05 / Selected WorkSelf-initiatedBrand · Apparel · E-commerce

Brooklyn SoftBoys

A streetwear brand with a thesis: in a city trying so hard to be hard, make clothing for people who embrace the softer side of life. One idea — stay soft — taken from wordmark to storefront.

Client: Brooklyn SoftBoys — self-initiated brand
My role: Founder & Designer — identity, illustration, apparel, packaging, web
Scope: Naming & wordmark · brand book · apparel graphics · wheatpaste campaign · Shopify storefront
Year: 2026
Disciplines: Brand Identity · Illustration · Art Direction · E-commerce

Overview

Brooklyn SoftBoys is where I get to be client, creative director, and designer at once. The whole brand hangs on a manifesto — "in a world where everyone's trying to be hard, we make premium clothing for people who embrace the softer side of life. Stay soft."

That tension — soft message, hard city — drives every decision: a rough, hand-lettered wordmark; washed, vintage-weight garments; tarot iconography reworked with a wink; and a rollout that lives on plywood walls, not billboards.

Identity system

The brand book pairs a rough marker wordmark against disciplined DIN Condensed supporting type and a restrained palette — warm greige and charcoal, so the apparel graphics can carry the colour. Structure underneath, softness on top.

Brand book — the wordmark, embroidered up close.

A woven neck label reading Quality You Can Feel, sewn inside the collar of a washed tee. — Brand book — woven label, "Quality you can feel."

Apparel

Ten of swords,
softened.

The hero graphic reworks the tarot's Ten of Swords — traditionally the card of rock-bottom — into something almost tender. Printed on heavyweight, mineral-washed tees so every piece feels already broken-in.

Brooklyn SoftBoys mineral-washed tee with tarot Ten of Swords back graphic. — Hero tee — reworked Ten of Swords back print.

Brooklyn SoftBoys lookbook spread. — Lookbook / zine spread.

Campaign

No media buy — the launch lived where the brand does, on the street. Apparel graphics were blown up and wheatpasted on a construction wall, photographed as they weathered. The medium is the message: unpretentious, a little rough, real.

Wheatpaste posters of Brooklyn SoftBoys apparel graphics on a New York wall. — Guerilla wheatpaste rollout, New York.

Two models in Brooklyn SoftBoys apparel — cream tee and black crewneck — on a New York street.

Brooklyn SoftBoys campaign — two models outside a sticker-covered NYC doorway.

→ Campaign — cast on the street, garments worn in, attitude over logo.

Lookbook

Worn in,
on the street.

Snow banks, steel gates, a pinball bar, a marquee at midnight — the clothes worn in the city they were made for. The garments are the cast; Brooklyn is the set.

Model at a pinball machine in a dim bar, wearing the mineral-washed Ten of Swords tee. — After dark — the Ten of Swords tee, in the wild.

Model walking under a lit marquee at night in the Brooklyn SoftBoys tee. — Under the marquee lights.

Model from behind in front of a neon-lit storefront, showing the Ten of Swords back print. — The back print, up close.

Man in sunglasses, beanie and a green bomber jacket beside a vintage car in the snow, wearing a mauve SoftBoys tee. — Winter — mauve tee, green bomber.

Man in a navy SoftBoys crewneck leaning against a steel roll-down gate, looking at the camera. — The navy crewneck.

Man in a cream tee and sage beanie sitting on stoop steps, hands clasped. — Cream tee, sage beanie.

Drop teasers

Soft launch,
loud grid.

The drop was announced the way it was made: a run of quiet 4:5 teasers for Instagram — grain, a single graphic, one line of type — building from "soon" to "drop is live."

Teaser graphic: the Ten of Swords tee on a grey grain background above the line stay soft. — Teaser — the hero graphic.

Teaser graphic: LTD Edition announcement with the tee on a dusty pink background. — Teaser — limited edition.

Teaser graphic: Drop is live, limited quantities, on a rose background. — Teaser — drop day.

Teaser graphic: a tarot reading table framed by theatre curtains under a Brooklyn SoftBoys sign. — Teaser — the tarot table.

Storefront

The brand ships on a full Shopify build — the same editorial restraint extended to product pages, so the storytelling doesn't stop at the "add to cart" button. Big type, generous margins, the manifesto never far away.

Brooklyn SoftBoys Shopify storefront — product page. — Shopify storefront — product detail.

Outcome

1Idea — "stay soft" — carried intact from wordmark to storefront.

360°Identity, illustration, apparel, packaging, campaign, and web — designed end-to-end.

0Media budget. The launch lived on the street, by design.