SVG has a method called getIntersectionList buy kamagra online that “returns the list of graphics elements whose rendered content intersects the supplied rectangle”.  That is to say, by calling that method every time the cursor moves within the SVG container, one would be able to determine which path the cursor is on, or perhaps even which path is closest to it.  Unfortunately, getIntersectionList is not yet supported by all browsers

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.

So here’s an easy fix that works well: for each path, generate a second thicker path, set its opacity to 0 and then attach the mouseover event to it rather than the visible path.

  svg.selectAll("path")
    .data(data)
    .enter().append("svg:path")
      .attr("opacity", 1)
      .attr("id", function(d) { return "p" + d.id; })
      .attr("stroke-width", 1)
      .attr("stroke", "cyan")
      .attr("class", "treebranch")
      .attr("d", function(d) {
        //path data
      })
      .each(function(d, i) {
        svg.append('svg:path')
          .attr('shape-rendering', 'crispEdges')
          .style('opacity', 0)
          .attr("id", function() { return "transp" + d.id; })
          .attr("stroke-width", 5)
          .attr("stroke", "white")
          .attr("class", "treebranch_transparent")
          .attr("d", function() {
            return $("#p"+d.id).attr("d");
          })
          .on('mouseover', function() {
            //mouseover event
          })
      });

The education levels of world leaders

An anthropological phenomenon that one observes when looking at the progression of people and societies is their tendency to ultimately free themselves from the shackles of servitude and achieve some form of self-governance.  Due to overcompensation, perhaps, the process may end up becoming cyclical, an effect that in its worst incarnations results in inhuman expressions of anger such as genocide.  That’s a question that I’ve been thinking about lately.

One of the threads in that trail of thought that I hadn’t seen visualized anywhere is political longevity, a staple of autocracies.  While thinking about this, I came across several studies that investigated the question of whether the education level of political leaders, among other factors, is a good predictor of positive effects such as economic growth.  Looking at these two questions seemed like a worthwhile and insightful project.

Collecting data began with sources like Britannica, Profiles of People in Power and Wikipedia.  After doing fifty or so countries, there were quite a few leaders about whose education level there was no information.  This was particularly the case with distant leaders in autocratic countries.  For those, I relied on LSE professor Timothy Besley’s dataset.  Note that I only consider academic degrees, which means that military academies that do not teach courses beyond basic military training are excluded.  Academies such as West Point and Saint-Cyr, for example, are considered, but Sandhurst isn’t.

The visualization got about 50,000 views and close to 2,000 shares on social media websites in the first few days of it going live.  It was great seeing people getting the take-away message, and tweeting things like “Oh, I didn’t know such and such country has only ever had this many heads of state” or “Today I learned that such and such country is the only country not to have a head of state who completed school”.  Being descriptive rather than suggestive, that was the whole idea of the project.  I received a few emails from people who pointed out that I had mistakenly noted down the education level of their president and provided me references as evidence.  In all such cases, I went back and fixed the data, citing those references.  The data file is .json and freely available for anyone to peruse, reuse and adapt.

I got into a discussion with someone online who criticized the topic as one that confuses education and schooling.  I mention this hear because it is an important point to keep in mind.  A political leader’s education level does not necessarily imply positive economic growth; put differently, it does not necessarily imply causation.  That is an argument that can easily be falsified by pointing to any number of countries, such as Zimbabwe, where 100 billion dollars gets you three eggs.  Education level as a variable has been shown, statistically, to have predictive power.  That is all.  Were this scientific inquiry, one would get into this further, but it’s not.

Here is a link to the project: http://skyrill.com/leaders

The Celestial Web

The space metaphor has been used a lot in various contexts and it usually works well.  Outer space has some nice characteristics like majesty and tranquility and is usually imagined as a blanket carrying various celestial bodies, harmoniously circling each other like clockwork.

For this project, orbiting planets are used to visualize browser market share.  Browsers are coded as planets.  Each country is coded as a moon that orbits around the browser that has the majority market share in that country.  Moving back and forth through time, one can see the differences in majority market share for different browsers.  Press ‘f’ and begin typing and you’ll be able to follow the shifts in majority market share for your chosen country.  Press ‘j’ and enter a date and you’ll be able to jump to ab arbitrary date.  The page dynamically changes size to fit the browser window, though one can also zoom in and out using the controls to the right.  Turn on the audio to be reminded of the track from Carl Sagan’s Cosmos!

