The name MYNNO is a play on "minnow" because when you go out into the wild you feel like a minnow in the ocean. The logo design is an abstraction of a fish.
what
Brand design for MYNNO, a company dedicated to creating badass outdoor clothing for women
when
2016
why build it
I came up with the idea for MYNNO after being frustrated that the top-of-the-line climbing shoes I wanted to purchase only came in pink. This made me start noticing that everywhere ― from Patagonia to Prana ― women's outdoor clothing was predominately made in stereotypically feminine colors. It was as if the designers had taken the men's clothing, shrunk it, made it pink and considered their job done. So I started working on concepts for a new brand, MYNNO, that would be dedicated to designing serious outdoor clothing for women that looked badass instead of cutesy.
I realized the community around the brand was just as important as the clothing itself. So, I also worked on a design for an accompanying website centered around sharing women's stories and tips on outdoor gear.
brand research
I did a lot of research on dye sublimation printing (i.e. how to print photorealistic images on synthetic materials) including visiting a local print shop. I think future clothing is going to be able to be more personalized using this technique since it is possible to do small batches.
I also looked into the outdoor market itself. Outdoor recreation product sales are about $120.7 billion a year and are growing year over year (outdoorindustry.org). Total direct sales from outdoor recreation is about $646 billion a year, more than either pharmaceuticals or motor vehicles (outdoorindustry.org). There is also a growing trend in "athleisure" (i.e. athletic leisure clothing) as evidenced by the rise of brands like Lulu Lemon, Alo Yoga, and Outdoor Voices. In general, people want to be more active but don't want to have to change clothes during the day.
Finally, I did research on existing small brands. I found ones using dye sublimation (Teeki, RageOn), ones succeeding in niche markets (TomboyX), ones that combined a brand and a community (Glossier), and ones going for the "cool camper" vibe (Cotopaxi, Kavu, Alite, Topo Designs). I learned a lot from each of these brands' stories but never found one that fulfilled the MYNNO woman's need for both looking awesome and being able to withstand the outdoors.
Since the brand is named after a fish, it seemed natural to have a hat with a shark going for the fish :) The bottom right shirt includes a carabiner, an essential part of climbing and a great graphic.
One item I've had a difficult time finding is a well-designed pair of women's climbing pants. Climbing pants are fairly complex because they need to be durable enough to hold up against rough rock, allow for a wide range of motion (especially in the knees), have places to put things like chapstick where you won't worry about it falling out of your pocket and down (potentially) hundreds of feet, and still look good on the wearer.
Light weight, quick-dry long sleeve shirts are useful almost anywhere. Since backpacking requires taking as few items as possible, I thought it would be great to make them reversible so you get two looks in one shirt.
Stage 1: Tissue paper pattern
Stage 2: "First draft" using scraps
Stage 3: Final prototype using real material
The "Coming Soon" landing page for the community website devoted to sharing women's outdoor stories; I took this photo in the Napa Valley.