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Natural Perspectives

Stio Senior Art Director, Brendan Levine, Talks Creative Inspiration and Respect for the Wild

By Stio

A designer’s eye is hard to quantify, but for Stio’s longtime senior art director Brendan Levine, it all starts with getting outside. Whether it’s a weekend backpack 25 miles deep or a pre-dawn wake-up for a weekday mountain bike or a backcountry ski—getting out into the wild is not just about practicing what we preach. In these wild places, creative inspiration surges in a way that reflects not only the purposeful precision of nature, but also the character of our local environments. From telling true stories of mountain life to purposeful design inspired by natural elements, this connection proves critical to the look and feel of every Stio design element from our image selection to our seasonal bibles.

A passionate advocate for living the mountain lifestyle, Brendan walks the walk whether encouraging our designers to regularly experience wilderness or discovering the true meaning of a daily grind on extended bikepacking trips. But it’s the silence and focus of the backcountry, where he truly finds his designer’s muse. “One of my favorite parts of living here is when you get out to the parking on The Pass and the trucks and cars are all driving by and it’s pretty loud. And then, as soon as you hop over the snowbank, all that is behind you,” Brendan reflects. “I think that silence drives a lot of my designs, just in terms of what I think about when it’s truly silent. I think that’s where you find your creativity.”

We tracked down Brendan between ski trips and bike rides to better understand how natural perspectives influence Stio’s design ethic, why daily access matters and how skiing could possibly save the world.

How did you land in Jackson and what brought you to town?

I had a bunch of friends move out here from college. They did the whole ski bum thing for four years, five years, while I stayed on the east coast and worked at Burke Mountain Academy. I got to travel the world on someone else’s dime and coach amazing athletes who are now incredible people that I see all around the country, which was a pretty unique thing.

After doing that for four years, I started doing design work. And then I moved out to Jackson to hang out with a bunch of my friends and picked up a job at a sign shop. I worked at the Jackson Hole Ski Club and coached ski racing for another year. I did graphic design for the sign shop and the person who ran the sign shop was actually in charge of the Ski Club, so, it went hand in hand.

Then I got an internship at a creative agency out in San Francisco. I moved out and then got hired there, to continue to do freelance work for them. I tried out the city for four months and decided that was not for me. I moved back to Jackson, freelanced for the agency for another year and then got in touch with Sulli (Stio founder and CEO) through my connection with the Ski Club.

I started as Stio’s sole graphic designer in 2011. Hard to believe that was 10 years ago now.

What made living in a mountain town different for you?

It’s a healthy lifestyle. I want to be able to exercise, get out into the mountains, explore the mountains, any possible chance I have. I like to hike, run, bike, ski, climb, get on the river – and all of those things are accessible at my back door. I feel really fortunate to have that access so close to home. I’ve tried New York, I’ve tried San Francisco and there are so many people and the access is not as good.

I found a job that allows me to do what I went to school for and what I love. I love design and incorporating the activities that keep me sane. Essentially, it just feels like the perfect match.

“Everyone has the exact same amount of time in the day. So, it’s all about what you do with that time.”

How are your daily influences different than they were when you were living in San Francisco for that stretch?

I was working with big companies. I was doing production design for Audi, Netflix, YouTube—doing re-touching and digital asset creation for these massive brands. It was a great experience. It taught me how to work hard, it taught me what it means to actually work hard. Work from nine or ten in the morning until 4:00 a.m.

But that’s not good for traveling - there’s no balance and that’s really important to me now. Now, I’ll wake up at 5:00 a.m. so I can either go ski or go ride my bike and find that peace and happiness in these activities, that keeps me excited about the day and fired up about what I’m doing at my job. Everyone has the exact same amount of time in the day. So, it’s all about what you do with that time.

Especially over the past year or two, it has definitely been ‘don’t be afraid of that alarm’.

I really have been waking up at 5:00, 5:30 a.m., and I’ll go ski the Pass and get to work by 9:00. Or, I’ll go out for a two-hour long bike ride and then get to the office before anyone else and know that I already did something active. Then, I can go to work all day and night. It’s a pretty good feeling.

It’s an internal badge of honor.

Why is it important for you to have that daily contact with nature and to have the natural world around you?

It’s where my brain actually comes up with the ideas. It’s a disconnect. I find that my computer can take away a lot of ideas. I have a poster above my desk that says: ‘a computer is a Lite Brite for bad ideas.’

So, I think it’s really good to disconnect from where you’re designing and let your brain wander. And as it wanders, you’re going to find solutions to the problems.

When I go backpacking, I’ll be walking 25 miles on a Saturday and my brain will just wander. And I’ll be like: ‘Whoa! I just thought of a catalog layout – sweet!’

And then I’m going to write that down. That’s where I think of interview questions for potential new hires, when I’m out in the woods disconnected from all the stresses in life. It definitely lets you escape. It’s almost like a Zen. I’m just trying to find a peaceful state of mind.

I had a cool experience this summer. I went on a nine-day bike touring trip on the Idaho Hot Springs Loop and it gave me a new perspective on what is hard. It actually made my job seem a lot easier, in terms of the sufferfest that you deal with on a nine-day bike packing trip. It is so different than sitting in an office and designing for people.

A totally different level of pain?

It’s a whole different level of pain. You learn what your body can take. It was 60-mile days of gravel riding with some crazy vert in there. It was a cool experience.

So, that’s definitely something that I try to push with my designers that do work for me, is that they understand what it is we are. We are trying to sell to our consumers a lifestyle and they have to live it too.

