REEBOK: Supershow Trade Booth '99
Reebok 1999 Supershow Graphics Signage, Exhibition Design, Newspaper, Interior Space
Reebok Supershow 1999
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta, Georgia
Building on Appetite Engineers’ success with the 1998 Reebok project, we were invited for a repeat performance the following year.
Reebok asked that the design support their recent “Are You Feeling It” advertising. The campaign involved a series of posters and billboards imitating front page sports headlines. The odd messages mocked the bloated importance of sports in contemporary life, and its negative influence on its fans. These broadsides were wild-posted in key cities on walls, construction sites, and abandoned lots.
When we saw the campaign unfolding in San Francisco, we raced out with our cameras and shot the campaign in close-up, long shot, in-between pedestrians, daylight and nighttime, rain and sun. We didn’t yet have a plan — we hadn’t even begun the design process — but we knew that posters would not be up for long, so we had to seize the moment.
None of the urban grit in the pictures was staged, and we were especially pleased whenheavy rain made many of the posters buckle and sag.
Our design proposal featured wall treatments composed with our photographs of the campaign in action. The ten-foot scale and dramatic combinations created a real sense of place and energy. The static (and admittedly less than inspired) campaign seemed to come alive.
The corridor walls use details from our photographs to shepherd customers through the exhibition space. Extreme perspectives and atmospheric conditions were all part of our photographic exploration. And every surface, including exits and reception areas, were considered in our comprehensive design proposal. To accompany the newsprint campaign, we also designed a printed newspaper take-away which would be distributed from a bank of sidewalk-style news vending boxes. (The last six images are all spreads from the news flyer.)
We were as proud of this campaign as the first one. Starting with a very limited design language, we were able to develop it into new levels of vibrancy. Unfortunately this was the year that Nike abandoned the Super Show to create a separate product debut venue. Reebok, who owned the show’s second largest footprint, decided to follow Nike’s lead and announce its new product line at a low-key press conference and reception off site, leaving all of our graphic work unrealized in its full, breathtaking scale.
Reebok asked that the design support their recent “Are You Feeling It” advertising. The campaign involved a series of posters and billboards imitating front page sports headlines. The odd messages mocked the bloated importance of sports in contemporary life, and its negative influence on its fans. These broadsides were wild-posted in key cities on walls, construction sites, and abandoned lots.
When we saw the campaign unfolding in San Francisco, we raced out with our cameras and shot the campaign in close-up, long shot, in-between pedestrians, daylight and nighttime, rain and sun. We didn’t yet have a plan — we hadn’t even begun the design process — but we knew that posters would not be up for long, so we had to seize the moment.
None of the urban grit in the pictures was staged, and we were especially pleased whenheavy rain made many of the posters buckle and sag.
Our design proposal featured wall treatments composed with our photographs of the campaign in action. The ten-foot scale and dramatic combinations created a real sense of place and energy. The static (and admittedly less than inspired) campaign seemed to come alive.
The corridor walls use details from our photographs to shepherd customers through the exhibition space. Extreme perspectives and atmospheric conditions were all part of our photographic exploration. And every surface, including exits and reception areas, were considered in our comprehensive design proposal. To accompany the newsprint campaign, we also designed a printed newspaper take-away which would be distributed from a bank of sidewalk-style news vending boxes. (The last six images are all spreads from the news flyer.)
We were as proud of this campaign as the first one. Starting with a very limited design language, we were able to develop it into new levels of vibrancy. Unfortunately this was the year that Nike abandoned the Super Show to create a separate product debut venue. Reebok, who owned the show’s second largest footprint, decided to follow Nike’s lead and announce its new product line at a low-key press conference and reception off site, leaving all of our graphic work unrealized in its full, breathtaking scale.
