Jio_a Customs
This project started as a way to give customization services to people in the fashion industry. I eventually garnered a lot of attention which then led me to create my own inspired designs and sold some through my own website.
The goal was to create eye-catching designs that were directed to the current trend at the time. The fashion industry was teeming with big brands taking the stage and I wanted to compliment the movement with my designs, some more conventional than others.
Some designs were a personal choice, they were fueled by my inspiration at the time; Japanese ukiyo-e as you can see on some of the shoes I've customised.
Eventually, I moved away from customising with paint and wanted to delve into embellishing different materials onto the base shoe. This sparked interest within the fashion industry and I then tried to explore this aspect to design and fashion when it came to the next set of sneaker customisations I made.
I started gaining inspiration from technical drawings from architecture and found the measurement details fascinating and tried to implement that as a design direction which gave me the first ever prototype seen below.
I then started to deconstruct the shoe and found out that labeling the panels was a great way of making the design show a more technical aspect of the silhouette and added to the aesthetic even if it looked messy in general.
With this direction, I came up with the "prototype" look which translated well into the current trend at the time which was the "deconstruction of fashion" spearheaded by the late Virgil Abloh of Off-White. This campaign aimed at what fashion would look like if you took apart the design and made it the point of the piece itself.
Going back to my design ethos and inspirations, I then spawned a few designs derived from this idea.....
To complement the designs, I needed to create a website that followed the same aesthetics I had been working with by using raw, grunge, DIY, and handmade styles, which were also popular at the time. As I continued to make the same type of content that I did, it was important to tie the website up with everything that was on my Instagram page keeping to the themes that my audience was used to.
By editing things like retro VHS/TV effects onto videos, creating taped-down website landing pages, and using hand-drawn templates and typefaces on certain pages coupled with a simple layout, I was able to achieve the desired effect that I was after.
Now, I would say that making the shoes isnt the best case when it comes to creativity. Yes, the design is simple to appeal to a certain aesthetic and yes, it looks easy to make and whilst it was pretty easily attainable it was easily the most monotonous aspect of this whole project.
Since this project was supposed to be creative in terms of sneaker showcasing, I think I definitely poured all of my efforts more into making the content for the sneakers more than creating the sneakers instead....
In conclusion, even if this project was short-lived, I managed to stretch my creativity to achieve goals that were unintended. I wanted to create a brand image that showcases my artistic endeavors be it in product development, website design, and especially in content creation.
Consistency with the three aspects of this project (designs, content, and website) was challenging but using the aesthetics and themes that I have put in place for the branding made it easier to link everything together when it comes to updating them. I think the key idea for this project was to keep everything simple and not overdo anything whilst trying to keep the main product in focus all of the time.
The results for each design were very varied but I think it was important for growing the brand to the heights it achieved, this includes attention from stylists from artists that I have sent custom sneakers to. At the end of the day, I've learned that you need to keep modifying your designs to the point where people are divided on how they feel about them in order to get proper feedback.
This project made me realise that to be a successful brand, it is important to reach out and listen to your audience in order to create a community that will be beneficial in moving the brand forward in terms of design and growth in general.