School Project

When Professor Rostislav Vaněk assigned his students from the studio of Graphic design and visual communication at the Prague Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in the winter term of 2008 to design sports shoes, he hardly would’ve guessed what it would evoke. Neither did the students. The student took the assignment from outside of the graphic industry as a kind of impulse to think about product design and fashion from a different point of view other than really creating something new.

The duo Jan Kloss and Jakub Korouš, at this time in their fourth year, decided to approach the task of designing a sports shoe in a matter that may seem the most logical retroactively. And through this rather specific product they have shown the importance of closer cooperation between the graphic designer and the manufacturer itself. They have shown how big a role can a complex view of the whole issue of manufacturing and sales can play. Then there was only one step ahead: to choose a suitable existing product that would serve as the basis for the presentation of that vision.

The decision came relatively quickly and a model called Classic made by Botas was chosen. It seemed to be good from several aspects: its shape was the ideal and it was fully functional and minimalist clean. It was also widely recognized, which was important for the almost immediate feedback on their work without the need of any further explanation. And it was produced almost without a break ​​since 1966, so it was possible to communicate with the manufacturer during the implementation of the school project. In addition to this, the model was chosen in 2005 to be among the 100 Czech design icons, which pioneered a great potential.

The project itself could be divided into several areas. The main focus was obviously put on the shoes themselves. In this part, the authors embarked on a large number of color and material combinations. They subsequently broke down into three main collections: black and white, based primarily on playing with contrasts and different textures and color, whose strength lay in a combination of various, often quite bold, colors, and combining the last of the two previous approaches. In the next stage, it was also necessary to design a packaging system and the whole visual identity, including a new logo, and how the sales and advertisement would work. Several possible paths were created for academic purposes, which eventually became the strong starting basis for further work and communication with the manufacturer.

At the presentations of semester assignments, the duo was able to present the first prototype, an all-black pair of Botas shoes, besides their creative work, thanks to the flexible cooperation with Botas. Positive feedback from teachers and visitors was the reason for the presenting the project named “botas classic 66″ to the management of Botas. This started a dialog between the pair of designers and the traditional renowned Czech shoe manufacturer, whose products are still bearing the slogan “made in czech republic”.