June 5, 2015: Pensole Day 5

DONUT DAY, NO EXCUSES, VISITORS

A beautiful day in Portland today with blue skies, breezy winds, and a high of 82º.

The morning coffee spot.

People lining up for donuts at 8AM.

We had a pretty regular start to the day with morning meeting...

Do better than yesterday: PRODUCTIVITY

Goal for today: NO EXCUSES

Book of the day: The Practicing Mind – Thomas Sterner. A book on developing focus and discipline in your life. Being great is better than being good. Discipline is an option. Act like what you want to become, not what you are.

Quote of the day: "Hair and shoes say it all. Everything in between is forgivable as long as you keep it simple. Trying to talk with your clothes is passive-aggressive." – Rick Owens

Website of the day: stumbleupon.com

Bruce Lee Principle #5: "Simplicity, economy, and direct as possible." The 1" punch requires no wasted effort or energy.

Creative Process Thought #5: "Think impossible and make impossible."

Creative Consistency Thought #5: Consistency. "As you think, so shall you become." Have the right mentality and realize that without confidence the result is never good and the thought is always limited.

Evolving my board. Defining, expanding, condensing, finishing.

After morning meeting, the CMDs met with Mrs. Suzette to discuss the in-progress design briefs that the footwear and brand designers drafted.

Matt stopped by to chat with the Brand Designers before giving a sketch demonstration.

After lunch there was an optional sketch demonstration by Matt Rhoades (part-time course instructor, full-time Lead Baseball Equipment Director at Nike). Matt's sketching arsenal includes a pencil case containing 1 colored pencil, 1 black ballpoint pen, 2 lead pencils, and 1 grey 20% marker. Matt also developed the DRAU Sketch Book Series: a footwear design sketch book with light template outlines.

Brian Moughty stopped by to chat with us about his journey.

After the sketch demo, former Pensole student Brian Moughty told us about his story in footwear. Brian is currently a Color Designer – Promo Footwear in Nike Basketball. Brian previously did contract work for Peak Sports and Woollier. We also were visited by several former students and current Adidas and Nike color and footwear designers.

Brought into the MLAB: adidas RG3 Cleats “Cardinal”

Brought into the MLAB: adidas Freak x Kevlar® "Mantraflage"

Brought into the MLAB: adidas Freak x Kevlar® "Veteran's Day"

Brought into the MLAB: adidas Adizero 40. Only used for the 40-yard dash at the NFL combine.

June 4, 2015: Pensole Day 4

DNA, STORYTELLING, (NEARLY) PERFECTING THE PERSONA.

It was a beautiful day out here in Portland today. 73º and sunshine.

Stopping at a coffee shop before class across from the world famous Voodoo Doughnut.

At 8AM there was an optional lecture on design DNA and how to set up a brand for success that can be kept up. We looked at Jordan Brand DNA and how the design of the product was driven from a set of brand truths. After the DNA lecture we broke apart for a couple of minutes before morning meeting.

Do better than yesterday: Patience

Goal for today: Productivity

Book of the day: The Map of Innovation – Kevin O'Connor. A step-by-step guide to bringing an idea to market.

Quote of the day: "You can fail at what you don't want, so you might as well take a chance at doing what you love." – Jim Carrey

Website of the day: hypebeast.com

Bruce Lee Complete Creative Thought: Instinctive Movement. In design, you cannot be rigid or pre-determined. Turn, move, and go.

Bruce Lee Creative Process Thought: Consistently exceed your level. You have to keep going deeper and getting better. Do not settle.

Bruce Lee Creative Consistency Thought: Discipline. "I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once. But I fear the man who has practiced on a kick 10,000 times."

After morning meeting we met for a lecture on product storytelling. The lecture was opened with an entertaining video called "Fresh impressions on brandmarks," featuring descriptions of logos by a five-year-old. It was definitely an eye opener to first impressions of branding and how difficult it is to shake them. The great question was asked, "How do you engage consumers?" The answer: appeal to their emotions. And how do you do that? With senses (Cinnabon, Movie Theatre Popcorn, Tiffany Blue), creativity (Disney World's Hidden Mickey Mouse Logos, Air Jordans, the Rapid Packaging Container, Louboutins), and accidents (Disney World's Pin Trading, eBay's name, Banned Air Jordan I).