The visualization is coded using SVG, JavaScript and CSS and animated using SMIL, which means it only works in newer browsers and not yet in mobile ones.

Here’s the link to the project.  Enjoy!

http://www.thecelestialweb.com

The Xtreme Kinematix concept is a new generation electric roadster, aimed at pushing both performance and power efficiency to a new level. This concept tries to revive the glorious design lines of the brand, combining fresh solutions, a unique, new aerodynamics, tailored around the electrical elements of the power system as well as cutting-edge energy feedback.

Inspired by the e-type from 50 years ago.

One of the main challenges during the concept drafting was avoiding the heaviness associated withmany of today’s muscle cars. The first inspirations came from classic Jaguar models. Like with themodels of the golden era, we wanted to recreate a thin, elegant profile, but still showing off all theextra power and technological improvements. The solution was dividing the volume into two separateperceptive entities: one that “floated over” and transmitted the characteristic veil-like feeling, andanother, below this layer, that spoke of all the power and adrenaline this car was capable of, whichwas translated into ample front and rear openings at the sides. The morphology of the lower part wasthe most important and is obviously the most distinctive compared to current roadsters; the delicateequilibrium of the large curves of the air intakes had at the same time to transmit aggressiveness, butstill appearing light and ephemeral, giving the adequate perceptive lightness to the upper curves.

Another element added to the mix aside from the endless paths and delicate air movements was thefeline factor. The side view of the vehicle was a deliberate metaphor of the leaping predator, whilemany frontal elements, culminating with the headlights, were carefully shaped to induce a pleasantadrenaline discharge by resembling the angry expression of an attacking feline.

Brand Exploration

Sketches

Plans

Clays

Studio Renders

Mirrors

Another characteristic feature of the Jaguar XKX are the totally disappearing side mirrors. At about 1cm thickness, the mirrors perfectly fit the shallow hatch made in the door piece when the car is stopped and they unfold again in working position when it’s turned on. This adds to both the aesthetics, and protects the side mirrors from any damages when parked.

Aerodynamics

Given a much smaller and cooler power plant than conventional, the aerodynamics was conceived in a new innovative way. The side deflector intakes of the front were made broader, so a much larger amount of air does not get stuck by the engine, instead, it flows behind the front wheels, getting out behind them and sliding along the doors and then taking another shortcut through the rear wheels and out from the big rear openings, greatly reducing the total flowing path and subsequently drag.

Regenrative Power

Almost 60% of the energy used by a typical car at highway speeds is spent to counter air friction. Obviously, that is A LOT of energy spent for a function that is indispensable, but not the primary (to push the vehicle forward). The body of the XKX is covered by a layer housing microscopic ripples of piezoelectric cells, which, stimulated by the pressure of the air flowing over them (the actual air friction experienced by the car) produce electricity that is fed back to the vehicle’s battery, increasing both efficiency and performance.

Details

The Jaguar XKX

We were asked by Jaguar to change our original disclaimer to this: *Disclaimer: The concept vehicle designed by Skyrill.com and Marin Myftiu was not undertake in connection with or is in any way authorized by Jaguar Cars Limited.

Meeting with great

The past few weeks I’ve been meeting with some of the greatest designers and minds here at Nike, the WHQ is a true gem and definitely has a lot of great people and resources to benefit from. Two great people I had the privilege of meeting this week where Tinker Hatfield and Russell Stott.

Tinker is one of the first designers who was part of the Nike team, and sort of built the foundations for this company along with the small team they had back in the 80′s. He currently serves as VP of design, leading the innovation team and the “ZOO”, where all the special projects are handled as part of bigger projects for the future.

Tinker is known to be one of the best shoe designers in the industry today, having worked on the Air Force 1′s from the very start and walking throughout his journey very closely with Michael Jordan. What hits me most is that Tinker came into Nike, as an Architect, and with an Architecture background, and was asked to work on a shoe one day and this is what it lead him to. That tells me two things, that you could always end up in a different place then what you had anticipated, and find yourself great in things you never thought you’d be part of, and second, if you have a dream you would like to pursue, your degree or background never becomes a barrier that could stop you, it’s all about the passion you which would drive you through life and towards your goals.

