‘Heart & Sole’
My response to the NIKE78 brief is born out of a childhood love of cross-sections, the Icelandic volcano ash cloud fiasco, and a cheap pun on a Joy Division lyric. When choosing my next trainer as a teenager, the cross-section illustrations in magazines were very important; layers of different foamy materials and honeycomb textures would make all the difference when running to catch the bus. The volcano is another often-sliced object, and the similarities between the layers of rock and the sole of a trainer pleased me enough to try and combine them. The heart is featured to emphasize the pumping of lava through the volcano/trainer, and because I thought making a reference to “Heart and Soul” would be entertaining, slightly.
After initial sketches attempting to squeeze a volcano into a trainer, I produced a digital image ready for print.
My good friends at MANYMONO/Landfill Editions were kind enough to print my image using their magic Risograph technology. The Risograph process requires each colour to be produced as a separate layer and fed into the printer, with a separate colour drum fitted for each run. I chose fluorescent pink, red and black. Allowances must be made for registration and ink flow, which in turn produces very individual prints at the beginning of a run. The print pictured is slightly offset but has provided a pleasing blur.