Case study
Brand Identity · Illustration · Fashion · Creative Direction · Marketing & Ops
An artist-owned streetwear brand named for a Japanese sense of subtle, mysterious beauty — original graphics, from Procreate to print. View the shop
Founder, designer, and illustrator · 2020–2022 · Solo, with artist collaborations · Shopify, Instagram, Etsy, conventions
Tools·Procreate · Illustrator · Shopify · Instagram
Yuugen (n.) — a profound, mysterious sense of subtle beauty in the universe. I started Yuugen Apparel to get my art off the screen and onto clothing. Original work was drawn in Procreate, mocked up in Illustrator, and printed with local suppliers after weeks of sample shipping and trial and error. I ran user and market research, then launched as an online fashion brand in 2020. Over a year of operating primarily online I designed the Instagram presence, learned ads in the Facebook / Instagram ecosystem, posted drops and collections, and made over 1,000 sales through Instagram, Shopify, and Etsy. People wrote in during an uncertain period of time to say the brand meant something to them. I began collaborating with artists in the US and overseas, worked with fashion influencers, and pivoted to selling in person at anime conventions — where I met the communities the work was actually for.
My art lived on a screen — a Procreate file with no path to something people could wear. I wanted to build an artist-owned Japanese streetwear brand from my own graphics: get my drawings onto garments, communicate with vendors locally and overseas, prove production through samples, and learn how to sell it myself — market research, visual identity, Instagram and ads, Shopify and Etsy, then conventions.
The process was the whole business: draw, mock up, sample, listen, drop. I stayed with it from the first illustration through ads, collaborations, and convention floors.
The name is the brief. Yuugen is a Japanese idea of subtle, mysterious beauty — the same feeling as mono no aware, the ephemerality the first collection was titled after. The brand had to feel like Japanese streetwear, not a merch stall: black and white as the canvas, anime- and cyberpunk-inspired graphics as the tribute to the media that shaped the work, and a wordmark quiet enough to sit on a hoodie.
Black and off-white do the garment work. Color lives in the graphics — rose, bloom, devil — not as a wash over the brand. The lookbook stays desaturated so the illustration, not the photography lighting, is the product.
Ink
#111111
Garments, wordmark, ads
Paper
#F4F1EC
Light tees, lookbook ground
Ash
#8A8680
Captions, secondary type
Rose
#C45C6A
Bloom graphics, accent drops
The custom Yuugen wordmark carries the Japanese streetwear read. Body type stays small and cool so a collection page can hold names, prices, and sold-out states without shouting.
Inter
Shop, captions, and product names — dense enough for a drop list
“Subtle beauty of the ephemeral.” “幽玄 Streetwear.” The voice is a tribute, not a slogan — anime-inspired graphics for overlooked beauty, produced in North America.
Original art on apparel, Instagram drops, and photographed wear — the brand as it actually shipped.
The brand was the system: original art, a drop cadence, a shop, and a community that eventually wanted to meet in person.
Every graphic started as original illustration — anime- and cyberpunk-inspired, printed on tees, hoodies, longsleeves, and small goods.
Collections posted on a cadence. Instagram and the shop moved together so a drop felt like an event, not restock.
Online first: storefront, marketplace, and the account I designed and ran, including ads in the Facebook / Instagram ecosystem.
Work with artists in the US and overseas, fashion influencers, then in-person selling at anime conventions — the community the graphics were for.
sales across Instagram, Shopify, and Etsy
years running the brand end to end
pivot to anime conventions and artist collabs
This was my first solo project. I’m grateful to everyone who helped sell, photograph, and show up for the brand. Thank you for letting me make something that told my story and reached people along the way.
Building a brand people wrote to during an uncertain year — and then getting to meet them.
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