katmai collection

 Inspiration

Katmai National Park & Preserve

King Salmon, AK

For this project, I drew inspiration from Katmai National Park. The park and preserve encompass 4,093,077 acres on the Southern Alaskan Peninsula, and most of the land is a designated wilderness area. The present national park and preserve were established in 1980 under the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act.

The park supports 29 mammal species, 137 bird species, 24 freshwater fish species and four anadromous fish species. The most important fish in the park are sockeye salmon, which feed bears, bald eagles and others during their spawning runs in the park's rivers. Katmai also contains the world's largest protected brown bear population, estimated to number about 2,200. More bears than people are estimated to live on the Alaska Peninsula.

Katmai also includes as many as 18 individual volcanoes, seven of which have been active since 1900. The other volcanoes have erupted in recent times in geological terms, but not in historical times. The most significant volcanic event was the simultaneous eruption of Mount Katmai and Novarupta in June 1912. Novarupta's eruption produced a pyroclastic flow that covered a nearby valley with ash as much as 300 feet thick. Simultaneously, the summit of Katmai collapsed into a caldera. As the valley deposits cooled, they emitted steam from fissures and fumaroles, earning the name "Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes."

 Benchmarking

Brands

• Carhartt

• REI Co-op

• L.L. Bean

• Frogg Toggs

My initial concept for this collection was to create design garments and accessories which were optimized for traversing Katmai’s environment. Therefore in my benchmarking research I focused on outdoor apparel-focused brands.

Some of the key elements for products– in addition to their utility in a wilderness environment– were the use of durable, wear-resistant and waterproof fabrics, as well as sustainable and/or reduced waste manufacturing

IDEATION

 Final

 Colorways