The Pensole Revival Collection
This was a project done during the My HBCU PLC x Pepsi Mentorship Program in Spring 2024. I was tasked with developing a concept for the first PLC capsule gear collection that embodies the core values of PLC - Pride, Legacy, and Culture.
Research
When looking to design this collection, I first wanted to do research on both PLC and Detroit’s history. I found that both were founded with passion and hard work in mind — one by Violet T. Lewis in the hopes of providing Black women business education, and the other by industrialism and the automotive industry. When hardship came to both, they were revived. PLC was reopened by Dr. D’Wayne Edwards in 2021 to provide free design classes to aspiring students, keeping Lewis’s dream alive. Detroit is being revived by local community leaders and entrepreneurs whose passion have created a culture like no other.
Theme: Pride
I wanted PLC students to feel proud of their craft, their school, and Detroit while wearing these garments.
Theme: Revival
I aimed to capture the fighting spirit of Detroit and its creators while paying homage to local fashion trends.
Design Language: Bold
I loved the bold typography logo and color blocking of Pelle Pelle jackets and wanted to emulate that in my designs.
Design Language: Values Triangle
I wanted to embody the values of pride, legacy, and culture in a literal sense by utilizing triangular elements in my designs.
Moodboard
My moodboard for this project lived in two territories — Detroit buildings, signage and vintage fashion, and 80’s vaporwave aesthetics with a futuristic vibe. I felt that the bold typography paired with a hero jacket and fun color blocking could tell an interesting story together in a merch collection.
Early Ideation
I did my early iterations while prioritizing placement and the hero jacket idea, so I did so directly on the CADS for the hoodie. I experimented with a more illustrative approach, including icons for each concentration (footwear, apparel, and color and materials). I then focused on ideating concepts for the jacket, playing around with paneling ideas and freely exploring logos that matched the feel. The early remnants of the final graphics and application are seen with ideations #2 and #5.
Hero Graphic Ideation
In my first ideations for the hero logo, I decided to break up “Pensole” to make it dynamic. I explored versions that felt similar to Pelle Pelle before pushing it to feel more collegiate by exploring a different typeface. I then included a banner with the founding year, but changed it to the iconic Pensole golden pencil that students receive upon completion of a masterclass.
PLC Graphic Ideation
I knew I wanted to include a secondary PLC graphic that could work in tandem with the hero graphic. I wanted it to call back to sticky notes and the collaborative, collage-like nature of design.
Design Callouts
My merch collection includes a jacket, a hoodie, a shirt, and sweatpants. The hero graphic lives big on the back of the jacket and hoodie, while the PLC graphic is heroed on the T-shirt and sweatpants. The pencil graphic supports the hero graphic on the jacket while adorning the pockets on the hoodie and T-shirt. The sleeves of the pieces feature triangular paneling, calling back to the values triangle and making the color blocking come to life. Overall, I wanted all the pieces to interact with each other in interesting ways when worn together.
Color Story 1: Legacy
This was inspired by the main colors of PLC, local murals, and Detroit’s skyline.
Color Story 2: Back To School
These colors are meant to represent the collaborative nature of design while taking inspiration from Detroit street art.
Color Story 3: Back To The Future
This alternate color palette calls back to the electric colors of the 80’s and 90’s. It is meant to bring a nostalgic energy to the collection.
Color Ideation - Round 1
With this round, I wanted to explore how color blocking would look for each palette. I played around with the color placement in the hopes of having the most readability and harmony.
Color Ideation: Round 2
After doing Round 1 and seeing the different palettes live on the merch, I decided that it was important to ideate further with the core PLC colors since they best represent the school. I focused on having good contrast and harmony while placing the colors.
Color Ideation: Round 3
I chose my favorite jacket color blocks from Round 2 and ideated different sweatpant color blocks to see how they would fit together. I wanted to keep in mind that these pieces could be worn together, so they should look cohesive.
The Final Collection
Here, you can see the final designs and color blocks living in tandem with each other. All of the different graphics together call back to the inspirations of Detroit fashion and 80’s color paneling, while celebrating the collaboration and hard work that goes into design.
The Final Collection: Energy Palette
I wanted to explore what the final collection would look like with the “Back To The Future” color story instead. This colorway could live in alternate options available for purchase for those that want to bring some vibrancy into their school attire.
Photography Moodboard
With the photoshoot concepting, I wanted to continue celebrating the process and hard work that comes with being a designer. I wanted the models to stand on a white backdrop with annotations and sketches calling out elements of their outfits, or posing in front of a backdrop wall full of different sketches collaged on top of each other. Another idea was to have the models pose around PLC classrooms to represent the lives of the everyday students.
Social Media Campaign
Another part of the project was to create social media content to post to promote our designs and encourage voting for the final design. I chose to illustrate two students modeling the merch to showcase my collection. I took inspiration from my photography moodboard to playfully annotate my own designs. I then made two Instagram reels to further promote my work.