VF Masterclass X PLC Detroit
I have had the privilege to be selected for my 3rd masterclass at PLC Detroit and this masterclass was in collaboration with VF Corporation which hosted an 8 week comprehensive course focusing on industry standards preparing students for the footwear industry by incorporating Vizcom techniques, Blender modeling and Substance Painter. During this course I was selected to be part of the Timberland team and focused on the energy category in which I crafted a silhouette specific to my consumers needs while also getting real time feedback from the team over at Timberland!
Project Statement
To develop an energy driven silhouette which resonates with the young experimental consumer, who requires a silhouette that is stylish yet multi-functional, while also providing them with silhouette that will stand the test of time.
My Consumer is Carson Hayes, he is a 22 year old based out of Atlanta, GA and is a recent graduate from SCAD university with a degree in film directing. He currently is making short film content via TikTok where he gained 3.5 million followers allowing him to live a comfortable lifestyle through his brand sponsorships. He lives and breathes ATL and is heavily influenced by his community and peers around him allowing him to be tapped into so many creative outlets.
My Consumers activities consist of everyday film directing focusing on his short films as he is currently pursuing a career of making his own film company. Also, he attended a lot of social events with his friends and also fellow film peers making him very extroverted. Lastly, he spends a lot of time in his studio where he creates his innovative film ideas for up and coming projects he is working on.
My color palette is The Southern Finale which is a cultivation of Atlanta's rich heritage and vibrant culture as it speaks well to my season which is spring/summer 2030. I chose to focus on warmer tones in the color palette and highlight the color Zinnia pair with Golden Cream and Veiled Vista as this will tie well into my consumer who isn't afraid of loud colors but rather embraces them.
My consumer Carson was facing 3 prominent problems the first being silhouettes that were one dimensional, longevity within the silhouette and lastly temperature regulation. These are what I will be solving for with my silhouette and will help to benefit Carson throughout his day to day activities.
Next are my solutions which will help to benefit Carson and these are having a silhouette that is multi-functional for different occasions, durability for longevity and sustainability, and lastly enhanced ventilation to focus on that ATL spring/summer weather which could variate from time to time.
Following up are my performance features which were given to us in the project brief and for Timberland they wanted us to focused on a silhouette that was protective, crafted and new heritage and each of these elements played a crucial role in my design process throughout the program.
For my inspiration I drew a lot of inspiration from Carson's Mercedes Benz 560 SEC which was gifted to him from his father and his appreciation for the detailing within the car drove me to focus on fine detailing and patterning as well. Also I chose to focus on a more elevated material selection which would cater towards Carson's style.
Presented here are my first round of hand sketches and in this round I wanted to focus on those 3 performance features and how they would fit into Carson's lifestyle and what he needs. So during this I chose to keep the silhouettes very loose looking at different areas of paneling and which ones would make it further in the exploration process.
Moving into my refined ideation, on the far left are my second round of ideation sketches which built upon the first round and during the program we were also tasked to work in Vizcom so with this I was able to really get a more realistic understanding of how my silhouette would look and throughout this process Timberland was guiding us on what will be functional and really play into that real world aspect of what goes into making a shoe which was very influential for my design process as well.
Presented here are my first round of hand sketches and in this round I wanted to focus on those 3 performance features and how they would fit into Carson's lifestyle and what he needs. So during this I chose to keep the silhouettes very loose looking at different areas of paneling and which ones would make it further in the exploration process.
Presented are my Vizcom orthographics which help to demonstrate a more realistic rendering of my silhouette which I was able to take these into blender and model out my shoe for the rest of the presentation.
Moving into my construction callouts I want to highlight first the half gusseted tongue which will cater towards my consumer as he wears his shoes loosely laced, the next being the Timberland "T" logo which pays homage to the new heritage category for my performance features we were given and lastly the weather ready mud guard which will help Carson stay protected in various weather conditions.
Presented are my color blocks which were generated from my color story and through this exploration I was able to identify what will best suit my consumer the best and cater towards that spring/summer season presented in the brief. Highlighted are two color-ways, one focuses on a nighttime event style color block while the other will be more multifunctional and can be used for different occasions with the versatility in colors.
Modeling of the silhouette was created in Blender.
Materials and Color implemented in Substance Painter.
Animation and still shots created in Blender.