With Tinker Hatfield, VP of Design at Nike Inc.

Another great and aspiring designer I met with this week was Russell Stott. Russell works as the Design Director for Nike Sportswear, and has been with the company for more than 10 years. Russell just has too many cool and awesome designs, for all kinds of celebrities and athletes. His settle and detailed work just amazes me, one of his latest big projects was the destroyer jackets, and looking at the level of detail and storytelling behind each jacket is just great.

I got to ask both of them lots of questions related to my thesis i’m working on as well as lots of other questions and advice, it was a real great experience.

With Russell Stott, Nike Sports Wear Design Director

The Journey for a Better World

As part of Nike Better World’s initiative for making Nike’s products more sustainable, innovative, and cautious of how it impacts the earth, they teamed up with Athlete Jason Lester to go over a journey to relay their commitment to serve the needs of athletes and the planet at the same time. Jason rand and biked over 4800 miles, 102 days, from coast to coast, making his way through the US. His passion and determination for sports and life is just amazing, check out his story in the video below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjDgXjaWsCQ&feature=player_embedded

Jason ran his final mile and lap at the World Head Quarters where other employees joiend him in support and celebration for his great achievement. It was great to actually meet him in person, I had never heard about him before this journey of his, but hearing such stories and meeting such people definitely keeps us all inspired, motivated, and most importantly dedicated to what we chose to pursue, and do it the best way possible no matter what the obstacles could be.

That’s it for this week, see you next week!

A link to our project feature can be found here.

The Story About Story

This week we were given a great workshop about the art of story telling by Dennie Wendt, a Senior Copywriter at Nike, called “The Story About Story”.

Dennie gave us a 2 day workshop discussing the importance of a story, things to look out for, and different techniques overall. It was a real insightful workshop with a lot to walk away with.

Denny Wendt; Senior Copywriter at Nike

As a Designer, or any individual in any other discipline, we tend to present our work and projects to our colleagues or clients. Presenting good work is just part of a great presentation, the second part relies heavily on your ability of storytelling, and you might sometimes be presenting the work of others which puts more responsibility on your shoulders.

To start with this is a great video that sums everything up for you about stories and storytelling:

The topics discussed in our workshop today mainly focus on 2 things:

1- The power of story within design.

2- How that translates into your presentation.

A story can make a product much better and stronger, the better the stories the better people could understand and appreciate it. As Ken Kessey says “To hell with the facts, we need stories.” It’s the stories that create that personal connection with the audience, and puts reason and thought behind your design to back it up, leaving them with no questions or uncertainties, and only left with appreciation. So basically have the story first, and hang the facts on it later. Nevertheless though, both are important, and go hand in hand, except it’s that they complement one another. It’s as if the facts are the notes, and stories are the song that plays.

We should all knock our audiences with the greatest, a great story means business! I personally experienced something of this sort when I interned at Ogilvy in Bahrain in 2008. We had a client meeting at the F1 International Circuit to present some of the ads and ideas we had been working on, so I went along with my Creative Director, Tony Peck, who’s actually one of the most creative people I’ve worked with. We were trying to pitch this idea of three kinds of give away gift boxes for the fans, the content of the box and the way the box was designed was kind of unique, and we were worried they would just like to go with the old fashion way of making them to save up on money and avoid any risks. Tony had a great story for every idea and concept we presented, and what was more important was that he made every story personal and about himself, somehow relate it to an experience he had when he was back in Australia. Once we were done with that meeting the client had signed on all the ideas with a big smile. A story is truly the core to the human experience in a presentation.

Great stories are one thing, but telling them is another thing to look out for, the way you sequence the events should knock the other person off. For example, a good way to look at this is, if someone has been in a coma and had no idea what had happened in the NBA Playoffs, how would you tell them what happened? You would probably not start by talking about the first rounds and the players that got injured, but you would start off by saying who won the championship, which is the highlight of the story! You would then move on to the small details of what things lead to that big moment.

