Illustration
Naked & Famous Denim
Pocket flasher artwork, characters and campaigns for a Canadian maker of Japanese selvedge denim.
- Role
- Designer & Illustrator
- Studio
- Naked & Famous Denim, Tate + Yoko
- Year
- 2018
- Tools
- Adobe Illustrator
Adobe Photoshop
The challenge
Naked & Famous Denim makes authentic Japanese selvedge denim, and every new release gets its own pocket flasher artwork, a signature part of the brand. Over more than two years, I created these artworks along with hangtags, embroideries, leather belt illustrations and digital campaigns.
The approach
Pocket flashers
Starting from one or two inspiration images, I combined illustration, colour, texture and type into two or three rough options for the company’s co-founder, Bahzad, then refined the chosen direction. For licensed collaborations with Ghostbusters, Street Fighter II and Dragon Ball Z, I worked with each brand’s representatives to respect their guidelines. I then prepared files for special printing on leather, fabric, holographic foil and lenticular stock.
Character design
For the brand’s online shop, Tate + Yoko, I created Super Guy, a friendly, slightly goofy mascot inspired by an old Japanese comic from the office. To give him a vintage feel, I used loud colours and left some edges uncoloured to mimic misaligned offset printing.
Digital campaigns
I designed visuals for new releases, specials and new fits, adapting Super Guy’s pose to each layout (sometimes with colleagues posing for reference photos). These ran as website pop-ups, email newsletters and social posts.
The outcome
My artwork shipped on a long run of denim releases, including officially licensed collaborations, and Super Guy became a recurring face of the brand’s campaigns.
Pocket flasher artwork is central to Naked & Famous Denim’s branding: every denim gets its own design.
The inspiration (left) and final result
Vector outlines, progress and final result
Illustrations for hangtags
Super Guy, a character designed for campaigns
