603 - Brief 07 - Evaluation

I surprisingly thoroughly enjoyed my research project for the 603 submission this year - going into great depths surrounding the skateboarding industry and how it has essentially grown into a consumer culture and heavy-weight industry today. Starting as a small, niche market I found it profoundly interesting finding out about how various competitions caught the public eye over the years and how big names such as Nike influenced the growth of the industry, especially in the past 10-15 years with the introduction of the web and various social media platforms. This has allowed for skaters to essentially create their own interactive content for the fans to become engaged with, so they not only have to rely on the occasional big skate video or feature in a magazine to get their name in the lime-light and earn a living. But now with the advancements of the social platform they can engage with fans in their every day life.

Not to mention, how this too has obviously impacted the direction and approach of the big brands and how they engage with those younger audiences - using the social platforms as this immediate and round-the-clock medium of engagement and interaction of their content. 

I developed the focus of my research onto Nike in particular, considering how their various campaigns and adaption into the Skateboarding community has done nothing but expand the audience. Through the creation of non-intended Skate shoes which naturally caught on within the community, to then how they directed trainers directly to this community, then considering how these naturally became worn as more of a fashion statement in everyday life by people outside of the Skate community. 

To effectively summarise this research I drew everything together and decided to produce a brief social media campaign aiming to celebrate the history of Nike Skateboarding whilst continuing to push them into this new realm and style of trendy digital advertising and I think my outcomes clearly do just that.

I initially suggested how I did need to consider all research conducted to this point on Nike SB as a brand and its developing approach to its advertising campaigns, whilst also considering how I can carry this forward and create something new and engaging for the community - inspired by the new glitchy / remixed styles of today, as well as still reflecting on its diverse past. I think I have successfully fulfilled these initial guidelines through an appropriate design style which is relevant to this current state of the industry. My feedback has suggested to me how I have created this short but punchy ad, which is in your face and catches the eye of the audience - especially appropriate for when scrolling through the social media platforms being so hard-hitting and easily recognisable of Nike. This is done through the colour scheme, design style and typeface used - all being trendy and reflective of the up and coming youth of today which is the primary audience of the skateboarding community. Not to mention, how the music does nothing but compliment the overall design and reflect this young and quite urban audience.

In terms, of time management I think I handled this project well - I did leave it as my final project to produce the outcomes for but this effectively taught me how to develop a project concisely yet thoroughly when working to a deadline. In terms of carrying this into the future / if I had more time on the project I would definitely begin going back into the overlaid animation style which worked over the top of the video content - I found this very fun to experiment with and would definitely want to see how I could develop my frame-by-frame consideration. Maybe even pushing it into more traditional stop-motion territory, making it much more hands on and practical.