William Staton is a great storyteller, he says “Stories are who we are”. I recommend you check out his Ted Talk below:

We all love stories, and telling them is way much harder then listening to them. Be a great story teller that is always ready to tell a story about anything, and based on how the audience wants to hear it. If you’re audience doesn’t get it, then you should know it’s bad. You should keep the excitement on throughout the whole experience, make people care and want to listen to what you have to say.

John Carter, one of the latest films made by Disney was written by one of the best storytellers of our time, but it has been perceived very badly and lost millions of dollars from this movie. The main problem why people where disapointed and felt like they had wasted their time and money, was that they had no clue what the story was about. The story was about a million things and had no real target audience, which just left people extremely confused and disappointed. What could have been a pleasurable experience turned into a very unpleasant one. Therefore, beware of what your story is about, and who and what you are addressing.

Finally, if you have an idea, product, or story, be as open as you can to people’s advice and input, but don’t always do what they want to be done. Their ideas might be great and relevant, but that’s just not what you want or what you’re looking for. Sometimes great ideas which you feel a personal connection could get totally off-track because you keep changing your idea based on others inputs. We sometimes feel that changing things up could avoid that sort of criticism when it’s time to present, but that’s not true, because you can’t please everybody. But if you are please by your work then even the presentation and storytelling process would be much stronger.

These were probably the highlights from the workshop along with the videos that pretty much cover all the exciting stuff, but not to worry, here’s a summary summing everything up:

1. Storytelling is hard.
2. Beware of the story about your story (Disney’s John Carter example).
3. You’re making art, own the idea, be in love with your work.
4. Even the big storytellers could fail sometimes, don’t let that stop you.
5. Don’t let your story get Frankensteined. Don’t let others change it up with their own ideas.
6. If you become a great storyteller, you will be unstoppable.
7. Make them care. Your audience is the center of your story. Know whether you’re moving them out of their comfort zone or reinforcing their core beleifs. Then tell your story as you can, and with the authenticity and passion of someone talking to a group of friends.
8. Make them get it. Reveal what already exists within the design, object, or product. Reveal it in a logical sequence. You’re already to Step 2 in the making-them-care process. Don’t reduce youre chances of success by being confusing hoping they get it. Demonstrate your own genius. Express your own expertise.
9. Make them yours. Deliver on the promise, win them over. Wrap it up simply that anyone in the room could give your presentation to someone else.
10. Great stories need 3 things:

Logic – Know when your story comes from and make it simple.

Feeling – Tell it with passion, don’t bore people.

Payoff – Make your point painfully clear. The end of your story should be like the end of a closing argument in Law & Order.

I personally benefited a lot from this workshop and I hope I was able to bring across the things I learned as clearly as possible, I hope I did a good job in telling my story .

Lessons on Leadership

This week we also got an opportunity to meet up with Jason Carter Mayden, Director of Digital Innovation at Nike. Jason had lots of great stories and moments from his life which he shared with us. His talk was mainly about advice on becoming a great leader, pursuing our dreams, and reaching our potential. He had broken his ideas into 7 lessons, each with a story to go with, and here they are:

Jason Carter Mayden; Director of Digital Innovation at Nike

1. Learn to be a catalyst rather than a crutch.

Take action and don’t expect great things to just happen to you, don’t expect dreams to just come true. Take the initiative of contacting people, companies, and mainly not being shy or giving up one what you want!

2. Dare to dream out loud, tell people about your dreams.

Let people know what you want, don’t be afraid to dream and tell others about it. If people know what you want, that could maybe one day help you achieve that dream through them or a connection they might have.

3. “No” can often be disguised as a slow “Yes”.

Jason shared the same dream most students and interns who are into sports have today, and that was to design for a company like Nike. He tried applying over and over for almost 3 years, and he was rejected every year. Each of those rejections though made the HR person know him and see how bad he wants this, as well as his progress and determination. Therefore, all those “no’s” and rejections actually lead to that “Yes” at the end. So in short, never loose enthusiasm, it will only make you loose your dreams and slow you down.

4. Stay ready.

Always be prepared for everything, be on top of things. Have your portfolio up to date, look your best, and be at your best, as you never know what could come up. Jason shared his story from his first day of his internship when he was lost and trying to find the building he was supposed to work in, and guess what, he ended up in an elevator with Michael Jordan. He obviously had very short time in that elevator and was extremely nervous, he just had to say the right things and act quick to cease this great opportunity. Many years from then, Jason and Michael are close friends, and which it has obviously opened many doors for him.

