FACULTY
MICHAEL FERRARO
Executive director of the DTech Lab and creative director of the Innovation Center at FIT
In the DTech Lab, teams of students, supervised by faculty, execute projects in branding, strategy, and design to assist companies facing a wide range of challenges. We explored AI with IBM and Tommy Hilfiger, designed an upcycled line for Uniqlo, and redesigned Girl Scout uniforms.
This academic year, we worked with Faryl Robin, a large footwear brand that primarily does private-label production for Nordstrom, Target, and other big retailers. Now they want to launch their own direct-to-consumer brand. They have made one or two other attempts but didn’t get the kind of traction they would like. The founder and CEO, Faryl Robin Gilston, Accessories Design ’89, Marketing: Fashion and Related Industries ’88, came to us to develop a complete brand identity from the ground up, to help articulate her vision and make her line thrive in the marketplace. Gilston wanted to defy convention, redefine expectation, and ignite positive change—really strong value statements.
Advertising and Digital Design (AD&D) students Caitlin Yackley and Mateo Gonzalez worked with Footwear and Accessories Design (F&AD) students Andrew Kaefer and Yosely Felix across disciplines. Adjunct Instructors Diane DePaolis, AD&D, and Kira Goodey, F&AD, guided them.
First, the AD&D students did market research in FIT’s Gladys Marcus Library, which has extensive resources that gave the students insight into market trends and opportunities. Then they went into the field, to Neiman Marcus and Nordstrom and online at Zappos, and studied the 1,400 footwear brands they identified. They looked at all the logos and grouped them together by type: wordmarks and letterforms, shapes, and symbols. They also looked at secondary graphics that are defining, like Burberry stripes and the flower symbols associated with Louis Vuitton.
They presented their research of the competitive landscape to the Faryl Robin team. They shared three directions for the brand and the shoe designs for each, created by the F&AD students.
The winning brand identity is FRTHR, a modular and sustainable shoe concept that redefines travel footwear. The brand purpose helps women “put their best foot forward.” It’s not just a glib expression; it really drills down deep into Gilston’s values. The F&AD students designed a perfect shoe for travel that could also be used for work, incorporating sustainable elements like detachable soles to make the shoe more recyclable and innovative materials like wovens and pleats to provide more comfort and flexibility at a lighter weight. They included plus sizes because there’s a great unmet need there. The A&DD students created brand guidelines, extensive applications of the logo including secondary graphics and fun animations.
The work was absolutely astounding. When the students were presenting, the client was like, “Holy Christmas, this is amazing!” —As told to Jonathan Vatner
