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.
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.
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.
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.