5. Ignore the top of the iceberg “You want me to design what?”

Don’t get too caught up in trying to make the next new big innovation, and don’t undermine a small task that’s given to you. Small tasks can often make you feel useless and unimportant, but in fact, it is your role as a passionate designer to show that passion through your work, and sometimes, those small tasks and small steps can actually become the next big innovation. It’s all about your attitude and how devoted you are to the project, hard work always shows, and pays off, no matter what your working on! Any task is an opportunity.

6. Grow where you planted.

Once you are happy and settled where you are, try to stay focused and grow from there. Don’t think about moving around, switching companies or moving to other places. Once your planted you can grow much faster and achieve much more, all that in a place where you love to be!

7. Your ambition should always match your impact.

See you all with a new post next week, with more interesting talks and events to cover!

Another week packed with great events and talks, and a lot of creative work has been going on with my own department as part of a great design experience.

Diversity & Innovation – The Medici Effect

We had a real great workshop set up for all the interns about diversity and innovation. It was a great way of discussing how creative thinking is much more powerful when theirs a diverse team working together. Diversity can be found on many levels, whether it’s based on the workplace (seniority, work location, department, etc…), or on a cultural level (education, income, religion, marital status, etc…), or on a human level (race, age, gender, etc…). The more diverse a team is, the more and better ideas they would come up with, and that’s the type of work environment big and successful companies tend to follow, which is creating a culture of innovation in all parts of the company. The idea of diversity leading to innovation is also what is know as the Medici Effect, where you would have a set of possibilities or variables coming together and giving you an unlimited number of results and combinations.

The first exercise we were given was called “Change my story”. Each one of us paired up with the person next to them and started off by telling a random story, the other person had to throw words at you, and based off that word you had to shift your story and make it relevant to that word. The words were really random, but the stories became really fun and interesting. The whole idea behind this exercise was to tell us that business ideas always shift around this way, and we should be as flexible as possible to adapt, and usually it is when things go off track that leads us to innovation and unexpected territories.

In the Medici Effect, they believe in the power of “&”, and always building off other peoples idease. “&” is an important corner stone of any successful company, and especially at Nike, to share ideas and innovation through diversity. “&” is the power of (combinations – intersections – connections – collaborations).

Medici comes from the name of a family in Florence, the Medici’s, who were a wealthy family of bakers. The Medici’s built their city and business by bringing people from all disciplines to work in their city, Artists, Poets, Builders, Bankerts, etc… This way, they were able to create a very diverse work force in the community, where each one could inspire the other, and as a whole the community and society would benefit from a more innovative and advanced living environment.

The second exercise we did as a group, we were given a set of random pictures, and were told combine 2 or more of them and come up with an interesting concept or idea to present. As a group we were building off each others ideas and coming up with some real interesting ideas. Here’s a list of the images we were given:

To summarize, these ideas are all based off the book “The Medici Effect” by Frans Johansson. I’d definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in Innovation and coming up with new ideas. Here are the truths and tips he shares in his book:

 

Truth #1 – New ideas are combinations of existing ideas

Truth #2 – Not all combinations are created equal, divergent combinations are powerful.

Tip: Find inspiration in fields and cultures other than your own.

Truth #3 – More ideas lead to better ideas.

Truth #4 – Diverse teams generate more ideas.

 

 

Truth #5 – Innovation is a creative idea that has been executed

Truth #6 – Innovation involves learning by trying.

Tip: Allow for failure & recover quickly, failure is the price of innovation.

 

 

Truth #7 – Inclusive cultures welcome and invite ideas and opinions.

Truth #8 Associative barriers prevent us from making overnight connections.

After introducing the Medici Effect, Nike has split us into 14 groups of interns from different disciplines and backgrounds, to work together on a Cross Function Project for the next 10 weeks of our internship program. Each group was presented with a real challenge that Nike has been trying to improve or better recently as a company for the past few years. By the end of the internship we will be presenting our ideas to members at the senior level here at Nike.

