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302COL

Product · 2020

True State

A clothing brand built from scratch over more than a year, from sourcing to finished product.

Model seen from behind in a black T-shirt with a printed back graphic, looking across a railing toward a concrete apartment block.

At a glance

Category
Product
Year
2020
Services
Brand creation, Sourcing, Product development, Production
Type
Self-initiated clothing concept
Role
Brand, product and production
Timeline
Over a year
Working name
True State by 302COL

Brief

A self-initiated project to create a clothing brand from nothing. It ran for over a year and covered everything from sourcing to learning how the products are made.

Rather than only designing, the project meant learning the products first-hand: where the blank garments come from, and how they are printed, stitched, labelled and packed.

The work

Many mockups were tested before the direction settled. The result was a small range of pieces, hoodies, T-shirts, a long sleeve and caps, carrying a mascot and illustrated graphics, produced under the working name True State by 302COL.

Brand and graphics

Mascot design history sheet titled Beyond Borders, 302COL x True State, April 2020, T-shirt graphic.
Mascot design history, April 2020
Mascot design history sheet showing the 302 Globe: a smiling globe in orange, green, blue and red inside a black ring.
302 Globe
Mascot design history sheet from January 2021 showing a symmetrical black and white mascot illustration inside geometric guide lines.
Mascot design history, January 2021
An orange sticker of a globe wrapped in a wire grid with Arabic lettering, on top of sheets of grey globe stickers.
Printed stickers

Posters

Poster of a figure in a tan blazer and white robe holding a vase, with a vintage TV showing colour bars for a head, and a TRU$TATE logo at the bottom.
Green-toned poster of a figure with a TV head in a long robe standing between cacti, titled Space Cowboys.
Space Cowboys

The range

White long-sleeve T-shirt with Good State script on the chest and checkerboard stripes down both sleeves.
Good State long sleeve
Yellow hoodie with a small illustrated 302 mark on the chest, on an orange sky background with clouds and bees.
Orange hoodie with a small pill-bottle badge on the chest.
Purple hoodie with a gold paisley-patterned graphic on the chest.
White cap with a green laurel wreath graphic and 302 on the front.
Washed blue cap with a small colourful illustrated character on the front panel.
Back of a black short-sleeve shirt printed with a halftone illustration of two pairs of figures shaking hands and the words Love and War.
Love and War, back print
White oversized T-shirt printed on the back with an illustrated red cigarette pack, cigarettes and a lighter.

Lookbook

Model in a yellow hoodie with a small chest mark, seated by a railing in front of a concrete housing block.
Model in a mint hoodie on a skateboard on a concrete walkway, with the words The Good State repeated in English and Arabic over the photo.
Model in a mint hoodie standing on a concrete walkway with teal railings, with a plane's smoke trail in the sky behind.
Behind the scenes: a photographer crouching to shoot a model in a cream hoodie standing on a concrete ledge.
Behind the scenes

Design to production

  1. 01

    Sourcing

    Blank garments were sourced and shipped in from the US.

  2. 02

    Screen printing

    Worked directly with screen printers to get the graphics onto the garments.

  3. 03

    Embroidery

    Embroidery was done locally.

  4. 04

    Labels and tags

    The tags and other printed pieces for the range were printed.

  5. 05

    Packaging

    The mailer bags were manufactured in China.

A white T-shirt with a checkerboard print laid over a screen printing press in a workshop.
Embroidery machine screen previewing the Good State chest mark during stitch setup.
Hang tag reading Thank You, a woven care label and two small woven badges, on a wooden table.
White mailer bag printed with the Good State logo and the 302COL web address.

Outcome

After testing many mockups, a few pieces were produced under the working name True State by 302COL.

The project took over a year from first sourcing to finished product, and built first-hand knowledge of the products and how each stage of production fits together.

Next project

Placeholder project 01