CATCHLIGHT: brand identity for the walk home

CATCHLIGHT is a self-initiated brand identity for everyday goods worn on the walk home after dark: three satin-silver pins, plus a band and a T-shirt with proposed reflective details. The whole system grows from one idea, plain by day and responsive to light, and runs from the mark to a 40-page brand book.

Role: brand identity, art direction, application design and the brand guidelines

Made: mark and wordmark, colour and type, a box with three pins and a band, a T-shirt, two posters, a business card, a 40-page brand book

Tools: Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop, Blender, After Effects

Type: self-initiated concept, 2026

People walking home on unlit roads: commuters off the last bus, parents on the winter school run, anyone walking the dog after dark. In Poland in 2024, 238 of the 428 pedestrians killed on the roads died at night. The brief was to make proposed reflective details part of everyday pieces people would choose to wear. Their visibility has not been tested.

The walker is built from a head pin and three bands on a 256-unit grid. Because each band begins at a different point, the figure is caught in mid-stride. A small amber glint sits over the i of the hand-drawn wordmark.

Five colours (Road, Asphalt, Paper, Silver and Headlight) and three type families. Headlight amber stays under 5% of any layout and is never used for text on Paper. Halyard Display sets the headlines, Hagrid Text the reading text, and Map Roman Narrow the labels and data.

The same outfit by day and at night. By day it is a plain dark T-shirt and a band; at night the proposed reflective print and tape catch the headlight. Both images are visualisations: the reflection is simulated and the material has not been tested.

147 × 124 × 41 mm, with a sleeve and a drawer holding three satin-silver pins and one band on its carrier. Shown as a 3D render; finishes and lighting are simulated.

The drawer is designed to reveal reflective film behind the walker window on the first pull. Shown as a 3D render of the approved model; the mechanism is proposed and physical operation remains unproven.

The band’s stitched tape on its carrier, and the satin face of a pin. 3D renders of the approved models, with the proposed finishes documented in the brand book.

Poster No. 01 in a bus-stop light box at night, where people wait on the way home. Poster No. 02, “Catch the light.”, shown as flat artwork. The light box is a composite and its backlight is simulated.

A gloss black business card with the marks proposed as a blind deboss. My card artwork is composited onto an Adobe Stock photograph (309363562); finishes are simulated and the contact details are placeholders.

A 40-page brand book, Edition 4, hardcover 225 × 290 mm, documents the mark, colour, type, packaging, apparel and print. Shown as a Photoshop mockup using the approved artwork; materials and finishes are proposed.

I design brand identities from the first idea to the last printed detail: the mark, the system, the packaging and the guidelines that hold it together. Tell me about your project.

Road data: Polish police statistics for 2024, credited to Obserwatorium BRD (obserwatoriumbrd.pl). Card photograph: Adobe Stock 309363562. Typeface and photo credits are listed in the brand book.