Emerging Programs

Every year Nike a number of Nike employees get to go on a trip by themselves to some countries in Asia and South America to explore, learn, and get inspired by other cultures. The idea is for them to gain a much richer and hands on experience to the kind of craft and skills being used abroad. As designers, they get to research and study all kinds of techniques, and be able to come back to Nike filled with inspiration, to inspire others on their team and and innovate.

This week we met with Jesi Small, a Footwear Designer at Nike Action Sports. She shared with us her story of visiting Japan, the things she saw and learned, and the things she had collected and brought back. It was nice to hear her stories and the people she had met with and learned from. She showed us a collection of the things she had brought back with her, and what she liked and appreciated in each piece. Whether it was the level of detail, material, idea, or just how interesting something looked, she could always tie it back into one of her future designs. She also shared with us her trip to one of the masters in weaving using a specific method in Japan. Seeing the whole process of weaving, dying the color, and the technique used behind it was just mind blowing.

Japan Collection

Japan Collection

Jesi Small, showing us the different materials and weaving methods used

It’s interesting to see how much Nike cares and invests in enriching it’s designers with such experiences and opportunities, being part of Nike Design is truly great, with inspiration pouring in from everywhere, and this is just one of the reason why this company keeps growing and what it has become today!

I guess whether you are at Nike or anywhere else, travelling is always a great thing, keep your eyes open to everything around you, and do some research about the place you are visiting to get a better understanding and sense of the things they do so you can invest your time in a better manner. Be a sponge, and appreciate everything that community has to offer, and once you leave that place you will be taking a whole new set of experiences back with you which you could always share with others and utilize as part of your design process and thinking.

One of the interesting objects brought from Japan

On a side note, the Action Sports building, which is called Burnside, is a piece of Art!! (check the pictures below).

Wieden + Kennedy Portland / Vendor tours

This week ended with 2 great field trips, the first was visiting all the vendors that Nike’s brand retail department works with. It was a great opportunity to look at how some stuff gets done behind the scenes, and how some of the cool things we usually see at Nike stores get made. The interesting thing is that all these places are local and from Portland, it’s great to see larger companies supporting local firms, and at the same time these local firms growing larger and succeeding because off these businesses.

The first place we visited was TVA Architects, TVA has a lot of collaborations with Nike, one of their biggest projects was building the World Headquarters here in Beaverton. We had a small tour in their studio then sat together for an opportunity to go through their projects and specifically the works they have done for Nike.

TVA Architects

The second vendor we visited was ACME. ACME primarily focuses on building things for retail shops, museums, concerts, exhibitions and anything that needs to be built and produced. As for with Nike, they take care of all the installations, stands and displays in the store, the designs are usually passed on to them from the Experience and Store design teams. They would work on something as small as engraving a swoosh on a small piece of metal or tile, all the way to making an enormously over sized shoe made out of foam to be displayed in the windows of the Nike stores. We had a tour of their workshops and warehouses, it’s really huge, they work with all kinds of materials and apply all sorts of finishes, its really impressive to see how some difficult things get done and come to life by these experts.

ACME

We then headed to our final vendor which was Nemo. Nemo is just one of the firms Nike works with, their a design firm that collaborate with Nike on some basis on creating different things such as prints, web, setting photoshoots, and mainly any graphic design related work. Their studio was basically a huge warehouse which they had made into their own interesting place.

NEMO

Our final destination for that day was visiting the Nike store in Portland with 2 of our own team members from Nike’s Store and Experience design teams. We basically walked through different parts of the store while they shared with us how and why each decision was made.

The next day we were taken on a field trip to W+K Portland. Working at Ogilvy before, which is another large ad agency, I had always heard of W+K and aware of the kind of works they did, but it was great to finally see the place, and see what their space looked like. Alongside the great work that they do, W+K is known for it’s great architecture in all its offices worldwide, it really is a piece of art, the first thing that came to my mind was that it’s a “creative factory”. After being given a formal tour of their space, we had the privilege of meeting some of their designers and creative directors, who shared their work and gave us some advice of their own about Design and working with clients. The works they shared were so diverse, things from a samurai sword handle iphone holder, to amazingly well designed prints and books for Nike. The seriousness to absolute non-serious projects was really funny, but I guess thats what creativity is all about, having fun, and being able to handle both ends of the spectrum while designing what’s mind blowing.

