Urban Explorer

Functional pieces made to bridge the concrete jungle to the wilderness

  • The Project

    My partner and I worked together to create a collection for The North Face. We decided to create the collection under their Urban Explorer line. Our industry professional was 3D Creation Lead Bethany Imperial Mazon. She would help us and give feedback on what was ideal or brand focus at The North Face.

  • Our Process

    We researched The North Face to get creative inspirations, find out who our target customers were, and what the would be ideal for the the brand.

  • Initial Selection

    We decided that our collection would be a combination of the Urban Explorer and The Purple Label sub brand. This would a Japanese inspired outdoor line with heavy influences from The Purple Label and their oversized silhouettes.

Inspiration .

The design had influences of popular gorp core trends, natural earth tones with pops of color, and solid shapes that would reflect in the oversized silhouettes. Our main goal was to develop a color pallets that could be flexible enough try different ideas out and be able to make changes if necessary.

Designs.

Functionality was the main focus of the collection. We wanted the pieces to be versatile in both urban fashion and outdoor wear. A packable vest, and reflective pant, a snow pant, essential shirt, and an oversized button down shirt that would resemble a bowling shirt. We wanted the pieces to be interchangeable in a wardrobe but also serve a purpose in the customers wardrobe.

Outcome.

The collaboration class would have a second phase to the project where we would give the a team 3 options to choose from and they would make a pattern and sew the choice out of a fabric. We would play the role as the designers and the other team the technical designers. The team did a great job getting our idea of a reflective light weight but baggy pant. Elastic waist band and leg cuffs were done extremely well along with he great construction technique.

Related Assignments

For assignment 8 we were tasked to illustrate 3 looks for the collection. I wanted the collection to be unique pieces that went with The North Face aesthetic but still brought something new to their catalogue

  • Color Blocked Jacket & Cargo short

    Here I took inspirations from The North Faces existing items and added what our selected palette could look look like. I liked red as a contrasting color and tested it out to see if it could be added. We decided against it in the end.

  • Packable Jacket & Snowpant

    The jacket was an interesting item we found on TNF, we liked the lightweight functional windbreaker option. The snow pants were altered later for the project but still had a similar silhouette.

  • Backpack Vest and Reflective Jogger

    The vest was a take on the packable options we found doing out market research. The reflective pants were fun drawing as I did not know to illustrate the reflective aspect of the pants so this was my first attempt.