Vans Customs

Security and privacy has become a very current and contentious topic. The promise of open data, the perils of mass surveillance and a world where we live our lives in posts online 24/7 have deteriorated the trust in large organisations.

As the Vans brand embraces individuality and community, the ethos of the company needs to be vigilant in safeguarding their customers’ trust and staying committed to openness and transparency.

The concept of ‘Transparency’ is an attempt to address such issues by turning the act of data collection on its head. The aim is to promote openness and clarity in a fun, if slightly whimsical, approach to the consumer.

The challenge is showing interesting data in an engaging and fun way all the while avoiding the dry “Google Analytics” facts approach to representation.

As tastes and styles have changed over the years, and the popularity of designs varies in different parts of the world, which designs are considered mainstream and which are “out there” or obscure? How can we embolden the users of Vans Customs to make informed stylistic choices?

These are the questions we aim to explore in this concept.

Every day, everything we do has a profound impact on the world around us. Everything we say, touch or do changes the people in our lives as much as they change us. How we behave, how we look, what we say – those are the factors that literally define our life.

We all are entangled with the world and each other. And this concept is about showing how the act of designing a Vans shoe affects, interacts and comingles the environment it lives in.