The Paris Department

The Paris Department was one of a series of events across the world celebrating creativity through the lens of Nike Air Max design. This day of classes and workshops, led by Nike designers and friends of the brand, aimed to inspire the younger generation of Parisian creators.

The participants were given the opportunity to work on a concept for their own Air Max design and then visualise their ideas on the spot using the materials and tools at their disposal.

In this episode of Access All Areas, Lou Matheron—winner of Paris On Air 2018—takes us behind the scenes of this exclusive event.

The young designers took part in three classes. After studying Colours and Materials, they got to know more about Industrial Design, before finishing with Illustration and Typography. Friends of the brand were also on hand to give an extra boost of inspiration talking about their approach to product creation.

For Stéphane Ashpool, founder of Pigalle and Nike collaborator, giving the next generation the keys to Industrial Design was important: “The youth here feeds me as much as I hope to feed them,” he explained.

The mentors not only shared their knowledge and helped illustrate the Nike designers’ lessons, but also helped the students while they were actually getting hands on. Tyrsa, a graphic designer, explained the idea behind these workshops: “Here today, everyone had a lot of tools at their disposal. It helped them all to have imaginable ideas and be able to realise them.”