Skills

Branding, Layout, Typography, Illustration, Print Design

Tools Used

Illustrator, Procreate, Photoshop

BROOKS TRAIL RUNNING

I have been owning Brooks Trail graphics for many seasons and each season is more fun, compelling and challenging than the last. The trail business for Brooks is a new landscape and this allows us to push the envelope in our graphic offering. Over the past seasons we have developed a core trail graphic aesthetic that is true to the Brooks playfulness but also adds a more modern, technical element.

Throughout the seasons one can observe the Brook’s brand in the pun fun, the whimsey but also a dedication to gorgeous layouts, fine line work and an exploration of tactically in how the graphics looks and feel on body.

MRA

MRA stands for Merchandising Runner Assortments. The MRA space allows Brooks to lean into its jovial, fun loving, whimsical side and to offer product for those who want to have fun on the run and express themselves.

They are a delightful graphic playground for expression, fun one offs, and fresh graphic takes. MRA’s are typically driven by a Holiday and usually live alongside a unique Footwear design. Some of our tried and true MRA events include “Trot Happy” (Thanksgiving), “Run Merry” (December Holidays), “Run Lucky” (Saint Patricks Day), and “Run USA” (4th of July). We also create product for Footwear driven campaigns, for instance “Run Wild” which lives alongside a special animal print shoe. Sometimes it is a purely one-off event such as “Bowl O’ Brooks” our Cereal MRA. These briefs that land on our desk are always diverse and serve as an opportunity to strategize how to nail the prompt, create commercial and well-loved product and have fun in the process.

You can find a deep dive into process for some of these MRA’s here.

EVENTS

Events are a great opportunity for collaboration with the event coordinators and also to get very intimate with the city of the event. I’ve spent many hours gazing at the bridges of Pittsburgh or researching which cactuses are native to the Houston area (spoiler alert: barrel cactuses, not Saguaro). The graphics for these events span from very small- just two to three tops, to quite large collections in the case of Houston with 43 separate SKUs. It is always a fun challenge to create and organize the assortment and to hone in on a cohesive color pallet and cohesive (but not too similar) graphic style that ties the collection together.