Virginia Herschend | Graphic Design

Project Statement | KICKER

View Portfolio

The ski apparel industry is vastly overcomplicated. It is inundated with a multitude of options, opinions, technologies, and gear promising to make your skiing experience better than ever. KICKER does more than promise— they deliver. KICKER is a new kind of ski brand, aiming to provide limited, quality products for the technical skier, built to last for generations. Based in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, KICKER is deeply committed to providing excellence over abundance in a world of mass consumption. They pride themselves on five brand pillars: sustainability, versatility, mountain-tough, keep it simple, and generosity. These values both define their past and direct their future— without them, KICKER ceases to bring anything of true or lasting significance to the table. 

In creating this brand, I aimed to make a contemporary and dynamic system that felt exciting and fresh to the skiing scene. My approach began with defining KICKER's brand voice as bold and challenging, dynamic and informal— addressing the consumer head-on, no beating around the bush. This voice is evident in the company’s tagline, “Kick it up a notch.” Paired with the primary typeface Brother 1816, a minimalist, approachable, and legible text, the voice and message of KICKER are clearly communicated to its target audience. KICKER markets to skiers everywhere, from the young woman in her twenties who skis on her off days, to the seventy-year-old retiree teaching ski lessons. KICKER is for everybody tired of being thrown eighty different options for jackets and ski pants, constantly being told they need something different. They provide a small number of quality items, that cover all the bases of what outerwear should be. 

With an iconography set displaying all the main products KICKER offers, the brand’s sharp style translates throughout every component of its design. The main brand element is a stylized mountain range, both filled and highlighted with dashed lines. This identifier shows up throughout their photography and website to add both cohesion and recognition to the branding system.