Airwalk Visual Development Guide by andrea t

Visual Development Guide

VISUAL DEVELOPMENT GUIDE

Visual Development Guide

VISUAL DEVELOPMENT GUIDE

Contents: 6 Introduction 7 Brand History 15 Round One Sketches 35 Round Two Sketches 43 Round Three Sketches 59 Round Four Sketches 70 New Logo Design 71 Inspiration 78 Look-Alike Logos

Visual Development Introduction The process of developing a new brand identity begins with research. Once you get to know the history and soul of your brand, it is time to move on to a new logo. This is a time of exploration and development. Taking the keywords, personas, and brand mission, we developed 3 “camps” or aesthetics to build our designs off of. Then comes the sketching, the refinements and the iterations. The following pages chronicle the journey from inspiration to a new brand identity.

VISUAL DEVELOPMENT GUIDE

Airwalk Brand History Airwalk was a pioneer in the skateboarding industry. Established in 1986, by George Yohn and Bill Mann, Airwalk was created to make functional, sound, and durable skateboarding shoes. They are advocates for the skateboarding culture and active lifestyles of the action sports community including skateboarding, mountain biking, snowboarding and skiing.

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Airwalk attempts to enter the apparel market with little to no success.

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1992

Mann is replaced as president of Items International by Lee Smith.

Skateboarding sales drop to $8 million. Mann branches out to Snowboarding and Mountain Biking.

1994

Airwalk, named after Tony Hawk’s move, is launched by Items International, selling primarily in California Surf and Skate Shops.

Sales top at $20 million.

1991

1987

Airwalks are available in over 100 styles and sold globally as trends to dress in a Cali style spread.

1989

1986

1985

Mann’s 11 year old son challenges him to make a better skateboarding sneaker.

Airwalk leads in sales of Snowboarding Boots.

Purchased by Collective Licensing International with the goal to bring Airwalk back to its roots.

2022

CLI acquired by Collective Brand International: the owners of Payless Shoe Source and Stride Rite.

2009

Airwalk reaches an advertising budget of $40 million making Airwalk the 5th largest in athletic shoe history.

2007

1999

Airwalk is purchased by Sunrise Capital Partners and is moved to Denver Colorado.

2004

1996

1995

Airwalk records an all time high $200 million in sales.

Airwalk re-brands with the mission to encourage people to rebel against the norm, embrace their communities, see the world as their canvas, and find adventure in the everyday.

Jeff Staples partners with Payless to design new Airwalk sneakers.

VISUAL DEVELOPMENT GUIDE

Keywords Key Phrases Airwalk’s new brand identity is based off the 3 key ideas of rebellion, adventure and community. Looking to the keywords for inspiration gives and ideas of the visual aesthetic and conceptual guidelines of the future brand identity and possible logos. KEYWORDS & PHRASES

Rebellious: break away from the norm Community: find others with common attitudes, interests, and goals Creative Expression: express your unique self and find adventure in the everyday

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Round One Sketches Introduction The first round of sketches embraces the essence of a skateboarder, discovered by watching skateboarding videos, speaking with skateboarders, and reading articles about what it means to be a skater. The three directions are based off brainstorming of words and ideas that connected to the skateboarding community and our three keywords of Rebellious, Community, and Creative Expression. Of these keywords 3 “camps” or directions were developed to generate logo sketches: Urban Adventure, Modern Punk, and the Skater Aesthetic.

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Round One Sketches Direction One: Urban Adventure Express Yourself Creatively: find ways to express your unique self and find adventure in the everyday

1 • This design uses simple shapes to represent the A. There is a subtle suggestion to the W, but it is not obvious.

2 • This A is another variation of the simple geometric shapes also depicting the A and W, but in a simplified and not obvious way.

3 • I used the line quality and drawing style used in this example but I did not re-created the use of the W

VISUAL DEVELOPMENT GUIDE

• This A has an interesting shape and dimensions

• This A is made up of interesting geometric shapes

• This A points upward which shows achievement and progress

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Round One Tight Sketches Direction One: Urban Adventure

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Round One Sketches Direction Two: Modern Punk

Be Rebellious: break away from the norm

8 • The is representative of the anarchy symbol. It works well to represent rebellion.

9 • This A is also representative of the anarchy symbol but with more geometric shapes.

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Round One Tight Sketches Direction Two: Modern Punk

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Round One Sketches Direction Three: Skater Aesthetic

Be a Part of A Community: find others with common attitudes, interests, and goals

10 • While this does not work with the arrow pointing down, it could work pointing up.

