DEAD MEN WALK

DEAD MEN WALK Skate Brand
Art Direction

Year
2023—Present

Programs
Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects, Premiere Pro

Skills
Art Direction, Brand Identity, Illustration, Animation, Physical Asset Creation, Photography, Videography, Photo Editing, Video Editing, Event Planning, Web Design, Social Media, E-Commerce

DEAD MEN WALK is a small clothing brand I created that represents skate culture and counter-culture aesthetics. This is an ongoing project that encompasses creating clothing designs (and other products), making promotional materials such as skate edits, poster advertisements, and catalogs for each drop, and actively selling products on my other website: shmakity.com.

With each drop that is released, a rollout for the drop is also planned and created. Each rollout includes illustrated designs, a preplanned photoshoot and video edit shot with test products, photo edits, a catalog, a catalog video edit, reels versions of each of the edits for Instagram, teaser reels, a social media calendar for scheduling posts, and updating the website for selling all of the products and managing sales and prices.

Aside from the creative aspect of the brand, I want the brand to be a way for talented artists to showcase their work in both art collaborations and musical artists. I hope to unify different types of artists, skaters, BMXers, photographers, video editors, designers, influencers/models, and other local brands and creators throughout the Milwaukee area with this brand.

Problem: I decided I wanted to make a small clothing brand that focused on counterculture and skate culture aesthetics. I assigned myself the task of creating enough designs for a clothing drop that were primarily illustrative in design while simultaneously catering to skaters and people of other counterculture hobbies like BMXers, rappers, metal and punk bands, graffiti artists, experimental visual artists and animators, etc.

Solution: I began by illustrating many different concepts and restricting myself to roughly fifteen designs for the first drop. I ordered test prints of a few designs and planned various ways to promote the brand and express the attitude that the brand represented. I then recorded my brother and his friends (who are all skaters) and created a skate edit to promote the brand in various ways. I also took photos to edit for social media, made teaser reels that showcased various designs, made catalogs that showcased all of the items of the drop and proceeded by making video edits that expressed the attitude of the brand and the products with carefully curated rap and metal songs that enhanced the brand’s attitude. As a result, I had a decent amount of orders between the first and second drop with many of the products being equally popular. I also currently sell some shirts in Transaction Skate Shop in West Allis, WI. As the development of this brand continues, I have been coming up with bigger ideas to promote the brand and I hope to collaborate with more talented artists and figures for promotional content and designs very soon.

DEAD MEN WALK PHOTOSHOOTS