If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it – reinvent it instead.
Crack remembers once queuing up at the local supermarket with the intention of buying some milk, some eggs and some orange juice. As you can probably gather, it was morning time and we were looking to rustle up something vaguely breakfast-shaped.
On leaving the shop, and during the process of unlocking our bike, a livid-looking guy who had been standing patiently in the queue came and stood over us as we struggled with our D-lock. He aggressively said:
“You do realise that by wearing those trainers you are endorsing one of the biggest corporate behemoths on the planet?”
“What?”, we replied. He continued:
“Nike represents everything that is wrong with the world today.”
Before we had the time to respond he strode off proudly, broadsheet and croissants in tow. It was like he had done his good deed for the day or something.
Bemused, it took a little while to fully grasp what we’d just experienced. Our initial reaction was “what a dick“, but moreover, our second thought was “surely that idiot isn’t planning on dedicating his entire day to marching around Cambridge telling people off for wearing Nike apparel?”
That was when it dawned …
The reason he had singled us out in the warmth of the morning sunshine was because the Air Max 90 Infrareds in question were both boxfresh and glorious. He was like a magpie to a shiny object, drawn to its glow. In the end we took his brief tirade as a compliment and cycled off with a smile, deep in thought about how to best prepare the aforementioned eggs.
There are some things in this world that must be heralded, but moreover, celebrated as brilliant. Nike’s 25 years of Air Max footwear is one of those things. Iconic, innovative and groundbreaking, the most beautiful thing about the Air Max range is that its evolution, both stylistically and technologically, will always represent something very different to each generation of sneaker head: a particular place in time. As mentioned previously, that first Infrared matrimony involved lazy days spent in sunny Cambridge in the late-90s; always broke, but always with flamboyant trainers on our feet.
2013 marks 25 years of the Nike Air Max. To celebrate the silver anniversary of Nike’s flagship shoe, its opus if you like, Nike is throwing parties, releasing limited edition colourways, but most interestingly, pioneering a series of artist commissions with an eye to ‘reinventing’ the legacy of their most famous creation.
Working with five artistic teams from different disciplines in our country’s capital, Nike have laid down the gauntlet and challenged the selected artists to reinvent the five most iconic Air Max designs from the glittering 25-year roster: the Air Max 1s, 90s, 95s, 97s and Air Max 2013s.
The task of ‘reinventing’ the 90s, arguably the most iconic of all the Air Max designs, has fallen upon the shoulders of design team Bruno Drummond and Gemma Tickle. Bonded by a mutual love for a clean, crisp and flawless pop aesthetic, the duo have taken the opportunity to tap directly into the era that hosted the birth of the Infrared for inspiration. The glorious explosion of rave culture, the dawn of a new take on urban style, but most significantly, the striking shapes, distinct use of colour and design, and not forgetting the legendary iconography that has shaped Nike as a brand since its birth in the late 70s.
Crack was lucky enough to catch up with Bruno and Gemma to see how they went about ‘reinventing’ our favourite Nike Air Max in the form of a sculptured homage to its shape, colour and form.
So how do you guys find yourselves here today working as a team?
Bruno: Gemma and I first met when we were both working for other people. Gemma was assisting a set designer and I was working as a photographic assistant. We were both working on shoots together. We were both busy getting our own portfolios together around the same time so we started working collaboratively. Aesthetically we have tastes and interests that cross over in a complimentary fashion.
Tell us about your take on this Nike collaboration. Where has the project taken you as a creative partnership?
B: It’s been really great. We’ve had an amazing amount of creative freedom to develop this project ourselves. In the research phase especially, it’s been really interesting looking back at the era when the Air Max 90s first came out.
Gemma: The thought of recreating something that already exists inspired by the rave scene in which it was born was a pretty great place to start, and having the creative control to finish up there too was even better.
How did you approach ‘reinventing’ something so iconic?
