The LCC design

This summer Nike presents ‘Journey to Greatness’ – a unique t-shirt collection designed by the UK’s most talented young design graduates that captures the intensity, passion, spirit and emotion of an athlete’s ‘Journey to Greatness’.

Under the guidance of renowned artist Dave White, who was also tasked with creating his own design, Nike offered emerging designers a platform to realise their creative ambitions through the lens of sport by challenging them to interpret athletic commitment, dedication and achievement at the highest level.

The designers are all graduates of University of the Arts London’s (UAL) prestigious and highly regarded institutions – London College of Fashion (LCF), Camberwell, Chelsea and Wimbledon (CCW), Central Saint Martins (CSM) and London College of Communication (LCC) – and together created four interdisciplinary ‘Teams’ led by a single academic, Lawrence Zeegen, Dean of Design at LCC.

Lawrence commented: “It was a privilege for UAL to play a part in such an inspirational project where Nike gave our graduates a platform to showcase their design potential, and which shone a spotlight on the profound experiences and emotions that drive top athletes to reach the pinnacle of their sport.”

To provide creative inspiration behind the Journey to Greatness brief, Nike provided each team with access to a series of personal experiences with some of the world’s leading athletes: marathon world record holder Paula Radcliffe, men’s 400m hurdles European, Commonwealth and World Champion Dai Greene, British 100m and 200m sprinter Harry Aikines-Aryeetey, and 200m Olympic Gold medallist Allyson Felix.

Through unique one-to-one sessions each team had the opportunity to interview each athlete and learn about their own personal ‘Journey to Greatness’ – the sacrifices, frustrations, successes, failures, commitment and elation that defines them as athletes and as people. To provide context to these insights the teams also joined Paula and Dai on an inspirational 5km run through the streets of London.

Each UAL Team viewed the challenge through a different angle, and their final designs demonstrated to Nike just how differently the interpretation of ‘Journey to Greatness’ can be creatively expressed. While the CSM Team designed a minimalist interpretation of the vast scale of sporting achievement through boundaries of the field of play, the LCC Team used the themes of obsession, music and race mathematics to create an automated drawing machine driven by vinyl turntables.

The ‘Journey to Greatness’ collection of five t-shirts are on sale individually (£35 per shirt) at NikeTown London and 1948London.

See videos of the project on Nike’s Vimeo site