18 East (Merch Items)
18 EAST A TRAVEL-INSPIRED MERCH DROP THAT TURNS PATTERN AND CULTURE INTO EVERYDAY WEAR
Client
18 East
Year
2025
Duration
2 Months
role
Designer
how i work
18 East brought me on to design a merch collection for a brand built on pattern, color, and cultural reference — one where the visual language is already rich, so the risk was adding noise instead of adding value. I designed a set of pieces that could sit inside that world naturally rather than feeling like a bolt-on collab.
the challenge
Adding to a visual language without diluting it
18 East's identity leans on layered pattern and specific cultural references, which is a hard thing to design into without either flattening it into a generic "ethnic print" look or overcomplicating it past the point of wearability. The collection needed to feel like it belonged in the brand's world, not stapled onto it.
the solution
I picked one or two reference points to build around instead of trying to represent the whole brand's range in a single drop, letting a smaller set of ideas run deep rather than wide. That focus is what makes the collection feel considered — a natural extension of 18 East's world instead of a guest appearance.