B: We were asked to come up with something relating to the cultural backdrop of the early 90s. Researching this has been really interesting, the rave aesthetic especially. Just the rave flyers alone chart the musical development of the scene and with the insane speed at which it seemed to evolve. 1986/87 saw a whole mixture of styles, not defined, quite DIY if you like; 1987/88 started to get more defined, it borrowed from the 1960s a lot, quite Hawkwind-y sometimes … that kind of thing. As the music got harder in the early 90s the aesthetic of the flyers did too. The artwork became heavily computer generated and almost started moving towards a kind of Hellraiser aesthetic.
We really liked the way the flyers use space, kind of referencing – for want of a better term – void landscapes. You know, grids cascading from a horizon, that kind of sci-fi emptiness. We really liked the way the flyers had this consistent use of grid patterns, particularly the axial, one-point perspective throughout. Although it hasn’t fed directly into the project, some of the stuff the research has brought up has ended up with me looking at The Lawnmower Man and films like that, plus early-90s video game releases like Sonic The Hedgehog, which uses space in a really amazing way. Similar to that medieval period before they developed perspective but are using 3D, so it becomes an odd blend of 2D and 3D.
G: We really love computer game imagery and the world that encompasses. Linked to the Nike project, we tried to imagine what it would look like if this world was modernised and its building blocks were shapes taken from the Air Max 90 design.
Let’s speak about the huge affection surrounding the shoe. It’s such a revered design, did you find the prospect of ‘reinventing’ it daunting at all?
B: I’ve always been a big fan of the Infrared. We tried to respond directly to the bold blocky colours of the design throughout developing the brief. That was always the aim.
G: I think taking something that is so familiar means you can push its reinvention further.
How has your relationship as a set designer and photographer changed over time and how has the Nike brief tested your resolve?
G: Well, we both share a very similar graphic and playful sensibility and I think working with Nike has encouraged both of those aesthetics.
Your work is very different to the impulsive and reactive work we often chat to people about. Can you tell us more about the ins and outs of how you work? What processes do you follow most vehemently?
G: I love taking inspiration from everyday life and subverting it into something surreal. I also love tackling different types of materials. Dealing with new materials really inspires me to create.
What about personal projects? What are you most excited about and proud of?
G: I have had a little sketch of a wooden balloon that has travelled through each of my sketchbooks for about five years now and recently I met a great woodturner who brought my sketch to life and made my little wooden balloon sketch a reality. It really is amazing, I love it!
Both of your respective styles are explicit and striking. Tell us more about what inspired this?
B: I guess I’ve always found something really interesting about the immediacy of the snapshot aesthetic. In a way, all there is to see is on the surface but that also provides a kind of unreadable blankness, which I find really fascinating.
What else inspires you? Where do you go to source inspiration?
B: Pop culture, illustration, graphic design, colour, minimalism and architecture. We probably overuse the word ‘pop’ but I think it’s really important to what we both do. I’ve always been interested in glossy/surface sheen, guys like Jeff Koons especially. We both use a pop colour palette in our work, which I think works nicely with a minimalism and aesthetic austerity.
G: I love looking at materials in everyday life and thinking of other ways to use them. I love going to the library and looking at old issues of design and fashion magazines. I also try to find interesting exhibitions and talks to find inspiration. Most recently I went to this amazing show at the Woodturners Guild called the The Wizardry of Wood. It was great. I recommend it.
We’d like to ask you about your take on the 21st century climate, the bulging and saturated world that we live in. How does your work fit in with the never-ending tumblr scroll?
B: The tumblr thing is interesting, the endless scrolling and sense of infinity. Saying that, some tumblr profiles are very well curated and selective. Some aren’t. I quite like to look at both in a way. For me print is still the primary medium in terms of an endpoint for a personal project, and I definitely prefer looking at a printed magazine to a website, although that’s not to say digital isn’t a super important part of what we do.
Finally, what does the future hold?
B: We have some commissioned stuff on the go, plus we’re getting round to doing a new series of personal images which are currently in development.
G: Bananas on wheels, dancing carnations, hinged candles, jelly bricks…
ADVERTISEMENTS