Over the last few years, I have catapulted myself into the Digital world of design. At Ariat, we as a creative team are working on four to six emails a week per designer. We have a healthy mix of our four channels to work with, which keeps us on our toes with the varying design aesthetics needed for each channel persona.
With the advent of COVID, we also started branching into our cross-channel categories more, giving us even more new creative approaches to try out.
Women’s Western Fashion is one of Ariat’s core categories. With Western Fashion being on-trend lately, finding our footing as one of the leaders in the category has been a fun challenge.
The English equestrian (and lifestyle) aspect of Ariat also allows a more refined touch with design. Recently we have added technology as an emphasis to show the advanced benefits of our English apparel and footwear.
Ariat’s Work Channel is our biggest up and coming line of footwear and apparel. It’s exploding into the market, and I have had a lot of fun designing more masculine-styled pieces while working within this channel.
With the advent of COVID, we leaned heavily into promoting our cross channel products. One of our most versatile product-line is denim, leading to some great creativity to help promote these previously more humble but great products.
Two24 is Ariat’s high-end fashion footwear line. I love working on this sub-brand because it allows a more creative aesthetic than some of our other channels within the master brand of Ariat.
Integrated campaigns have doubled in volume over the last year. I really enjoy working on these campaigns since they tend to touch on all aspects of design. Each campaign has a mix of print, in-store, digital, email, and social assets being requested.
In order to keep up with the demands of the growing number of campaigns, our brand photography needs have exploded. With that, I have been able to grow my skills with Art Direction during our brand in-studio, and on-location photoshoots.
In collaboration with my creative director, I designed Ariat’s first DTC catalog, featuring their Fall 2019 English Country product line. I art directed the product laydowns used, as well as designed the layout of the catalog. Overseeing the press-check process, I went onsite for an in-person sign-off, finalizing and completing an expedited project usually taking 2-3 months in only 5 weeks.
Ariat is an apparel and footwear company, founded initially with the equestrian rider in mind. Over the years they have grown and expanded into Fashion and Workwear. I was tasked with establishing cohesive branding signage at Ariat’s Brand Shops. With this project, I improved the approachability and professionalism of the signage, creating an adaptable system that the team can continue to work with and expand as needed.
Over the years I’ve had the chance to work on several letterpress jobs (both for clients and for fun). All of these examples were printed at Third Bay Letterpress, which is run by my family in the North Bay.
Packaging is one of my favorite aspects of design. I love being able to conceptualize the whole package, not just the labels involved. It’s a part of design I hope to pursue. Here is a set of both real products I have worked on, as well as school concepts that I still love.
A few years after designing this sheep farm’s logo, they asked me to help design the packaging system for their new creamery portion of their farm operation. They were looking for a design that would capture their artisanal craft and yet be refined enough to hold up in stores.
By splitting up their old logo into two pieces and adding “creamery” to the logotype, I was able to work within the long, narrow, printable space on the bottle. They wanted the main focus to be 100% sheep's milk, which is rare in the U.S. market. Most creameries that claim to produce sheep's milk water it down with other milk.
I am happy to say they are now selling their products in many smaller local grocery stores, as well as Whole Foods.
The first project in Packaging 2 was to either redesign a water bottle company's packaging or create our own brand. Palette cleansing water is a product that is starting to gain some presence in the market, so with that in mind I created a brand that is designed to be used between whisky tastings.
Slàinte was created to market palette cleansing water, as well as having two flavor choices to either drink alone, or add to your whisky for a different experience. The packaging was designed to appeal to women, in order to bring them more into the market. The carrying containers for the multi-packs were designed to have a second use in the garden.
Our second project for Packaging 3 was either to redesign an existing board game or create our own. I decided to create my own based on aspects of LIFE and Monopoly. In the game you build your own home with elements drawn from cards and roll the dice to move around the board.
Due to this game's concept of building your dream home I wanted to have the look and feel of a house blueprint. The trick was making it look playful enough that kids would be as interested in playing as their parents. The board is printed on vinyl so it can be rolled up to require less space in the box and yet still mimic a blueprint!
This project’s premise was, Aero is Target's new line of stores with an upscale look and feel competing with Williams-Sonoma or Crate & Barrel. For this group collaboration project, we had to create branding that could be used across all store departments. Two classmates Cindy Cruz and Phuong Nguyen joined me in this endeavor.
In this system, we created over 80 items to flush out our concept. Our group went for a look that carried the Target origins but looked different enough not to be associated with it at first glance.
To distinguish itself further Aero developed a higher-end line called Pantry to showcase more organic homegrown items. The items featured in this line are mainly products you would find in your home pantry, thus where we got the name. Furthering the idea of homegrown for this line, we designed the line to have a retro feel, but still have roots in a more modern setting.
In order to show how committed Aero is to showcasing craftsman goods, the Prep line was developed to have a line of local chefs products. Each Aero store would have local chefs featured within this line.
Since we were working on the flagship store located in San Francisco, we designed three different lines of wares from three different chefs. This is one of them designed after the celebrity chef Morimoto who is well known in the Bay Area.
Our final private label for the Aero store was a luxury men's line. Its goal was to bring modern class to the look and feel of old-time gentlemen's clubs. By going with clean and crisp typography, paired with silver and black, we were able to modernize the look of men's skincare.
In my time at Ariat, I have designed for each brand shop grand opening, as well as trade shows and events.
I worked on all the opening graphics and promo pieces when Ariat opened it’s second Outlet in Sunrise, Florida.
For several years Ariat has had a booth at the annual Land Rover Three-Day Event for English Equestrians. This last year I worked on the fixture graphics for the event utilizing our photography and mostly typography driven designs.
The Seven Peaks Booth Ariat had was one of our more innovative concepts, utilizing a vendor who does collapsible shipping containers. I worked on the exterior and interior graphics for this event.
Freelance jobs have allowed me to explore my more illustrative side, developing custom motifs, patterns, and illustrations for various applications.
Custom motif design, foil & letterpress printing.
Gift Card design to match their pre-established logo and identity system.
