While the printable templates are fun for some unplugged creativity, I have converted the lace-up model into digital form for Keynote, Google Slides, and PowerPoint. Because Keynote is just so stinking rad, there is a ton more functionality because you can fill shapes with images or mask images with precision as shoe parts. PowerPoint has its own cool abilities like filling with images and adding textures. The slides version will let you click on a part and then customize your colors. Users on all platforms can then do further customization by applying graphics with transparent backgrounds on different parts.
The process started by uploading a digital image of a coloring template into Keynote and then I edited shapes (Right click a shape. Select "Make Editable".) to match each part. It's a pretty easy process to master with some practice. Just turn down the opacity so you can see the image you are copying.
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| The forefoot section, as are all parts of this shoe, is really a shape made in Keynote. |
Once I was able to create each part of the shoe, then the real fun started. I was able to simply color some parts and mask other parts with images. One of my all-time favorite photographers is Clark Little, a Hawaiian surfer who braves the shorebreak of the fabled North Shore to create incredible images. Right up there with my love for Clark's work is my love for Vans themselves. So, I imagined the perfect art vs. fashion collaboration and mocked up my own dream set of Clark Little Vans. I then took one more step and put to use the new export as "animated gif" feature and created an image to show them all off.
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| .Gif created in Keynote with new export feature . |
So what kind of cool "custom culture" will you or your students create with the templates?
Keynote Deck
Google Slides Deck
PowerPoint Deck
