. That uncertainty can seem optimistic to some, but also very negative to others. What I wish to portrait lies on the abyss of the poles: that horizontal, more social and personal success, that’s hard to define with clarity. But one thing is certain: it is not constant. Stability is no longer applicable in 2020 widely, the challenge of the decade is to find a comfortable way of keeping oneself relevant and updated, and there’s no way better to do so than making contact with multiple sources, broadening repertoire and drinking from it, not just keeping it to yourself.

With the conceptualization settled, I started the typographic exploration, one of the most ambitious steps of the project, as I had decided to take inspiration from the “36 Days of Type” challenge. That decision pushed me to elaborate different designs for the letters while testing their compatibility with each other, which resulted in numerous steps forward and backwards, until the results pleased me. A very helpful insight I had was defining which of the letters would be readable and which would allow me to experiment a little more.

However, when I had to combine them with the Technicolor Tribe gradients, I felt something was missing, so I remembered the strong materiality of Johanna’s works, and added a metallic texture to the letters in order to fill that gap.

Beside the creation of the letters, I assembled the fonts Halogen Bold and Technique Sans to the typographic set.

Brick Wall photo by Shon Ejai on Pexels

During the typographic exploration, I also elaborated a logo to the collection, that represents the fluidity and uncertainty 2020 depicted.

The logo was broadly used in other elements of the collection, such as stickers, bottoms, and even a graffiti piece on the side of a building, alluding to the urban atmosphere São Paulo trasmits.

For the design of the prints, my main references were Serge Poster, Stefy Loret, Martin Naum and the Acid Graphics trend.

A simulation of the packaging process of the pieces of clothing was made, once more with the presence of the stickers.

Photo by Camilla Carvalho on Unsplash

All mockups involving outdoor areas or models were made out of photos from the websites Pexels and Unsplash, whose credits were properly given in which of the pictures. Although toilful, I believe that option reflected the most rightly the urban feature and is able to highlight itself from ordinary mockup applications.