{"id":245519,"date":"2012-11-05T14:00:58","date_gmt":"2012-11-05T20:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nicekicks.com\/?p=245519"},"modified":"2018-05-13T15:42:54","modified_gmt":"2018-05-13T19:42:54","slug":"1-on-1-interview-with-designer-ziarekenya-smith-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.snkrsday.com\/1-on-1-interview-with-designer-ziarekenya-smith-interview\/","title":{"rendered":"1 on 1 With Designer Ziarekenya Smith"},"content":{"rendered":"

What inspires you? For designers, the answer to this question spans across a litany of people, places, and things. For Ziarekenya Smith<\/strong>, the aspirations are to be great. He started drawing as a kid, then fell in love with digital art the moment his mother introduced him to a computer. His drive to be the best and love for art gave life to one of the dopest pieces we have seen. Upon first view of the XXIII Dynasty Collection<\/strong><\/a>, we had to find out who the man behind the typeface design was. Take a look at what motivated Ziare to create such a timeless piece.<\/p>\n

Be sure to Like Ziare on Facebook<\/a> and follow him on Twitter<\/a> and instagram. You can check out his entire “God Inspred Designs” portfolio on his Behance<\/a> page.<\/p>\n XXIII Dynasty Collection – Retro\n

Snkrs Day: Who is Ziare Smith?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ziare Smith: I?m from Detroit, but I?ve live in Orlando, Florida attending Full Sail University. I?m trying to get my bachelor?s degree in Digital Art Design. Basically, I?m a determined designer always trying to get better. I’ve been designing over 5 years, and I?m only 21.<\/p>\n Original 2010 Image vs. XXIII Dynasty Collection Retro\n

Snkrs Day: The XXIII Dynasty Collection has received a lot of attention. How did you come up with that design?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ziare Smith: I created a similar piece two years ago, and it went viral. I tried to recreate it again as a t-shirt design for a class. I remember always being asked to turn the image into a t-shirt design. I always waved it off and said it looked better as a poster, but this class presented the perfect opportunity for me to turn this imagery into a t-shirt design. ?My initial idea was to take the original one, and just make a t-shirt from that. The reason I didn?t is because I showed my teacher the design in my portfolio a while ago, and she said, ?Ziare you did this already.? I think for this t-shirt design contest, it won?t be as strong?. After she got done saying what she had to say, I?m thinking everybody likes MJ so what is she talking about? I didn?t know how, but I knew it would work. Once I got home, something told me to recreate that same design. So that?s what I did. The next morning I started from scratch. I improved on all the minor details and all the mistakes. After seven days of recreating, I didn?t even like the original one anymore. If you did a side by side of the original and this new one, you would see there is a huge difference. There is so much improvement. The new one is way more accurate, and way more realistic.
\n<\/p>\n XXIII Dynasty Collection – Two-tone\n

Snkrs Day: What was the inspiration behind using Michael Jordan typeface?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ziare Smith: Some people may find this weird. As a designer, most people would think that I look up to another designer, but I don?t. I actually look up to MJ. Not because he?s an awesome basketball player. Not because he was good at what he did. It is because of who he was. Michael Jordan was the type that improved on all his weak points and turned them into strong points. His work ethic, dedication, determination, push, and drive always made me say wow! So as a designer, what can I take away from that? A lot of things. Jordan was an all-around player, and I?m not the type of guy to specialize in one area of my craft. I never wanted to be that guy. I always felt if I got to a point where I?m good at this (particular thing), I?m moving on to another aspect of designing. If you ever checked out my portfolio, you will see that it is well rounded. I have everything from video graphics, motion, to 3-D. Basically, I try to mold my designing career after MJ?s.<\/p>\n

Snkrs Day: To that point, I was able to look at your portfolio and noticed Nike commercials you created. What prompted those?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ziare Smith: I?m a Nike fiend. I was trying out a new format with stop motion. Anybody who has followed my work and has seen the type of designs I do knows I try to create things that I relate to, and things that I like. Half of my portfolio are things like basketball, shoes, and things that I?m very interested in. So, when I had to do a project for class, Nike was the perfect thing.<\/p>\n