adidas Originals x Omni Magazine:
The ZXience Issue
for adidas Originals
2021
Role:
Lead Creative
(Sr. Art Director),
Co-Editor
Agency:
Johannes Leonardo
Lead Creatives:
Adam Van Dusen (Sr. Writer),
Alexa Mekita (Sr. Art Director)
Co-Editors:
Adam Van Dusen,
Alexa Mekita,
Sarah Bassett
Cover Artist:
Robert Beatty
Design Director:
Sarah Bassett
Magazine Design:
Gonzalo Hergueta
The adidas Originals ZX 5K BOOST is a new shoe inspired the ZX 5000 from 1989. To celebrate how much time has changed shoe design and creativity as a whole, we partnered with the iconic, now-extinct science fiction magazine, OMNI, to create a special edition issue all about the shoe. Essentially, we made a very long 121 page print ad.
ABOUT THE ISSUE Time is fascinating, bewildering, and essential to creativity. Everything gets better with it — art, culture, fashion, technology, and even the design of a shoe. Time is a mystery to us, yet we live by it.In the ZXience Issue, we celebrate time as the key to innovation, because innovation takes time. From 1978 to 1997, OMNI Magazine trans- formed science fiction into a genre. What started as a passion project turned into a platform for emerging artists, and over the years, launched the careers of some of the most influential creators in the community. We want the ZXience Issue to do the same. It was important for us to revive elements that made the original magazine iconic, paying homage to the publication’s roots in surprising, new ways. The layout, articles, ideas, themes, topics, and collaborators were all inspired by OMNI’s legendary storytelling and art. Together with the most inspiring creators on our planet, adidas Originals welcomes you into a futuristic world full of science fiction, styling, and footwear.
As you turn the pages, you’ll notice how essential time is to creativity. A fuel, almost, which causes the seconds, minutes, and hours to create change — forming layers of new context one can see only under a microscope. Every article looks at time from a different angle. Every page, another exploration of how influential an hour can be on global, creative culture. Every copy, proof that there is value in taking the time to make something right. Thank you for picking up the ZXience Issue. We hope you enjoy visiting our world as much as we enjoyed creating it.
SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR COLLABORATORS: Dylan Anderson, Liam Cobb, Sergi Delgado, Rebekka Dunlap, Ian Grandjean, Dr. Gary Greenberg, Gonzalo Hergueta, Madeline Holth, Hedvig Jenning, Miki Kim, Xavier Lalanne-Tauzia, Samira Larouci, Jiayi Li, Wren McDonald, Geray Mena, Keaton Patti, Nathan Pemberton, Laura Pohl, Kieran Press Reynolds, Dylan Da Silva, Olivier Simille, Caroline Sinders, Aleksi Tammi, Halley Wollens, Ytasha Womack