11 • This logo is made of interesting geometric shapes.

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12 • The fist in the air is a sign of protest and rebellion and strong trait of skaters.

13 • This A shows a strong upward motion, which represents rising to the challenge

14 • The star does not work in this sketch, replacing the A, but perhaps it could work incorporated into the A.

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Round One Tight Sketches Direction Three: Skater Aesthetic

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Round Two Logo Sketches Introduction The second round of sketches focuses on geometric letters and trying to synthesize the soul of the brand into a visual expression of the brand name. The best iterations of logos from the 1st round of sketching are refined into more uplifting and positive feeling logos with a touch of rebellion. It was important to let go of the W, and focused on the A for Airwalk.

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Round Two Rough Sketches combined Directions KEYWORDS & PHRASES

Rebellious: break away from the norm Community: find others with common attitudes, interests, and goals Creative Expression: express your unique self and find adventure in the everyday

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Round Two Tight Sketches direction: modern Punk / Urban Adventurer

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• Continue exploring the idea of anarchy and rebellion

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Round Three Logo Sketches Introduction The third round of sketches takes us to more refinement and larger drawings. Once a refined drawing is developed it is taken to the computer for fine details and color studies. The focus this round was to find 3 of the best iterations to sit in the running for the final logo.

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Round Three Rough Sketches combined Directions The following sketches are inspired by the modern punk idealogy and the anarchy symbol. These sketches embody the idea of rebellion and breaking away from the norm.

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• Anarchy symbol, but needs to be abstracted more

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• Add another line across and askew one of the cross lines. Make anarchy A in an abstracted way.

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Round Three Computer Comps DIrection: modern Punk / Urban Adventurer The next step of refinement was to take the sketches to the computer. Using Adobe Illustrator, the shapes where broken down into geometric shapes and constructed of lines and circles. The strongest directions incorporated the anarchy symbol and were chosen for further refinement in the next round. Color studies were also performed to experiment with possible color combinations and shades.

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• Too many vibrant colors and fine lines won’t hold up to smaller sizes.

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• Strongest direction, add additional lines and change shapes ( make A representative of Anarchy symbol but abstracted

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AIRWALK AIRWALK AIRWALK AIRWALK

AIRWALK AIRWALK AIRWALK

AIRWALK AIRWALK AIRWALK AIRWALK VISUAL DEVELOPMENT GUIDE

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irwalk

irwalk VISUAL DEVELOPMENT GUIDE

• Anarchy symbol, but needs to be abstracted more

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• Good alignment. Need to make word mark or edit existing typeface

Airwalk

irwalk VISUAL DEVELOPMENT GUIDE

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Round Four Logo Sketches Introduction The fourth round of sketches takes us to even more refinement and larger drawings. Of the best refinements from the last stage, one was chosen. This design was sketched out into several variations. The best two were taken to the computer for fine details and color studies. The focus this round was to find the best iteration to become the final logo.

VISUAL DEVELOPMENT GUIDE

Round Four Sketches combined Directions The following sketches are inspired by the the anarchy symbol. In order to not be too representative of the actual symbol the shapes are broken down and abstracted. The wordmark was created in shapes that mimic the logo.

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Round Four Computer Comps DIrection: modern Punk / Urban Adventurer

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Round Four Color DIrection: modern Punk / Urban Adventurer

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Round Four Color DIrection: modern Punk / Urban Adventurer

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Final Logo Refinements

1/4 X

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original new spacing

1/2 lower A bar crisss cross w

full lower A bar crisss cross w

full lower A bar reg w

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New Logo brand signature Our new logo harkens back to the triangular shape of the original Airwalk logo’s A. In the spirit of rebellion and Airwalk’s community of non-conformity, we used the anarchy symbol as an inspiration for the shape of the A inside the triangle. The letters in the word mark are built off the shape and dimensions of the triangle.

VISUAL DEVELOPMENT GUIDE

Inspiration Introduction The following pages show examples of visual branding guides that are well developed and showcase their brands in a clear and concise way. In developing my own branding guidelines, it is important to do visual research to get a clearer understanding of what works and what does not. Finding good design inspiration from brand guidelines that are well structured and visually appealing, will help me to incorporate the same techniques and systems that they used.

