COLUMBIA SPORTSWEAR
At Columbia Sportswear, I lead design across Sustainability, Yarn Dye, Print, and Production, developing new materials to drive sales across Performance Fishing (M/W), Sportswear (M/W), and Outerwear (M/W) for two seasons/year. This project captures my design process for the Performance Fishing Women's category.
OBJECTIVES
VISIONING
The Performance Fishing Gear (PFG) category is one of my favorite. I choose to live on the Oregon Coast, and this environment constantly inspires me to create art that can be commercialized on apparel. The goal is to accurately reflect a fisher's experience and awe in print, color, and yarn dyes.
PFG has ten deliveries per year divided into two seasons, spring and fall. It is a global category with a strong following in the SE United States. The aesthetic is on shore, near shore, and on the water and the apparel function and fabrics reflect this. It is my job to align these aspects for surface design for women.
PROCESS
INSPIRATION | RESEARCH
Coastal hikes, boating, crabbing, and clamming bring much inspiration to this category. In addition, I volunteer with coastal conservation organizations that better help me understand these diverse ecosystems. Every six months, an organism intrigues my curiosity, and I research texts and interview area experts to learn about its structure, life cycle, and ecosystem attributes. Then I start to sketch...
PRINTS
The sketching provides a foundation for how I see this organism. I build on these drawings, adding adjacent elements. The illustrations are digitized and then assembled into a composition. The composition undergoes many iterations until it is ready to share with product line managers.
YARN DYES
Classic ginghams, sail stripes, seersuckers, and colorful madras dominate the PFG landscape for shirts, dresses, and shorts. Yarn dyes complement the assortment of solids and prints in each collection. It is my job to achieve consumer solutions and newness with intense guardrails.
The images below reflect prints and yarn dyes from three seasons. This work continues as it is ongoing and is my full-time employment.
OUTCOME