After the storytelling lecture concluded we grouped up to discuss with our teams.

My teammates. Clockwise from top left: Kevin (Footwear Design, Canada), Blair (Footwear Design, England), Lacey (Footwear Design, Arizona), John (Brand Design, New York)

My group discussed the specific consumers that the footwear designers are trying to reach. We focused on being meticulously specific about each one of the consumers. We also were visited by E. Scott Morris, a former Nike and Reebok footwear designer. He currently designs for Under Armour here in Portland. One of his most popular designs is a signature model for Emmitt Smith, the Reebok ES22.

A gluten-free bakery in SW Portland. A perfect way to end the day.

June 3, 2015: Pensole Day 3

FEEDBACK, MATERIAL TESTING, WHO AM I?

Another drizzly day here in Portland. Not really any rain, just consistently overcast. I love it!

The view from the MAX station by the hotel

In morning meeting we started off with a little bit of criteria that we should think about for our products. What is the business impact of the product? Is it beautiful? Is it original? How well does it function? What social good is created by it? Although we are not necessarily at the final point where we can judge our products yet (we haven't even started with the visuals), these are good points to keep in mind.

What I want to do better than yesterday: Understanding

Goal for today: Clean and Organize

Book of the day: Buy-ology by Martin Lindstrom. The truth and lies about why we buy.

Quote of the day: "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act, but a habit." – Aristotle

Website of the day: theshoethatgrows.org. Shoes that grow with the feet for five years.

Bruce Lee Complete Creative #2 & 3: "A style without a style." and "Fluid, free-flowing like water."

Bruce Lee Creative Process #3: "Be formless."

Bruce Lee Creative Consistency #3: "I try to live freely from moment to moment, letting things happen and adjusting to them."

Work stations in the MLAB.

After we finished the morning meeting, most of us went upstairs for a pitch-back session, very similar to critiques in college. The only difference was that this was only for written concepts and ideas, and that it lasted for three and a half hours. My biggest takeaways were that, in this industry, the consumer we are designing for needs to be very, very specific. And although it is difficult to do, we MUST remove ourselves from our consumers. We are not the consumers. We are not the consumers. We are not the consumers. Although I wasn't presenting, I was very active in the critique. Finally, in the big group, I felt that I had something to say: something that needed to be heard.

The mentality of a CMD.

After breaking for lunch, all of the CMDs and most of the footwear and brand designers had a lecture on material testing. I knew that there was a science to materials. But I had no idea just how much science was involved. Testing new materials, in particular, is one of the most thorough tasks of materials. I learned about stoll abrasion testing, a way of testing the strength of the face and base of a material. After stoll abrasion testing, the material would move into physical testing, performance testing, and consistency testing. One of the interesting facts that I learned today was that, in footwear, there is no breathability testing.

We had some free time after the material testing lecture and most of the groups met to discuss notes from the pitch-back session and to steer us in the right direction. We ended the day with a lecture on resumes and portfolios. The biggest points I left with were "Who are you?" and "What are you selling?"

Notes in my workstation. Breaking our companies into brand and visual cues. More to come.

June 2, 2015: Pensole Day 2

THINGS ARE MAKING MORE SENSE.

Day 2 was a good day to get settled in. The weather out here was pretty typical for Portland: cool and rainy. It drizzled for most of the day and there were some big drops here and there.

Mad dash to class while avoiding the rain.

We started off the day with a morning meeting. In the meeting we discussed the sneaker market and some of the players in it. We were informed that New Balance is the largest privately-owned footwear company. We also were told that Portland-designed Olukai has the best storytelling in the industry.

After our discussion on the industry as a whole, we also talked about jobs within the industry. The ins and outs of Nike were discussed and D'Wayne's experience with the brand offered a lot of insight. D'Wayne also differentiated the roles of material developers, material designers, color designers, and color developers, which I found very interesting. D'Wayne informed us that 80% of footwear companies don't have color designers or material designers and those are two very in-demand jobs at the moment.

