Creating a beautiful collaboration with the country Ghana and the athleisure brand Puma for a once-in-a-lifetime collection. I present to you…
ENDLESS VISION
ENDLESS VISION: PUMA X GHANA
THE ASK
Create a collection that combines an athleisure brand and a county. With your chosen country, research and create a significant collection that showcases the county’s textures, symbolism, and color.
THE PROGRESS
STEP 1: DEEP DIVE OF RESEARCH
Ghana is one of the counties that has such a rich culture and history. During my research, I found so many exciting and jaw-dropping things about Ghana. Kente, also known as Kente cloth is a Ghanaian textile that is handwoven from cloth, silk, and cotton. It was originally from the Ashanti region of Ghana and was worn among the royal hierarchy. Today, Kente cloth is worn on special occasions as a way to celebrate. With its historical roots in traveling to America, Kente cloth can now be seen on graduation/celebration stoles. As I researched the different cultures within Ghana, there are over 100 ethnic groups that are known. Another important part of Ghanaian culture is its history, art, and entertainment. To elaborate, artists, music, and lifestyle were big influences. A particular artist, Gideon Appah was a huge influence when creating the patterns and textiles for this project. Gideon Appah is a Ghanaian artist, born in 1987. He is known for creating artworks that depict his life in Accra, Ghana. His medium is typically acrylic paint and sources photos, canvases, and prints as inspiration for his paintings to depict Ghanaian culture and youth. From Ghanaian artifacts, vibrant colors, and beautiful landscapes, Ghana was chosen as my country to create a collaboration with Puma. My research consisted of watching Nollywood movies, visiting museum exhibits (Gideon Appah: FORGOTTEN, NUDES, LANDSCAPES), and reviewing Ghanaian blogs and Vogue magazine articles. Puma was my chosen athleisure brand because of its strong brand persona, high product innovation, global distribution, and excellent marketing!
STEP 2: CREATIVE DRIVE
The creative drive for Endless Vision: Ghana x Puma collection was Gideon Appah’s exhibit titled “Gideon Appah: FORGOTTEN, NUDES, LANDSCAPES” and Afrochella Festival. The exhibit featured Appah’s paintings about Ghanaian cinema and leisure culture. The exhibit showcased over 15 paintings of Appah’s work ranging from 2020 - 2021. The exhibition included a variety of artworks that expressed life, culture, and death. Appah showcased how he envisioned culture through the past and present as a Ghanaian man. Moreover, Afrochella Festival is a music festival that celebrates Africa’s culture, music, art, entertainment, and food. It also features musicians and entrepreneurs.
STEP 3: VISUAL COMPONENTS
The visual components include images from Vogue magazine, the Institute of Contemporary Art, photos from cultural events, etc. I wanted to showcase raw and authentic photos from Ghana to capture the life, trends, music, fashion, art, entertainment, and culture of Ghana.
Let’s take a look at the Endless Vision project in its entirety.
THE OUTCOME
Throughout the project, I learned a lot about the trends, culture, history, fashion, and art of Ghana. When researching and creating designs for this collection. I wanted to represent Ghana in a vibrant and honoring way. Ghana has so much to offer and is not typically seen in the media. With my focus on Puma as an athleisure brand, I admire how they use creative ideas and self-expression as a way to showcase their style. Another takeaway that I captured was the influence of entertainment, history, and art being influential in the trends and clothing within Ghanaian culture. I enjoyed that this project allowed me to learn not only a new culture but also showcase my skills in Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign, and creative skills.
