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The North Face x Brain Dead

Applying the Design Thinking process and ideation techniques to a marketing campaign to develop a unique digital experience showcasing the collaborations product collection.



Background

This project was a collaborative product collection between The North Face and the LA based streetwear brand Brain Dead titled An Expedition of the Mind.

This unlikely paring targets a fashion focused consumer by leveraging fans of both brands, relying on Brain Dead’s credibility as a streetwear brand and The North Face’s iconic status in the outdoors.

Psychedelic graphics and enhanced color elements bring unexpected detail to classic icons from The North Face.


Role

My role as the project lead for the digital experience included defining project goals and deliverables, running ideation sessions, leading design direction and managing a team to execute the work.


Process

I chose to utilize the Design Thinking process to first understand and define the problem, then to ideate on concepts in order to produce an uncommon solution that would match the spirit of the collection.

Design Thinking process


Empathize & Define

I began by interviewing stakeholders and working with Customer Insights to define our audience. The target was 18-35, lived in an urban environment, well versed in technology with a social interest in the outdoors.

The goal was to create an experience highlighting the collection that brings this consumer to the site, prioritizing impressions, page views and social sharing as metrics.


Ideation

The concept for the digital experience was born out of multiple ideation sessions run with various teams across several departments. 

Setting a time limit for each, I led participants through various exercises where we discussed ideas and dot voted on the best solutions. The following are a few of the techniques we used.

As the facilitator I ran these sessions and collected their output, narrowing the ideas down to a focused concept to achieve the defined goals of the project.


Prototyping

Once the ideation was completed the project moved toward a more traditional agile approach of working. Working with another designer we took the concepts from ideation workshop and built out a content map, wireframes and user flows that we could take to the development team for evaluation and create content against.

Due to its technical concept the project required a close partnership with the development team early on. I oversaw the creation and execution of the creative assets, digital strategy and creation of the experience working with the product team, social team, events team, merchandising and PR to ensure a coordinated role out of the brand’s most eminent collection of 2019.

Starting with sketches and analog prototypes.


Experience

Conceived as a journey inside the mind of the explorer on a quest to achieve higher knowledge. Part look-book, part shopping site the experience utilized story telling and interactivity to engage users and showcase the collection.

The final output was an immersive microsite experience comprised of 3 chapters. Each chapter featured a short video skit of Kyle Ng, Brain Dead’s founder, and Ashima Shiraishi, brand athlete, highlighting several products within the collection.





The experience tells a progressive story of two climbers moving through a fantastical landscape of mountains and art on a journey toward enlightenment. By presenting this collection in a surreal alpine environment the campaign nodded to The North Face’s roots in the mountains while targeting the contemporary, fashion focused consumer.

The journey ends at the top of the mountain, having achieved enlightenment and provides a gateway to the full collection on thenorthface.com.




Testing

Remote unmoderated user testing was conducted using prototypes to refine interactions, navigation and language. Early feedback uncovered difficulty gauging progress through the experience and content heavy sections that served as roadblocks to moving forward. Iterations looked closely at providing clear navigation to users and paired down copy to support the page.


Digital Campaign

The collection release was teased out prior to launch through social posts and paid media. This culminated with a release party at Dover Street Market in Los Angeles covered by a number of fashion media outlets such as Hypebeast and Highsnobiety, raising awareness along with a detailed social plan across all of The North Face’s accounts all of which served to drive to the experience.




Outcomes

The collaboration and its digital experience generated a 44% increase in weekly social impressions and a 65% increase in site traffic while its success led to a second and third collection released in 2020 and 2021 respectively.