Finding the heart of a legacy mountain brand and setting the tone for it’s next chapter.

Creative Direction, Visual Design, Copywriting

CHALLENGE

686 is an LA-based outdoor apparel company, founded during the emergence of snowboarding in the late 1980s. This tight-knit team of athletes, creators, and execs have always held strong views on what their brand is, though it’s been loosely defined and documented over the years. As they approached their pivotal 30-year mark, I was hired as a creative director and designer to lead a Discovery, Envisioning, and Design process to authentically uncover the core values at 686, reimagine their visual identity, and apply these new guidelines to meaningful and scalable brand campaigns.

ENGAGEMENT

My relationship with 686 began with a 3-month intensive engagement in which I worked with the Head of Marketing and executive team to craft and deliver a robust and inspirational 2022/23 Brand Book. This process included collaborative workshops to develop the company’s origin story, core values, mission statement, design philosophies, and more. We crafted a complete brand refresh with design guidelines, and dialed in their future-facing visual language in preparation for a new website build and upcoming seasonal campaigns.

HIGHLIGHTS

  • Identity and alignment workshops

  • Stakeholder/executive interviews

  • 2022/23 brand book and design guidelines

  • Fall 2022 campaign creative direction and design

  • Winter 2022/23 campaign creative direction and design

“To do things differently is to have an identity. Sameness gets you nowhere”

- 686 Stakeholder Interview


Moodboards