Bouldering Brand Identity & Apparel System
Role
Brand Identity, Creative Direction, Illustration, Product and Packaging Design, Photography Art Direction, Visual Concept Development
Problm Outdoor is a conceptual brand created for the bouldering community, exploring how climbing culture could be expressed through a distinctly countercultural outdoor identity. The project reimagines climbing apparel and gear through the lens of grit, rebellion, and the self-defined ethos of the dirtbag lifestyle.
The brand draws from skate and underground youth culture rather than traditional outdoor aesthetics. Inspired by the raw energy of climbing gyms, urban bouldering spaces, and independent climbing communities, the identity positions climbing as an act of resistance and personal challenge. The name references both rebellion and the climbing term “problem,” framing each ascent as confrontation, persistence, and self-expression.
The primary mark transforms a mountain silhouette into stacked boulders that subtly form a scowling face, reinforcing focus, tension, and defiance. A monochromatic visual system centers on blackout apparel marked only by the icon’s watchful eyes, creating immediate recognition and tribal belonging.
Supporting graphics use graffiti-inspired illustration and layered environmental motifs applied across apparel, crash pads, and brand environments. Flash photography, fisheye perspectives, and raw urban textures establish a visceral visual language that contrasts sharply with polished outdoor branding conventions.
Problm Outdoor explores how brand identity can translate subculture into a cohesive system, creating a visual language that signals belonging, attitude, and shared experience within a community built around challenge.
