Collaborating with Creative Advertisers on their brief 'Adidas Basketball Campaign'

My housemates Zeb and Jasper approached me to work on a brief with them as part of their Extended Practice module called 'Adidas Basketball Campaign'. This experience was incredibly rewarding to me in many ways, but firstly because it gave me the experience of dissecting a brief that isn't fully aimed at animators, in this case aimed at Creative Advertisers. Since it was not fully aimed at me, in that the brief was obviously not written for an animator, it was up to me to interpret it. The brief went as follows: 'Adidas Originals aim to revive their basketball offering and take back market share from Nike. Adidas have a rich heritage in basketball with many of the brands iconic silhouettes originating on the court before moving to streetwear and becoming fashion staples.'.

Zeb and Jasper explained to me my role which was to draw characters that have different personalities and character traits, for example Mr. Wildcard who had the character traits of being quite scruffy, yet still wore Adidas gear as apposed to Mr. Accessories who has all the latest gear.

They then presented me with their versions of 'character sheets' in which through the use of imagery and notes they could describe what each character's physical appearance needed to consist of, e.g. their shoes and their pose.

But apart from the information that was presented to me on these sheets, I had pretty much free rein to interpret the characters however I wanted. This was very enjoyable as I've known Jasper and Zeb for years and know they are very relaxed collaborators. I was working on this brief at the same time of being heavily into the production of my Extended Practice animation so the timing was not ideal, however Zeb and Jasper knew this so were very patient with how much time I devoted. 

The production flow was also very relaxed, I'd draw a character then give it to one of them to colour and place in the posters. However, we did hit a bit of a hurdle when they were informed abruptly that they needed to finish the brief by the end of the day. I understand this was an unforeseen circumstance that Zeb and Jasper had no control over but it did put me under pressure in terms of time. Nonetheless I was able to finish the work without needing to rush to what I feel is a very high standard. Below are the final designs.

All I handled were the line drawings of each character. I had next to nothing to do with what came after so when Jasper and Zeb showed me the finish products I was amazed. To me the final designs looked incredibly professional and reminded me once again of the skills other practitioners from other areas of the college possess. This is something I admittedly overlook quite a bit. When I spend most my working time in the studio with other animators, it'[s easy to forget that there are certain skills we simply do not possess and if we do possess them to a very basic level, we certainly do not possess them to a level of quality other practitioners do. I'd have never been able to do what these guys did with these designs. Dan, a Graphic Designer (who at the time I did not even realise was working on the brief) did an amazing job with the logos.

Logo designing is something that is so far out of my comfort zone that I'd be hesitant to ever attempt it. But here I'm very proud to see my work put into something that is bigger than myself. This brief was very different from something I would choose to do. Adidas is not necessarily a client I'd want to work for. They are so big and remind me of something the Golden Wolf brothers said about Nike that 'they're already cool, you can't really add anything to the brand that can boost them up'. I was very aware of this and nervous about it, but throughout my working on the project was reassured by what Jasper and Zeb expected of me.