Design Systems
The Opportunity
Establish a modern, unified design language that empowers and informs consumers, elevates product expression, and positions the brand for scalable, future-focused growth.
Design Intent
• Introduce a more youthful, confident, and expressive visual system
• Elevate product through modern construction and manufacturing
• Create cohesive graphic language across footwear, apparel, and accessories
• Align cross-category design reviews for holistic brand expression
• Build a focused material toolbox that communicates performance and intent
Design Direction
Vessi’s early success was driven by a clear promise: comfortable, waterproof footwear that solved a real need. That clarity attracted a highly loyal but unexpected consumer during the brand’s initial launch. Over time, this audience expanded beyond the original target, skewing older while remaining consistently engaged.
While this loyalty validated the product, the existing visual language was not built to scale across generations or inspire new consumers. To support long-term growth, Vessi required a refined design aesthetic one that preserved trust while expanding cultural relevance and appeal to a younger, broader audience.
From Origins Onward
To define where Vessi needed to go next, the design process began with a deliberate return to the brand’s origins. Reexamining the original intent where material innovation and the simple need for comfortable waterproof product intersected provided critical clarity for future direction. By identifying recurring ideas, design patterns, and functional cues from Vessi’s earliest products, a foundation emerged from which a new design language and elevated aesthetic could be purposefully built.
Setting a New Product Emotion & Visual Aesthetic
Vessi was originally built on the idea of enjoyment, the freedom to move comfortably through one’s environment, regardless of sun or rain. To bring this idea closer to the consumer and make it more immediately felt, the emotional narrative needed to be simplified, clarified, and translated directly into product.
“Playful” emerged as the defining emotional lens. Internally, this idea was well understood and expressed through language and marketing, but it was not yet fully realized in the product itself. Design, material choices, color, and construction lacked a unified connection to the emotion being communicated, creating a gap between narrative and experience.
To close that gap, a new set of aesthetic drivers was introduced. Playfulness became the starting point for inspiration and execution, not as something childlike, but as something approachable, inviting, and confident. Through considered use of color, pattern, materials, construction, and fit, the product was reimagined to create an immediate sense of engagement and desire. Less serious, more human, and unmistakably intentional playful became the emotion you feel before you ever put the product on.
Establishing the On-Product Branding System
As Vessi expanded beyond its original footwear offering into apparel and accessories, the need for a clear, scalable on-product branding system became essential. A review of past footwear, along with early explorations in new categories, revealed an opportunity to unify product expression while elevating brand presence.
Wordmark
Signifier
Vessi Blue
The "V" Logo
Four core on-product design elements were identified as the foundation for all future products: the Wordmark, the Signifier, Vessi Blue, and the “V” logo. Used in deliberate combinations never fewer than two, up to all four these elements create cohesion across categories, strengthen brand recognition, and allow the system to scale as the product portfolio grows. The goal was not repetition, but consistency with intention: elevating the brand for existing consumers while increasing visibility and relevance with new ones.
The Four On-Product Brand Elements
The Wordmark
With the introduction of the updated Vessi wordmark, its role evolved from a subtle, discoverable detail into a confident graphic expression. The wordmark was intentionally elevated to function as a bold on-product element reintroducing the brand with clarity and modernity while signaling a new chapter to both loyal and prospective consumers.
The Signifier
The scalene triangle placed on the lateral side of footwear since the original Kickstarter launch remains the most recognizable and trusted visual cue within the product line. As the brand evolved, focus shifted to scaling this element through thoughtful consideration of color, placement, and application. Its role is to reinforce familiarity while enhancing immediate product recognition.
Vessi Blue
Coinciding with the new wordmark, Vessi Blue was refined to a new hue while maintaining its core purpose: a clear and ownable visual identifier. This color functions as a constant across product and brand communication, reinforcing recognition and continuity at every consumer touchpoint.
The "V" Logo
The introduction of the “V” logo completed the on-product branding system. Designed for small, intentional application, the mark adds a subtle but powerful layer of recognition. Its restraint allows it to scale across categories while supporting consistency, familiarity, and long-term brand equity.
The Fifth Design Element — The Mountain Wave
Embedded within existing footwear as both a structural and aesthetic detail, the Mountain Wave evolved into the fifth and final on-product design element. Originally used to break up lateral paneling, it was elevated from a construction solution into a purposeful design language component.
The Mountain Wave functions as an internal design code rather than a consumer-facing brand mark. It grounds current and future products through a subtle, consistent visual rhythm creating continuity without overt branding. Rooted in Vancouver’s geography, the form references the city’s unique transition from sea level to mountain elevation, translating landscape into product language.
Fluid in expression yet systematic in use, the Mountain Wave can shift in frequency and scale to communicate movement, speed, and performance allowing it to adapt across categories while reinforcing purpose, function, and identity.
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