SHEPHERDING A PRODUCT LINE VISION
I think of this as guiding the day to day “work” we did as Nike product designers.
The direction is not only meant to guide designers, it also meant to keep a whole team–development, merchandising, sales–walking along the same the same conceptual path. This serves to maintain focus throughout a project or product line's lifespan. It captures the untethered creative energy on the front end of a project; guides us as we hit the reality of price points, margins, delivery dates; and serves as review at the end to make sure we maintained the story and stuck the dismount. The following is a typical example of the kind of direction I provided. This was a small footwear and apparel line specially made for Footlocker.
The product line was a winter delivery for Footlocker.
This particular project was a Nike pilot program with the goal of having footwear and apparel designing a product line in unison. Crazy as it sounds, that never happened. My job was to develop the direction and then shepherd it to completion with teams that usually didn't work together. After meetings that included merchandising, design, and department managers we formulated our raw direction. My task was to turn the "raw" into a refined narrative and direction. I landed on Heatmiser vs. Snowmiser, two takes on winter: warm and cozy vs. cold and icy .
We wanted to contrast warm cozy winter versus icy cold winter.
Material Direction: Warm vs. Icy. Cozy vs. Stark. Colorful vs. Monochromatic.
I provided conceptual, color, and material direction, established a succinct graphic language, designed patterns for apparel and footwear, and then I designed the apparel component while my partner in crime designed the footwear component.
Here is a little taste on how some of the line landed. It ended up selling in and selling through really well. The VP of Nike USA remarked that footwear and apparel designing in unison with a united vision was the new model of Nike going forward.
Here are a couple more examples. These guided two other product lines for the same pilot program. The common use of "VS" was a tie in to the Nike company wide global direction at the time which was focused on "rivalries."