The SCAD Fashion Show

At the height of COVID, pre-vaccine, I was approached by my professor to lead a team as the producer to rethink SCAD’s premier event, the SCAD Fashion Show. Our objective was to create a virtual event that could be streamed and would showcase the models and the fashion.  

The Brief

We were given a brief and asked to develop five different virtual worlds. Additionally, we needed to create a cohesive narrative that would allow us to transition from one world to the next. The intent of the story would be to draw the audience in and create a virtual stage to highlight the models and the fashion.

The Teams

As the project manager, I was tasked with creating five teams of student designers. Each team would focus on a specific world and concept. For each team, I did check-ins every two to three days. This helped us keep us on schedule, allowed us to see how the work was progressing, and it offered an opportunity for creative collaboration. The regular check-ins created a stronger sense of community among the designers where they could ask questions and brainstorm on new ideas. We developed clear checkpoints with a goal of a midpoint presentation. This structure allowed us to develop our storyboards and conceptual content sufficiently enough to provide a clear direction, yet still afforded space for feedback. To connect all five worlds, we worked to develop a narrative and transitions that we believed would create excitement and continuity. Using the Tree of Life from Norse mythology we gave each of the worlds a portal that allowed them to connect to one another.

As the project manager, I took detailed notes at each meeting (located on the notion page), while keeping a structured schedule. I managed the teams as they built out their style frames, did motion tests, and animatics for each of the worlds. This was all represented in our midpoint presentation. Additionally, around the same time, we brought on sound designers to really enhance each of the worlds. They worked alongside the designers to create a more cohesive narrative.

Client Feedback

After the midpoint presentation, it was determined that we had too many different worlds in which ideas were presented and we needed to simplify it down into three. The suggestion was well taken. Compressing the concepts into a simple three-world narrative could help us present the models and fashion more fluidly. However, as with most projects, there was an outlier that still garnered some interest, but was not selected as one of the virtual worlds, Fairyland. It was decided that a film would be made using the assets and environments of Fairyland. Therefore, in the end we really needed to continue to work on four out of the five worlds.

Revisions

After the midpoint presentations, we went back to the drawing board and determined what we could reuse and repurpose including assets and concepts. After a redesign of some of the concepts, we were able to create some new style frames and reuse many assets from before. All of this culminated in our final presentation.

All of this culminated in our final presentation. In the end, our pre-viz created some beautiful deliverables that we felt proud to hand off to a professional design studio. Our work enabled them to finalize and create something amazing for SCAD and the fashion students.

Great Teamwork

I'm proud of everything that our team and I created. I'm grateful that I got the opportunity to work with such talented people. Here is the team listed in order from left to right Abbie Bosworth, Alex Campbell, Anna Yang, Kenzie Epleys, Desmond Du, Sabrina Guyton, Juan Aeus, Alyssa Mackersie, Madison Hague-Rogers, Anna Vallario, myself, and finally our professor, Kelly Carlton.