Personal Aesthetic – Modern/Sleek Sports-Inspired Aesthetic

An aesthetic that fits my life experiences and values the most accurately is the modern sports-inspired aesthetic. Starting when I was a young child, my life has revolved around sports. It all started when soccer sparked my interest. My friend’s dad was trying to get a team together when I was five years old and I played for the next few years. After that, I started playing a lot of football, basketball, and ran track. My dad has also played a significant role in my love for sports. He taught me how to play a lot of sports and would always enjoy throwing around the football with me or playing basketball against me. He also taught me how to play a few sports video games, such as Madden, which is a football game. Nowadays, I still play sports by playing intramural football and basketball, along with watching those two along with hockey and baseball.

Hence the reason why I chose the sports aesthetic as my personal aesthetic. This involves materials such as carbon fiber textures, glossy finishes, and a lightweight design. The colors that it includes are high-contrast colors, such as black, silver, and bold neon colors such as red, blue, or lime green. As seen above in the image by Nike (2), there are multiple inspirations for this aesthetic, which are ski helmets, running shoes, and high-tech gear from brands such as Nike.

The design movement that it draws on is minimalism, which focuses on functionality, efficiency, and simplicity. I believe that the sports aesthetic achieves all of those things while maintaining a high-performance, futuristic look. Minimalism emphasizes that every element of a design serves a purpose, which is usually the case for sports gear. Everything is streamlined for performance or ergonomics. There are not any unnecessary decorations that you may see in other fashion styles and other aesthetics. An example of a product that follows this is the Nike Vaporfly, seen in the image above by Nike (3). Also, many sports products eliminate cluttered details to maintain a clean and futuristic aesthetic. There are typically smooth curves and seamless transitions between materials used in order to create a sleek look.

When thinking about my main project for this course, I would like to use the modern/sleek sports-inspired aesthetic, however, I think I am going to change the modern aspect to vintage. I think it would be a great project to incorporate and older look to a sports-related product. Also, the necessary materials for this project are more likely to be a cheaper price than the modern sports aesthetic, where a sleek look with glossy finishes are more of a priority. With the vintage look, there is more of a rugged appearance. Materials that the vintage sports aesthetic uses are leather, wool, canvas, and metal, which are more handcrafted materials and natural. In terms of design, the classic sports designs for products use softer materials with visible stitching, patches, or embroidered logos. By doing a project like this one, it will allow me to stay within a known realm, however, I will be able to get out of comfort zone to an extent to do something I am somewhat unfamiliar with.

References:

(1) The Spaces, d., https://thespaces.com/gyms-that-raise-the-bar-for-design/

(2) Nike, d., https://www.nike.com/basketball

(3) Nike, d., https://www.nike.com/w/womens-shoes-5e1x6zy7ok