How is the concept of mainstream vs underground relevant in contemporary design? The concept of mainstream vs underground explores how designs and designers take ideas, alter them and reissue them as new products. It’s taking underground ideas as a foundation to either rebuild or remake a product by “borrowing” another idea. Steven Heller states that “In the 1920s Earnest Elmo Calkins, a progressive American advertising executive, argued that quotidian products and advertising campaigns must borrow characteristics from avant-garde European Modern art. Despite the avant-garde’s anti establishment symbolism, cubistic, futuristic, and expressionistic veneers, he argued, would capture the consumer’s attention better than a hundred slogans.” This concept is relevant in contemporary design since contemporary design showcases multiple areas of design, influenced from ideas of all kinds, mainstream or underground. It is also relevant because it has become almost a strategy of marketing, advertising, and more to build off one idea underground or not, and make it your own. In Reflecting Contemporary Design Research, the author Ida Engholm  states that “Aside from noticing a shoe for its comfort or elegance, contemporaries rarely take interest in this necessary object of daily life. However, the shoe is considerable in the history of civilization and art. … In recapturing this contact, in particular through sports, we begin its rediscovery.”Where do the designs or the designers fit into the dichotomy? (Jordan 1s)For my final project, I addressed how Jordan 1’s can be a source of media. The Jordan 1’s would fit under mainstream design rather than underground. The components of the shoe were pulled from other Nike designs that were already popular. The only difference the designer chose to do was to break the color barrier in footwear. Back then you would only find colorful shoes if they were running shoes or women’s aerobic sneakers. This idea goes back to Steven Heller’s concept of how “rebellion of any kind breeds followers, and many followers become a demographic.” Also, In Alternative and Mainstream Media: The Converging Spectrum, the author Linda Jean Kenix also states that “…it is important to remember that alternative media generally, although not exclusively, remain less commercially minded and more ideologically driven than the mainstream media. They continue to operate in ways that are often distinct from mainstream media.” The Jordan 1s are more commercially minded rather than less, making it more mainstream. 
What sorts of underground work influenced the work in question?Since the Jordan 1’s shoe components were built off previous popular Nike shoes such as the Air Force 1’s, the shoe itself wasn’t really influenced from underground designs or ideas but rather from a previous shoe design Nike already had. In the Art of Shoemaking by William Brown he states that the “Sneakers  that were once designed for athletic purposes are now more commonly used for fashion.” Which relates to the design of the Jordan 1s which were built off a popular sneaker for fashion, which would mean that the shoe was influenced by mainstream instead of underground work. 

In what ways has the work in question shaped the mainstream? Will it do so in the future? Jordan 1’s created a cultural phenomenon and brought sports apparel and basketball shoes into the mainstream due to its popularity from Michael Jordan and basketball. From being only seen on the basketball court, it was almost seen worn everywhere. Heller states how “Outsiders may choose to join the mainstream on their own terms, but join they must be able to make an impact larger than their circumscribed circles.”  The shoe has a strong identity and one so unique it couldn’t be replaced, leading it to make an impact larger than other shoes especially once it evolved its identity throughout the years and throughout society. It has shaped the mainstream by its evolution and following. Heller states that “All it takes is the followers of followers to cut a clear path to the mainstream.” The way the Jordan 1s have affected the mainstream should stay consistent in the future due to its strategic design and the marketing methods implemented for the shoe. It’s designed to always have a value due to its limit, and is designed for identities of all types allowing its demand to be relevant. 

 

Brown, William. Art of Shoe Making. Global Media, 2007. 
 
 

Engholm, Ida. Positions in Contemporary Design Research. Inderscience, 2011.

 
Kenix, Linda Jean. Alternative and Mainstream Media: the Converging Spectrum. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2012.