IMG Models Showpacks

Illustration

Model showpacks are an industry insider tool created by modeling agencies to promote the models on their roster. Fashion companies, casting agents and industry tastemakers receive the artful, analog-style packs, from which they select their talent to walk in the shows. Modeling agencies take showpack design and production seriously; in the competitive business of beauty, a well-executed showpack with a bold concept speaks to the strength of the agency and may tip the scales in favor of one agency’s model over another.

With more than 25 showpacks for five different top NYC agencies completed, we know that typical showpack design requires a unified theme for the season, featuring each girl individually on a 2-sided card which displays their height, dress size and eye color. And with no commercial application beyond the fashion houses and casting agents, showpacks have evolved, inviting a sense of playfulness and daring creativity in their creation.

For the spring/summer IMG showpack, we turned away from convention and created a hand-drawn coloring book of 138 pages. Scanning images of each model, we integrated elements of the photos into inventive, alluring line drawings. For a finishing touch, we hand-wrote each model’s name and measurements with (on?) their illustration for the coloring book. A total of 350 printed showpacks were bound into individual pads, slipped into canvas bags and hand-delivered to fashion houses and casting agents along with a set of colored pencils. For an inspiring digital component, we collaborated with fashion illustrator Danny Roberts to create a time-lapse video of the book being colored in. The response was overwhelming; strong enough to necessitate the creation of an online portal for finished colored-in drawings to be shared and voted upon, with a series of prizes offered to the winners.

The fall/winter IMG showpack called for a similarly artistic solution: we were inspired to integrate the models into celebrated paintings from the last six centuries of Western art. Rendering them into collages, we created intriguing images of today’s supermodels traveling back in time, interacting with and living within masterpieces of the past. The models modernize the venerable compositions, while the paintings elevate the women who become the works of art.

Edward Hopper and Ajak

François Boucher and Caitlin Lomax

Paul Gauguin and Katryn Kruger

For the outer packaging, we borrowed inspiration from the way in which paintings were shipped during those times. We wrapped each set in brown Kraft paper, tying them by hand with twine. To make the parcel appear as if it had traveled a great distance, between countries, across borders, we inscribed each pack with custom made, many-colored transit stamps. This project was at once intellectual and whimsical; we enjoyed bringing our artistic heroes from the past back to life and introducing them into a new contemporary setting, like DJs sampling sounds of the past with the beats of the day.