Casual Conversations in Extreme Situations

The North Face is iconic, fashionable, and functional. Even though their gear is designed for extreme situations and gnarly expeditions, you don’t have to be extreme, or particularly special, to wear it — it's extreme for however extreme you are.

We used intense, outdoor expedition imagery paired with big, bold, casual headlines to show that you don't have to be qualified to wear the brand. The gear is so good that even in the most extreme situations, you'll feel like you're having a conversation around the water cooler at work or talking to your friend on the couch at home.

Spec campaign
art director: Brenden Erickson
Copywriter: Zac Wind
Zac's website

Comfort = Control

Having an offhand conversation when you're a few wrong steps from death suggests that you feel like you're in control of the situation around you. Drawing that parallel was the key to creating the visuals of this campaign. How do you show control in the design and layout of each iteration? Frame the photo. Obey the grid.

This made the design process simple:

1. Find a badass outdoor photo
2. Frame it in a basic grid
3. Pull a line to connect the quote/headline
4. Fill the rest of the frame with the tagline and logo