A Runway on LaSalle Street
Kelsey Laurel Creative Studio
A Runway on LaSalle Street: Concept Renderings for Chicago Fashion Vanguard
Client: The Curio, for Chicago Fashion Vanguard
Year: 2026
Role: Renderings and creative direction
Deliverables: Two rendered angles in multiple colorways, poster layouts, in-use mockups and a 10-page presentation
Status: Proposed
The Brief
The Curio brought me in to render a runway show staged on LaSalle Street, for Chicago Fashion Vanguard to use in selling the idea to sponsors and the city. The images had to read as a real night on a real street, and the brief was specific:
The full Chicago Fashion Vanguard wordmark, never the initials
A runway raised about 12 inches, with risers on either side and no steps at the end
Photographers on an elevated press riser
Branded banners
A high-impact finale with a range of models in high-end ready-to-wear
Every bit of scaffolding and street clutter gone
Early blocking drafts, testing layouts before any further detailing.
Process
Before any detail, I tested which image model suited the brief, then blocked the scene in rough drafts: runway, seating, audience and press, in several layouts. With a backdrop or without, a wood runway or a black one, photographers in front or not. That gave the client real choices early, before anything was polished. From there I worked through their written feedback round by round: backdrop, runway color, lighting rigs, audience density and where the press riser should sit.
The Set
Two angles. The straight-on view looks down the corridor to the Board of Trade. The bird’s-eye wasn’t in the brief. I added it because the straight-on couldn’t show the scale of the crowd. Each angle came in several colorways, with the looks chosen to stand out against a busy street and a black runway. I finished the set with poster layouts, using type and language from Chicago Fashion Vanguard’s own site and press, and mockups of the work in use.
The straight-on view, looking down LaSalle to the Board of Trade.
The bird’s-eye, added to show the scale of the crowd.
The straight-on, finished as a poster in the navy colorway.
In Use
To help the client picture the campaign as well as the night itself, I placed the poster layouts where people would actually see them: full-page magazine ads, and a transit poster like the one at the top of this page. One of the magazine mockups made it into the final proposal too, on its contact page.
In use, as an editorial spread.
The bird’s-eye as a train stop ad.
The Results
The renderings went from The Curio to Chicago Fashion Vanguard’s leadership, its production partner and city partners, highlighted in the event’s proposal to the city.
Renderings and creative direction by Kelsey Laurel Creative Studio.
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Posted Oct 14, 2026
Photoreal renderings of a runway show on LaSalle Street. The straight-on view became the hero image of Chicago Fashion Vanguard’s proposal to the city.