VISUAL DEVELOPMENT GUIDE

Inspirations New Identity introduction

The Neuva School While quite simple in the execution, the new identity introduction for The Neuva School is straight forward and to the point. They highlight who they are, their purpose, the experience they want the customer to get and the keywords that make up their personality. The following pages break each of these elements down into greater detail, but I like how it is simply put and easy to find on one page in the beginning.

VISUAL DEVELOPMENT GUIDE

Inspirations Logo Anatomy

John Deere John Deere showcases the logo and its anatomy in a clear and concise way. The accepted layouts, spacing and colors are all on one page with a detailed description of the expectations of use.

VISUAL DEVELOPMENT GUIDE

Inspirations Type Specs

United Way United Way provides examples and explanations for the proper typefaces and guidelines for their use within United Way publications. I like that they also provide alternate typefaces that can be used in the event that the preferred typeface is unavailable. They also proved visual examples of the typeface and the accepted weights.

VISUAL DEVELOPMENT GUIDE

Inspirations Main ID COlors (logo colors)

Schwab Schwab uses a very minimalistic color pallet for their brand identity. In their brand guidelines they provide a detail explanation of their reasoning for the colors that they use. They also explain the guidelines for when and where each color can be used. The color swatches are then shown to the right with the various uses and color naming breakdowns including coated and uncoated Pantone, CMYK, RGB, on screen, and web safe options.

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Inspirations Logo Don’ts

Product Red Because Product Red is used with various partners, it is important to showcase the ways in which their can and cannot be presented in combination with the partner logo. Presenting each don’t with 2 visual examples gives a clear picture of what in unacceptable. The slash through the design emphasizes the fact that it is a big don’t.

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Inspirations Alternate versions of the Logo

Work Day Again, very simple execution, but quite effective. Work Day gives you the 4 acceptable presentations of their logo. There are only 4 options: Primary, reversed, white and black. The following pages present the unacceptable presentations of their logo as well as the colors that can be used. There is not a lot of text, but the visual presentation is clear and concise.

VISUAL DEVELOPMENT GUIDE

Look-Alike Logos Introduction When designing a logo it is easy to be unconsciously inspired from already existing logos and brand marks. It is also quite easy to design something that has already been designed without ever having seen it before. In an effort to keep the brand mark fresh and unique and to avoid plagiarism, it is important to research possible logo look-alikes to avoid copyright and brand confusion.

VISUAL DEVELOPMENT GUIDE

Look-Alikes Round one Research Anarchist Symbol

Deathly Hallows Symbol

Anarchy is a society being freely consti-

From the Harry Potter franchisee. This is a

tuted without authorities or a governing

widely used symbol for Harry Potter fan

body.Going againt the establishment.

across the world.

Alan Kidd

Arralis

Film production company located in the

Space Technology industry located in The

United Kingdom.

Alpha Pack

Catholic Church

Manufacturing company located in the

The Catholic Church of Columbia is a

United States.

religious organization.

American Giant

CSB

Apparel and fashion company located in

CSB is a bank located in the United States.

the United States.

Argonaut

Delta Airlines

Bicycle manufacturer located in the

Transportation company located in the

United States.

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Avengers

Disability Performance Austria

A fictional group of super heros from the

Disabilitity awareness orgaization ocated

Marvel Universe.

in Austria.

Fundacio Antonio Camunas

International Paper Company

Architecture foundation located in Spain.

Paper and packaging company located in the United States.

Kashiyam

Weyerhaeuser

Clothing company located in Japan.

Sustainable products company located in the United States.

Mitsubishi Motors

Academy of Art University

Automotive company located in Japan

School of art located in San Francisco California in the United States

Alcoholics Anonymous

Alpha & Omega

Addiction recovery organization located

Religious Magazine located in Switzerland.

in the United States.

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Look-Alikes Round Two Research

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Look-Alikes Round Two Research cont.

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Closing Brand Development Through multiple iterations and round of refinement a new logo was developed. Now it is time to work out the details. The third book in this series will outline the brand visual system guidelines, the proper and improper uses of the new identity, and the direction the new products and services of Airwalk will take.

VISUAL DEVELOPMENT GUIDE

Sources Citations Information:

https://cultedge.com/airwalk-history/ http://www.airwalk.com/ https://logos.fandom.com/wiki/Airwalk https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective_Brands https://www.referenceforbusiness.com/history2/69/Items-InternationalAirwalk-Inc.html Images:

https://stock.adobe.com/ http://www.logobook.com/

VISUAL DEVELOPMENT GUIDE

Airwalk Visual Development Guide

Articles inside

Brand History

New Logo Design

Inspiration

Introduction