We have unlimited paid time off and I want them to use it and I push them to try to use it. So, one of my designers, right now she’s on the Grand Canyon for three weeks. So, we had to figure out a way to get by during the holiday book season and fill all that. But she’s out there living it and that’s going to be an experience that she will never regret and then sell that to our consumer, which is so important.

“In my aesthetic, I love simplicity and I love making sure that what you have in your design is there for a reason.”

How do your surroundings influence your creative process?

In my aesthetic, I love simplicity and I love making sure that what you have in your design is there for a reason. In nature, everything has its purpose – for the most part—the good and the bad.

Living it and being in it pushes me to think about how we can continue to evolve and change our pitch. The outdoor industry sometimes gets stuck in its ways and I hope we can continue to be innovative and push our visuals forward, every single season, every single catalog.

Getting outside and letting your mind wander is how you can be innovative. I think a lot of times when you’re scrolling on Instagram and you’re scrolling on Facebook, you’re just going to copy someone else’s idea – which is not an innovative way to be creative.

I think letting your mind wander and getting out into the spaces is going bring those innovative, creative ideas. New ideas are the ones that create change and impactful experiences.

Is there something specific about outdoor environments that brings you creative inspiration?

I think it might come from my childhood. We weren’t allowed to play inside, even on rainy, cold days. My space was outside. That’s where I felt the most comfortable. We’d go out and play all the time—that’s my comfort zone. It’s not about bad weather. It’s all just about a bad attitude. I think that’s definitely how I live my life. I mean, it’s never too cold to go out for a bike ride. It’s never too wet to go for a hike. And it’s all about your perspective and that’s where I find I’m my happiest.

We talked more generally about how you get inspired– but can you think of one specific a-ha moment that you had on a ski tour or bike ride this past year, that led to something creative in terms of concept or execution?

I mean, I’ve had multiple catalog spreads, but I don’t think those really count in terms of the big picture. I mean, one thing that I’ve wanted to do for a long time is to make sure our images always tell a story.

It can be a challenge and it’s something that I really want, to tell stories of the mountain people and the people that are living this life, that essentially fly under the radar a bit. I mean, you see those people out in the mountains. And so, when you’re out there, you’ll see the same person over and over and over again, you might be 30 miles back there and boom – there’s that person again.

You’re trying to convey the importance of connecting with nature to the people you’re reaching with the design.

I hope that doing these activities for them is just as impactful as it is for me. It would be really cool to know that. I’m trying to get that different perspective, trying to capture things like the light and the texture of the snow and all those small elements that you can feel out there.

And also, I want to think about what we can do to respect the places that we play. How can we, as leaders in this outdoor space, inspire people to get outside, but then also inspire them to take care of these places.

We are selling this lifestyle and this idea of what it means to live in the mountains. But we have to be respectful of these places that we call wilderness, and that we call wild. We need to keep these places wild, otherwise, future generations won’t be able to experience the same things that we love.

How important is it to you that the brand you design for backs sustainability and conservation?

It goes back to the fact that we need to protect the places that we play in, the most important place that we have is our earth. And so, ideally, we need to do whatever we can to protect this place, while still being a consumer brand. We’ve talked about removing our poly bags. We’ve talked about removing hangtags. We’ve talked about how we can have less packaging across the board. We still want the consumer experience to be impactful and we want them to connect to the brand. So, how are we going to do that in an environmental way?

I want to work for a brand that values those things, as well as values the people that work for the brand. I think that is also really important. If you’re looking out for the earth, and you’re looking out for your employees, then you’re also going to create a safe space to work in. That is something that I value in Stio.

How do Stio’s visual perspectives differ than if it were in an urban location?

I think the people that work for Stio and live in Jackson, they live the life. And so, when you live the life, you have experiences and connections to the images and to the stories and to the people. That connection to those experiences drives the design, drives the photos, drives the stories. And, when you’re experiencing it, you have a much better idea on how to share it visually to the consumer.

When you see the pinecone logo, what does that represent to you?

It’s the area that we started this business in. The whitebark pinecone is so important to the greater Yellowstone ecosystem and that’s where we call home.

Every time I’m high up in the mountains – either in the Winds or in the Tetons, you’re surrounded by whitebark bark pine trees. They’re such a unique tree. The ones that come to mind are all gnarled, old and blasted by the wind.

These trees have seen so much. I wish the trees could tell a story. Having those as our base connects us, gives us a sense of place and takes us back to why we call this place home.

Alright, one more thing. Tell me more about that time you hit the road and were designing something for Stio from your Casita camper in the desert.

I felt like the luckiest designer on the planet. I found a way to combine what I love and live the lifestyle that I continue to portray, getting outside and having balance. Balance between work and play is so important. I called into a meeting from western or central Oregon and it’s like I was at the office. I love how technology has allowed this dream to become a reality.

You can just jump in the trailer and get out. Go see the country. It’s definitely something that my wife and I try to do. That’s why we moved here, to get outside as much as we possibly can.

We go south, drive to Arizona, or drive to southern Utah. We go to Montana. We go to Oregon often to get a home base. And we go skiing. I think skiing could save the world. I went out on Saturday and I was in the winds, it’s the peace and quiet.

One of my favorite parts of living here is when you get out to the parking on The Pass, the trucks and cars are all driving by and it’s pretty loud. And then, as soon as you hop over the snowbank all that is behind you. I think that silence drives a lot of my designs, in terms of what I think about and when it’s truly silent. It helps me find my creativity.

We’re starting to produce more films and things like that and I’m just starting to pay attention to words, to the music that I’m playing and to the sound of design behind those visual experiences. I think sound is something that we overlook sometimes and being here in these mountains, the sounds are part of the experience.