I challenged myself to be more PATIENT today than I was yesterday.

My goal for today: TIME MANAGEMENT.

Book of the day: The Accidental Creative by Todd Henry, which is about being brilliant at a moment's notice.

Quote of the day: "The best preparation for tomorrow is doing your best today." – H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

Website of the day: brettgolliff.com. Brett is a color designer at GM and has knowledge and insight in the sneaker design industry.

Complete Creative Thoughts of the day: EMPTY YOUR CUP

Creative Consistency Thoughts of the day: TIME. "We all have time to either spend or waste and it is our decision what to do with it. But once past, it is gone forever."

After our morning meeting we had a lecture on personal branding and received information on our design briefs for the course. To give a real world example of a footwear design brief, D'Wayne related it to his brief when he was designing the Air Jordan XX2. D'Wayne also designed the Air Jordan XX1.

Air Jordan XX1

Air Jordan XX2. Inspired by the F22 Raptor.

After breaking away from the design brief lecture, I went with the other CMD's to join Mrs. Suzette in the MLAB. We learned about global color palettes and how they have an effect on brands within brands. 

A mural inside the Compound Gallery across the street from Pensole

On my lunch break I got a sandwich from Charlie's Deli and stopped at the Compound Gallery, a sneaker and streetwear boutique with an art gallery and coffeee, across the street from Pensole. After lunch we met back up to discuss the course objectives. The main takeaways that I will have from this experience with CMD are: brand language and terminology, design strategy and brand strategy, color strategy / color palettes / color ways, price, and consumer trends. After an elaborate discussion on color, we broke off on our own to start researching and playing with our upcoming color palettes for the challenge.

The view from the ride back to the hotel on the MAX.

June 1, 2015: Pensole Day 1

WHAT A DAY.

Today was my first day of class at the Pensole Footwear Design Academy. It was a day full of information, notes, and processing.

Looking up from the front door.

After getting into the building a little early, we had some time to look around the space inside. Books lined shelves, huge posters rested against the walls and new desks and chairs were neatly scattered across the space. Shoe samples were all over the place; from Jordans to baseball cleats to retro Adidas runners. On the west wall there was a "trophy" wall with other shoe samples and some beautiful artwork. There was a camera crew filming our every move which took a little while to get used to.

The trophy wall.

After about twenty minutes of looking around and meeting some of the other students we grabbed our seats for our morning lecture. We were greeted by D'Wayne Edwards, the founder of Pensole and he outlined the course from housekeeping to the overall brief. D'Wayne also gave us a quote of the day, book of the day, website of the day, guiding principle of the day, creative process quote of the day, and creative consistency quote of the day. It was definitely a lot to reflect on but very inspirational.

After D'Wayne's lecture was done we were introduced to Mrs. Suzette Henri who works closest with the Color and Material Designers (CMD's)– the role that I am in. Mrs. Suzette touched on the different ID parts of products: material, consumer, performance, function, aesthetic, construction, sustainability.

After Mrs. Suzette's lecture we were introduced to Matt Rhoades. Matt will be working closely with the brand designers in the program and he currently works for Nike Baseball in equipment. Matt talked about his vast experience in the industry and gave us a lot of inspirational advice.

Matt's lecture ran up until lunchtime and we took an hour break. Once we got back to the space D'Wayne split us up into our teams and gave us our project briefs. The other people from my team are from Upstate New York, Arizona, Winnipeg, and England. We definitely have quite diverse backgrounds.

The project we were given was a brief from Woolrich. Our project is to redefine the house shoe (slipper). Woolrich wants us to design three different shoes; one for West Elm, one for Ikea, and one for a store of our choice. After our team assignments we were split into our different roles and I went along with the other CMD's. We went with Mrs. Suzette and we got a tour of the Material Lab (MLAB).

My MLAB workspace for the next four weeks.

After our introduction of the MLAB I caught up with my team who was visiting West Elm for inspiration. We also stopped by several boutique stores to help us decide on a third store to design for.

Here's to tomorrow!