Wieden + Kennedy Portland

Design Interns at W+K

I’ve posted a good amount of pictures from W+K below, along with pictures from the other vendors we visited.

Sports events on campus

Nike DNA - London 2012 Olympics Exhibition

Nike DNA - London 2012 Olympics Exhibition

Starting from next week I won’t be labeling my entries by week, but rather discuss certain topics and things i’ve been learning to make it more specific and a good learning tool to share with everyone else rather than a mix of that and a diary.

Enjoy!

Mood board

Type selection

Colors

Structure

The crown is an important part of a Sultan’s appearance.  We started by looking at different types of crowns worn by Sultans throughout history and arrived at an abstract shape that represented said crowns, using that as our starting point.

We then took our calligraphic text and modified it in the shape of the crown, with the intention of providing a more subtle representation than that which would be achieved via a graphic.

Final shape

Variations

Logo without borders

Final identity

What’s great about the Design Internship program here at Nike is that it’s very organized, and it’s like a 3 month learning experience, as well as a great opportunity to prove yourself. My manager who I will be working with over the course of the next 10 weeks has been a great resource to me, walking me through the process of how things work and being a great asset to me when any questions arise. I’ve been assigned 2 main projects which I will be taking on as a personal project throughout the internship, until the last day which all Design Interns need to present their work. I will be looking at experience design moments and new creative ways of telling the stories of Nike Better World and Nike Innovation through their stores. I’ll also be working with the experience design team and supporting them with any work in progress or for production.

On a side note, with the Euro Cup going on, it’s great to see that you can actually watch the match at the office, or the conference room, or if it’s during lunch time everyones watching the game in the cafeteria. You can see posters of different players and colors of different teams all around campus, which definitely brings a great energy and vibe into the workplace.

Entrance to the Jerry Rice Building

Designer’s Orientation

Design Interns were lucky enough to get their second orientation which was specifically just for the designers. It was a great opportunity to formally meet all the other designers and share our experiences and expectations for the summer. We were each asked to introduce ourselves and share a secret, it was a great ice breaker and pretty funny to hear everyones secrets and stories.

Nike Design Orientation

The orientation started off with Howard Lichter, Global Director for Creative Outreach. Howard is a great guy with lots of great stories and advice to share, he’s been at Nike, for 16 years now. Howard was in charge of setting up a Design studio for Nike in Japan for 5 years. Howard’s talk to us was mainly about Nike’s design insights and life cycle, and here’s the points he covered:

Howard Lichter, Global Director, Creative Outreach

1. You say obsessed like it’s a bad thing

• We should all be obsessed with what we do, whether it be design or anything else. He calls it the 70/20/10 rule, 70% passion, 20% obsession, 10% talent. Make it personal, keep it simple.

2. They know when you’re faking it

• Go as deep as possible in the lives of who you are designing for. Whether its an athlete, client, or manager, understand them deeply, the more you know them the better you could sell an idea to them based on what they are interested in most.
• Authenticity counts.
• Don’t observe, participate.

3. Insights

• You can’t put a price tag on insights & working with athletes. Nike pays Lebron $120 million, but that money is completely worth it when you can get close with the players and connect with them on a more personal level, it affects your designs and every step of the process. Basically insights are assets to any company. As Phil Knight always said: “Listen to the voice of the athlete”.

4. Innovate or die trying

• Don’t do “new & different” but “new & better”.
• Solve a problem, enhance an experience

This is a great example of one of Nike’s most recent innovations!

 

5. There is no “I” in “Team”

• Working alone means working through your own process from start to finish. But working as a collaborative team and opening up for sharing ideas means taking the project from start to finish, while having great potential of having new ideas spark up and completely diverging the direction of the project. That’s when innovation shows up!
• Always leverage the team, be supportive.
• Network with as many people as you can. Networking = Survival.

6. Sweat the details

• Always look at your final product through this scope: Attract/Engage/Connect.
• Attract grabs people’s attention from a distance. Engage tell’s a story and what your products all about. Connect are the true fine details that bring out the beauty in your work.
• Own the process.
• Finish strong.

