Apparel & Product Design
Toad&Co | 2018 | Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, WebPLM
Outdoor apparel is where aesthetics and engineering are inseparable. A garment has to perform under real conditions — in weather, in motion, over distance — while reflecting the brand identity of the organization behind it. I spent over a decade at that intersection, designing performance apparel for Marmot, Columbia, REI, and Toad&Co.
My work spanned the full process — trend research, material sourcing, and technical documentation precise enough for factories in Taiwan and Vietnam to build from without ambiguity. That decade of translating design intent across cultures, disciplines, and manufacturing contexts is the foundation everything else I do is built on.
Stretch Hemp Dress
Stretch Hemp Jumpsuit
Quilted Hemp Jacket
BONUS!
Brooks Running | 2019 | Illustrator
Brooks Running invited me to design a capsule activewear collection as part of their interview process. I treated it like a real brief. The project opens with a full mood board and color palette, moves through market research and competitive landscape analysis, identifies category opportunities and product must-haves, and resolves into a designed capsule line — complete with fabric selection, material callouts, and fashion figure illustrations.
Research led every decision. The aesthetic followed the function.
BONUS-BONUS!
REI | 2014-2016 | Design Research + Illustrator
The Big Haul Duffel program grew out of a larger strategic shift at REI — toward a travel-centered private label identity informed by field research. I was embedded in that research process, traveling with product, conducting user interviews, and gathering quantitative and qualitative data alongside REI's design research team. What I learned in the field shaped what I designed at the desk. Gear design has its own language — load distribution, material performance, hardware systems, carry ergonomics — and I learned it by going deep into how the product actually gets used, by whom, and under what conditions. The result was a program built on observed human behavior translated into designed form.
