Building a Fictional Brand History

Creating a collection of vintage-inspired patches for kikki.K’s apparel and carry range.

For this collection, I designed a series of embroidered patches for kikki.K’s apparel and carry range, building a fictional history for the brand through vintage-inspired graphics, logos and insignia.

Drawing from old travel patches, sailing clubs, souvenir graphics and heritage branding, I created each patch as though it had come from a different moment in kikki.K’s imagined past. Some feel like old company logos, others like something picked up on holiday or sewn onto a well-worn jacket years ago, with small references to places, dates and stories woven throughout.

The challenge was making each patch feel convincing on its own while still working together as a collection. I developed the typography, colour, illustration and embroidered details across the range, considering how the designs would translate from artwork into physical patches and how they would sit together across jackets, knitwear and bags.

The finished collection gave the apparel and carry range a layered, collected feel, using graphic design to create a little bit of history that never actually existed.

Credits
Design & Illustration: Emily Esen
Creative Director: Lisa Gorman
Photography & Photography Art Direction:Emily McBean