This is a great example of how much detail was put into this destroyer jackets for Zlatan Ibrahimovic:

 

7. Tell great stories

• Be a great presenter

8. Designing great journey’s and experiences

Next person who presented to us was Katy Tisch, Global Creative Director at Nike. She shared her great stories and experiences at Nike, and gave us a small talk called “10 thoughts for interns”:

1. You’ll remember this
2. Be hungry for work
3. Be a sponge
4. Be a snoop, talk to people about their process on things you like.
5. Use each other
6. Be brave and curious
7. Presentation – creation, strategy and inspiration
8. Look at yourself from the outside, get feedback
9. Be nice! Be a “can do” person. Be energetic. Be positive.
10. Be young and have fun … but … it’s a business at the end of the day.

 

The third speaker was a Design Recruiter at Nike, and was great listening to her speak about the different things they look for in designers and design in general at Nike. She said that there are about 350 designers at Nike, and how Nike strives to make this place a world class experience for every designer. Nike has become more of a Design and Innovation company focusing on sports and athletes. Finally, this 12 week internship is more like a 12 week interview, where we have to present our final works and projects on the very last day to other Designers at Nike. If your wondering what Nike is looking for when you apply, she spoke of 4 main things:

1. Passion for Design
2. Consumer insights
3. Innovation
4. Trend and aesthetics

 

Finally, we were given a nice talk by one of the full time Graphic Designers at Nike, James Dunphy, who also started as an intern just few years ago. I guess the main advice which you hear over and over from people in different fields and categories is just to be as passionate as possible and not being afraid to reach out and connect with others wile being on campus.

Lunch and learn with Hannah Jones

Hannah Jones is part of Nike’s SB&I Team (Sustainable Business & Innovation). She spoke to us for a good 2 hours about Nike’s latest initiatives in becoming a more sustainable company and how that has lead to better innovation in their products. For example, Nike Better World products is a good example of the things they have come up with, where a jersey is made out of 8 recycled plastic bottles, and turfs are made out of recycled shoes. Hannah shared some good advice on the issue of sustainability, innovation, and a business in general.

Lunch and learn with Hannah Jones

1. Attaching issues to brands is a successful strategy, it serves both the company and cause.
2. Nike stopped being defensive with the NGO’s when it was approached, and reached out, and that built more success.
3. “You can trigger distributive innovation to make better products”.
4. How can we make more stuff with less? It’s a math equation that leads to innovation!
5. How do we design the future faster than anyone else?
6. Inventing new and substitute materials by Nike team is an ongoing process.
7. All sustainability is, a challenge for innovation, and currently proves markets failure to presenting better solutions.
8. Nike works with all other companies and competitors in the industry to cooperate as a group on influencing their regulations on factories around the world
9. Have to make sustainability an attribute of innovation, performance, aesthetics, and make it seem delicious.

A great quote on this matter, as William Gibson put it “The future is already here – it’s just not evenly distributed.”

Nike / Intel Olympics

Nike and Intel are both organizing events for their interns to compete in different activities and sports throughout the internship period. The first event which brought the competition between the 2 teams was laser tagging, and other events would follow in the coming weeks. I feel like it’s great to take a break from work sometimes and do random things as these, I feel like they could in one way or another play a role and perhaps spark some new ideas into whatever project it is your working on.

Portland

This weekend was my first time going to downtown Portland to check the city out, it feels kind of small and packed compared to other cities i’ve been to, but overall it’s a pretty nice place with nice architecture. The Nike store in the downtown area was great to look at, and seeing the actual work the Experience design team I work with has done, was very impressive and nice to see first hand. the store is 3 stories and pretty nice just to check out, if your ever in downtown make sure you do!

The second part of my journey was taking part in a 3 hour workshop held at Pensole Footwear Academy run by Dwayne Edwards, past Design Director for Air Jordan. It was a real great workshop which featured Justin Taylor, Senior footwear designer from Air Jordan, where he spoke about his process and experiences. Followed by that was a panel discussion with Q&A from the audience with Justin, Dwayne, and Thomas Harding, footwear designer at adidas Basketball. Having such insights from 3 designers with great talent and experience is definitely very inspiring, looking at how they started, their struggles, and where their at now and the things they do definitely connects with a lot of people.

Workshop at Pensole

That’s it for this week, more pictures from the 2nd week: