Chuck Anderson: Classic Lite Collaboration

There’s a reason Chuck Anderson lists his personal email address on his design studio’s website, nopattern.com. Years before Chuck was judging the Annual Art Director’s Club Awards, designing footwear and apparel for Reebok, or speaking at the famed Semi-Permanent Design Conference, he was a young high school graduate who wanted work on cool projects.

Without hesitation he looked up art directors’ email addresses—or in some cases, took a wild guess—contacting them for freelance design work. Eight years later, No Pattern is one of the most influential boutique creative studios in the country. In 2010, Chuck was named a "Design Icon" by Computer Arts Magazine. If anyone recognizes the power of creative risk, it’s Chuck Anderson.

So, when it was time for Reebok to design its product displays for Classic Lite, its lightest footwear collection ever, Chuck’s breed of creative risk seemed like the right way to go. Playing off Classic Lite’s current Reethym of Lite campaign, Chuck experimented with ideas around weightlessness and bursts of bright light. He teamed up with collaborator Seth Herman, a creative director and graphic designer with an engineering background. Seth’s skills were just what Chuck needed to bring his bold ideas to life.

When presented with the task Chuck and Seth were given total creative freedom. The kind of dream gig every artist hopes for. Of their many executions, one Chuck and Seth are most proud of is the Stampede: a display of nearly 100 Reebok shoes, drawn like a magnet toward a portal, where they come out in the form of translucent, neon streaks of light. It’s an explosive display of their collaborative genius—and a huge departure from your average shoe display. Instead of sitting flat, on 90-degree angles, each suspended Classic Lite shoe looks like it’s floating in space.  You know right away these shoes give ‘lightweight’ a whole new meaning.

Chuck says it’s more of an art installation than a product display—which is kind of the reason we brought him on in the first place. Thinking outside the shoebox. If Chuck inspires you like he inspires us, don't be afraid to hit him up. He knows becoming an icon means starting somewhere, and having someone inspire you is an awesome place to start.