Vivid’s outdoor focus continues with the legendary Lowe brothers who established Lowe Alpine in 1972.

Based in Utah, USA, they pioneered modern rucksack design and the Hummingbird Ice Axe and Footfangs, both used for steep ice climbing.

Circa 2002, much to our surprise and delight, we were invited to pitch for and won the account! (At this time, the brand had just been acquired by the Italian footwear brand Asolo.)

As you did back then, we produced dozens of creative advert campaign concepts, printed on A4 sheets and meticulously positioned and spray-mounted onto black mount board. It was a messy process, but the results were always very satisfying.

This hand-to-hand combat was how it was done in those days – we had spray booths and cutting boards – a far cry from today’s digital touch.

There was a pride in the art of the presentation, and you always had a few additional creative executions in your portfolio case on the off-chance your favourite ideas were rejected.

Lowe Alpine immediately became Vivid’s most prominent client. We produced all of their marketing campaigns and material for global distribution. Everything was produced in 8 languages – workbooks, catalogues, lookbooks, point-of-sale, print advertising, etc.

We used a technique called a ‘5th plate’ on press to change the language mid-print run. The fear of a longer language translation (German, for instance) overlapping the base CMYK images was great. We had to overlay text that was printed on clear acetate sheets over lightboxes, which was a perilous task when printing 250,000 brochures!

There were some great collaborations with the likes of WL Gore / Gore-Tex – including the ‘Stronger Together’ bowline knot campaign to launch their new Gore-Tex range of jackets and clothing.

One of the highlights of working with an international brand is the people – those who worked for and with the brand: staff, buyers, and distributors. This was always celebrated by Lowe Alpine at their yearly International Sales Conference in Chamonix

Rest assured, there are many stories that cannot be published about these legendary get-togethers!

It is always the people that we work with that make our relationships so special, which, on reflection, is what it’s all about! So, very special thanks to Clive Allen and Mark Held for making this possible with Vivid.

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