Silver Needle Runway
The Silver Needle Runway is the largest event presented by Marist College. Produced entirely by students of the School of Communications and the Arts, the runway features garments designed by senior Fashion Design students in a professional runway setting developed by the directors and members of the Fashion Show Production team. The presentation closes out the academic year with a community-wide celebration of the growth and achievements of the preceding months.
As Creative Director, my responsibilities included establishing our theme, INTERLINKED; conceptualizing the story for all of our digital creative content; directing all photo and video shoots; and curating the aesthetic, design, and visual assets for our 38th annual in person runway show.
The first task as Creative Director is establishing the brand identity (ie. the “theme”) for that years show. This includes all creative aesthetic attributes, as well as brand story, to set the direction for all other teams to begin working on individual projects.
My first steps in this process can be seen here in phase 1, where I developed a deck to present to other teams to serve as the guardrails for all assets, as well as our mission statement created in collaboration with the Directors of Branding to express the message of our theme. From here all following creative pursuits in production process can bloom.
THEME CREATION: INTERLINKED
PHASE 1:
IT IS TO ACKNOWLEDGE THE INTERLINKING OF THE JOURNEY THAT WE ALL UNDERTAKE, REALIZING THAT TO TRY TO SO HEAVILY CONTROL THE OUTCOME OF YOUR OWN LIFE WOULD BY DEFINITION, BE TRYING TO HEAVILY CONTROL THE OUTCOME OF EVERYONE ELSE’S.
AS THE CURRENT OF A RIVER DOES NOT RESIST ITS FLOW TO ITS GRANDER DESTINATION, NEITHER CAN WE.
WE MUST ACCEPT THE FLOW, BECAUSE WE ARE ALL INTERTWINED IN THE END IN A VAST MATRIX OF EXISTENCE.
ALL CURRENTS ARE MOVING AT THEIR OWN PACE IN THEIR OWN DIRECTION INDEPENDENTLY OF EACH OTHER, BUT EVENTUALLY, WILL ALL END UP IN THE SAME PLACE, JOINED AS ONE.
Mission Statement:
promotional video 1:
Once brand is established, collaboration with the Digital Media team occurs to create a concept for our promotional assets. The storyline of these videos was created to assist our audience in understanding the message of our theme.
DIGITAL ASSET CREATION
PHASE 2:
promotional video 2:
promotional video 3:
virtual fashion show
My role and intention in the production of these videos was for our audience to see pieces of themselves, and people they may know, in each of these characters. And in this realization, discover the profound impact that each and every one of us has on the community around us, whether we realize it or not.
The stripped back set design of the Virtual Fashion Show as the culmination of the promotional videos is designed to represent the closing piece of our mission statement: “All currents are moving at their own pace, in their own direction, independently of each other, but eventually will all end up in the same place, joined as one.”
promotional video 4:
The overarching and main task as Creative Director was the creation of our in-person runway show, which includes everything the audience “experiences” while watching the show (visuals, audio, lighting, runway layout, etc). The goal of the in-person show was to create a runway that was both elevated and represented our theme.
BRINGING IT ALL TOGETHER:
IN PERSON FASHION SHOW
PHASE 3:
I chose a non-traditional runway layout, that began with models of each collection standing in individual spotlights behind a holographic light projection. 1-by-1 models exited their spotlight, which prompted the light to shut off, and enter the larger runway area.