Brand Motion
Insight → Defining the destiny of sport isn’t easy.
The products that Nike’s employees dream, design, and develop define tomorrow for athletes all over the world. But tomorrow never stops, so neither can they. To fuel this relentless ambition, they themselves must continuously improve – just like the athletes they serve.
Idea → CURV Studios – Nike’s internal community of practice.
Nike inspires athletes of all shapes, sizes, and abilities across this planet. It’s a big responsibility that Nike takes very seriously. To ensure it can continue to live up to such a monumental task, AKQA collaborated closely with Nike to create a new community of practice and define its purpose – driving the highest standards across Nike’s workforce, starting at its European Headquarters in Hilversum. Born from the swoosh itself, CURV Studios’ goal is to foster a culture of innovation, iteration, and collaboration across Nike’s global product & design community.
Visual Identity → Embracing ambition and process.
CURV Studios’ design principles take inspiration from Nike’s employees themselves, who push the boundaries of the structures around them in order to create something new and improved over and over again. Calango worked closely with the team at AKQA to create the motion principles for the visual identity of Nike Curv Studios.
The Swoosh
One of the world's most iconic brand-marks gets a unique overhaul to amplify the process and purpose of Curv Studios. An upwards distortion along 4 segments represents the 4 stages of creativity – Preparation, incubation, illumination and verification.
The Pipeline
Its leading graphical device – the pipeline – embodies the product journey and the shared belief that progress rarely happens in a straight line but is the sum of every step taken to get there. The colors on which the ever-changing gradient was founded come directly from Nike’s Hilversum campus itself.
The Wordmark
CURV Studios’ wordmark is also informed by the four stages of creativity, with each letter constructed from a 4x4 grid that gives clarity at scale. This process of construction is true to Nike’s builder ethos and hints towards the many prototypes that get Nike closer to its finished products.
Credits
Evan Dunn (AKQA) Creative Director
Shane ORiordan (AKQA) Design Director,
Jessica Hunt Senior (AKQA) Account Director
Conor Cunniffe (AKQA) Senior Copywriter
Gijs van de Wal (AKQA) Senior Designer,
Rick Garcia (AKQA) Art Director
Jeroen Krielaars (Calango) Motion Design
Eefje Fockema (AKQA) Senior Project Manager
Shane ORiordan (AKQA) Design Director,
Jessica Hunt Senior (AKQA) Account Director
Conor Cunniffe (AKQA) Senior Copywriter
Gijs van de Wal (AKQA) Senior Designer,
Rick Garcia (AKQA) Art Director
Jeroen Krielaars (Calango) Motion Design
Eefje Fockema (AKQA) Senior Project Manager