Converse

Global Campaign

Bringing the 'Skate Mindset' to every facet of Converse through audacity and irreverence.

Overview

For Converse’s Fall 23 Campaign, we worked with the global brand team to define a seasonal strategy and campaign expression that fully embodied the brand’s muse this season: skate culture. Converse has always had one foot in the counter-culture landscape — a passionate contributor to the creative con­ver­sa­tion — and this initiative pays homage to that dynamic in a new way. Informed by a robust strategy phase, our key insight was to lean away from the traditional skate tropes: hyper­mas­culin­i­ty and grit, for a more engaging, irreverent and playful temperament that was no less audacious. Together, we distilled the boundless freedom and spirited per­se­ver­ance of skate into every visual touchpoint: imagery, design, and even a suite of webtools that allowed the Converse team to create assets on the fly.

Sector

  • Lifestyle

Timeline

  • Q2 2023

Credits

  • Converse Team

    • Alyson Magliozzi
    • Dana Kandic
    • Jennifer Ballou
    • John Osborne
    • Lana Alexio
    • Lee Carol
    • Matthew Willigan
    • Michael Donner
    • Mike Sylvester
    • Stephanie Irving

  • Cotton Design Team

    • Talia Cotton

  • Photography

    • Yavez Anthonio

  • Production

    • Very Rare Inc

Type System

We created a type system that was flexible, emotive and could be used to elevate all accom­pa­ny­ing elements. We began initially with the new Create Next wordmark, creating a balance of audacity and irreverence, masculine and feminine while promoting forward movement consistent with the Converse brand.

Color Systems

Vibrant but slightly desaturated colors — as if they had been left out in the sun and faded — embody the audacity and irreverence of our strategy. Our color system established a few key colors, but could be expanded for any application by stan­dard­iz­ing saturation and brightness. This ensured both flexibility and cohesion.

Layout System

To pull elements together, we devised a com­pre­hen­sive layout system that carries the spirit of our campaign, leverages the color palette and connected naturally to newly designed motion languages. Our key concept in layout was layering — the idea of building on top what has come before, and leaving your mark on the world. These layouts were conceived as a playground — offering a flexible system for any aspect ratio or type of message — resulting in endless expres­siv­i­ty.

Photography

Our key concept for photography was to have the brand’s images never feel too far from — or not easily repeatable by — our audience. After all, Converse is a brand for cultural par­tic­i­pa­tion, grounding ourselves in everyday life was paramount. From there, we created non-traditional images within that sandbox, evoking our take on having a skate mindset. Vibrant, personality driven portraiture live alongside product hero shots seamlessly, all within our layout system.

Scalability

For a campaign at this scale, one of our challenges was global cohesion. By working cross-func­tion­al­ly with Converse’s brand and social teams, we devised a robust toolkit of design elements created specif­i­cal­ly for the ever-changing landscape of digital brand com­mu­ni­ca­tion. These enabled our design systems to live beyond this specific campaign and stretch into the future.

Generative Tool

We designed a bespoke generative web app, dubbed nextStudio, that allowed the brand team and their global partners to create motion and still assets on the fly — with no additional software. nextStudio was designed specif­i­cal­ly to simplify and expedite the creation of on-brand creative. It offered eight versatile functions, ranging from background image makers to flipbook-style motion tools and generative pattern makers.