X

06

Date

2018

Project Type

Clarks & Supreme footwear collaboration - Product development service

Involved

Footwear Designers Product Development Range Management Directors

My Contribution

Design Prototypes Concept Creations 2D Image Manipulation Print & Digital Design assets

Story

At Clarks I worked closely with footwear designers, range managers and directors to produce seasonal & limited edition collaboration shoes.

Process

The creative process is below in stages. You’ll see the design development input I attributred and how it helped the business succeed in this project.

Goal

For me, the goal was to support the footwear designers to achieve their goals. I mostly enjoyed having input of the creation or a concept to trial.

01 How

Starts with a sketch from the footwear designer, or with a previous style to work from.

Player 2 (me) has
entered the game

02 Render

From sketch to render using mainly Photoshop to create layers, kinda like building blocks. This allows for rapid prototyping & decisions to be made fast without samples being produced.

03 Real

Render to Real...ish. I would effectively build the shoe in layers on photoshop and then add materials, stitching and patterns. It's important here to not spend days creating award winning art. I'm still providing a service and speed is a major factor.

04 Variants

After using all sorts of “dark magic” to bring the concepts to a near life experience, I would then prototype different pantones & styles. Love the creative opportunities here.

05 Why?

By doing this I’m showing creative ideas and what may not work, which saves time in the long run & increases the chance for better decisions. Also it’s cost effective and saves on samples and materials. I also create assets for presentations, prints and pdf booklets.

Player 2 has
left the game

It’s cool when you see your styles in the wild

Other collaborative brands I have worked on

Takeaway

Dealing with a lot of people helped me develop my people skills and creative skills. This has aided my branding, strategy and understanding of the different creative areas out there.

Why could this work for you?

Having an understanding of lots of the creative industry improves my judgement and knowhow. You don’t need to be a footwear company looking for development, I can adapt this in my B2B pitches, clothing & packaging design processes.