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TEAM UNDER ARMOUR
Roster: Satoshi Sutoh, Jonathan Guisbert, Ako Xiang, and Set Peterson (CMF)
The past few days have been extremely busy. I’m definitely sleeping less every night, trying to stay on top of my sketches and continuously coming up with new concepts as our old ones evolve. I think this is part of the growing pains of learning how it feels to be a professional designer. We have a deadline that’s quickly approaching and it feels like there’s still so much to be done; it would be overwhelming if I didn’t love what I’m doing, so I’m thankful for that. As a group, we invested most of the day into learning about color, materials and finishes with Suzette Henry, who has a wealth of experience in the industry. It was really exciting to see all the possibilities of what we can use to add more emotion, story and tactile interest to our designs. Probably more exciting than what’s currently out in the market is what still is yet to come. For all the tech that brands are putting out, there’s always a new idea waiting to come to life. – Jonathan Guisbert
Above are a few sketches I worked out after taping up a basketball sneaker to do a crease study and hopefully solve the problem of material pinching when you are moving forward on the balls of your feet. I actually did a bunch of thumbnails the other day and I ended up scrapping all of them! It was frustrating, but I knew if I couldn’t support my product fully, why should anyone else? I think I fell into the trap of sketching some ideas for aesthetics, trying to find that “iconic” silhouette…definitely learned that the hard way, but I’m glad I caught myself in time and redirected to a much better route of performance and fit as main priorities. – Jonathan Guisbert
Today I saw a lot of beautiful material. This was really helpful for the design because I was searching for ways to support the arch of the foot in the removable bootie I’m working on. – Ako Xiang
Today, we got the instruction about CMF (Color, Material, and Finishing) for the first time to start this class. At first, the CMF instructor Suzette gave us a presentation. The content was full of color, feel of a material and the idea sources about the trends gave us some inspiration. At the same time, we got some information about our own project. For example, a pattern of textiles, use of material, retailer’s market, and so on. In this class, we realized again how important a domain called CMF affects our design deeply. –Satoshi Sutoh
Read the rest of the diaries here.
