One of the most anticipated chats of HYPEFEST, jeffstaple sat down with a host of the industry’s most in-demand creatives to break down the science of collaborations. Matthew M. Williams of ALYX, Errolson Hugh from ACRONYM, Hiroshi Fujiwara of fragment design, John Elliott and Nigel Sylvester all took part in the sprawling, hour-long discourse.
Topics ranged from Elliott underlining the storytelling aspect of collaboration, while Fujiwara discussed the birth of his HTM line with Nike. In fact, all of the participants have collaborated with Nike, resulting in a series of references to their individual time spent with the Swoosh.
Later, Hugh broke down what makes a good collaboration, describing it as “Two people, who are good at doing what they do, [make] some new thing that they couldn’t do without each other.” By the end, the panelists agree that there are too many collaborations in the industry, perhaps even too much product. “I think it’s our job to create product that really means something,” said Williams. “It kinda should deserve to be in existence and collaborations should check that same box.”