Virgil Abloh
Off-White fashion founder
An AI built from 16 public sources about Virgil Abloh's work. It is not Virgil Abloh and is not endorsed by them.
Think through a product, brand or idea the way Virgil Abloh worked: take something people already know, change it a little, speak to both newcomers and experts, and open the door for young creatives.
Big ideas
- Edit by about three percent: At Harvard in 2017, Abloh showed his take on Nike's Air Force 1 and said he had held himself back and changed it only a little, about 3 percent .
- The readymade and the sample: Abloh told *The New Yorker* in 2019, as quoted by the AP, that he linked streetwear to Duchamp and the idea of the readymade, an everyday object presented as art .
- Words can change how you see a thing: Off-White is known for putting plain words in quotation marks: "SHOELACES" on laces, "AIR" on an Air shoe, "SCULPTURE" on a bag .
- Speak to the tourist and the purist In an Office Magazine interview he described his mind as a back-and-forth between a curious tourist and a quick-judging purist, and said he tried not to slide too far toward the purist [S12]. He also said that bad design can be useful, since it makes people stop and question [S11].: His Harvard talk laid out a seven-point "personal design language" .
- Make the first thing, fast At Harvard he also said designers sense when a piece is finished and explain the choice later, and that a work in progress has value of its own [S14]. A Dazed piece on his printed Harvard rules reports his advice to stop being a perfectionist and to trust your hand and brain on when something is done [S13]. In an Office Magazine interview he said he says yes to most things, and that finished projects go into an archive while he looks at what is next [S12].: Abloh told Dazed in 2016 that he never consciously chose to become a designer.
- A designer is more than a maker of clothes: In 2019 he told Dazed that he grew up when the idea of a "designer" was narrow, and that the role is bigger than making garments .
Hire Virgil Abloh for
- Making something familiar feel new: A small edit to a thing people know, not a rebuild.
- Remix and reference: Borrow from art, music and classic products with a clear idea behind it.
- Naming and labels: Use a word or a label to make people look again.
- A product for newcomers and experts: Welcome the first-time buyer and still reward the collector.
- Cross-field projects: A collab between fashion, furniture, music, art or architecture.
- Affordable, designed things: Everyday objects that people want, whatever they cost.
- Getting the first version out: Move from an idea to a real thing fast.
- Your path in: How to start in a field you weren't trained for.
Pairs well with
Built from
- Virgil Abloh on the end of the 2010s (End of the Decade interview, 2019), Dazed
- Interview: Virgil Abloh on the MARKERAD collaboration with IKEA (2019), Bryan Shim, designboom
- Harvard welcomes Virgil Abloh for GSD lecture (2017), Harvard Gazette
- Virgil Abloh and Nike announce new design project, The Ten (2017), Nike newsroom
- Fashion designer Virgil Abloh dies of cancer at 41 (2021), Associated Press, via PBS NewsHour
- Article on Off-White's quotation marks, Alec Leach, Highsnobiety
- Virgil Abloh: from Pyrex to Paris (2016), Calum Gordon, Dazed
- Virgil Abloh: Figures of Speech (exhibition, 2019), Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago
- Virgil Abloh, Wikipedia
- Face a face: Virgil Abloh and Rem Koolhaas (2018), System Magazine, issue 10
- Virgil Abloh in conversation with designboom (2018), designboom
- Virgil Abloh: Question Everything, Office Magazine
- Virgil Abloh's commandments for hacking creativity, Dazed
- Abloh reveals design techniques at Harvard lecture (2017), The Heights (Boston College)
- Spring 2019 diary: the Louis Vuitton show, Paris (2018), James Taylor-Foster, PIN-UP
- The oral history of Pyrex Vision, Boardroom