Alter-Aspect

Alter Aspect Apparel

Brand Design / Guerrilla Marketing / Art Direction

Overview: Alter Aspect started as a print on demand apparel brand with the intention to widen the perception of the viewer and encourage alternative ways of thinking. It eventually developed into a platform promoting the development of mindset, knowledge and skills through gaming, interactive tools and experiences.
Platform: Web
My Role: Sole creative behind the project
Tools: Illustrator, Premier Pro, Affinity Designer, Printful, Shopify, Wordpress, Woo Commerce

https://www.alter-aspect.com/

BRAND ROOTS

Apparel & Conception

2014-2018

Alter Aspect originally started as a side hustle to keep my skills sharp along side my freelance career, an apparel brand I could experiment with, which developed over the years in the background. it was originally inspired by street culture, surrealism, psychedelic and optical illusion with the intention to widen the perception of the viewer and encourage alternative ways of thinking.
It was delivered in a distinct shibuya punk monochrome / colour splash style appealing to gamer's and anime fans and allowed me to explore the medium, occasionally incorporating elements such as multi layered outfits, full print sublimation, guerrilla marketing and even augmented reality.

Publicity

I employed a myriad of print design including vinyl, stickers, posters, leaflets, business cards, promoting and networking locally to build relations and grow the brand organically. I have also had a few local business display my wears in store and this helped to create a sturdy foundation for the brand through social proof, both online and by word of mouth.

Website

I've made use of various website and print on demand platforms including Printful, Shopify, and Wordpress with Woo commerce, each with their own set of pros and cons in degrees of site control and running costs. However I have found great success on platforms with their own marketplaces such as Tee Public, Red Bubble, Design By Humans, Etsy and Amazon, which allow me to focus my efforts on artwork and marketing. As such, I have attained Artisan status on Tee Public and am in the top 50% of sellers on the site.

THE PIVOT

Game Design / System Design / UX UI

Creating systems to inform, inspire and entertain, so that others may find their way.

2024 - Present

Utilising all my skills and experience in UX, UI, Graphics, AAA and educational games, I sought to pivot my brand in order to create more meaningful products that align with my purpose, have a proven market, and the potential to make a difference in the world. Not just apparel or games, but other software and systems to support these goals.

The Concept

The problems I've seen is that games are often a time sink, while learning can often be difficult or dull, so my solution to solve these issues is to gamify learning in a very specific way. By focusing on creating an engaging and immersive game first, but with wisdom weaved into the mechanics and gameplay systems inspired by the subject matter, so that players are enticed to experiment and exploit these systems. There by the player passively learns the knowledge laced beneath and is tempted to engage with and utilise that knowledge to progress or grow stronger within the game. Natural self improvement through entertaining systems.

This project is private as it is currently still in development, please request to learn more.

Moving with technology

I employed many tools to automate my work flow and social media presence including social champ, hoot suite, buffer, and IFTTT, eventually upgrading to my own A.I systems and agents created and developed in Make.com, capable of posting regularly from a content vault, catering to each platform, as well as finding related and supporting stories online to share.

New products

I shifted apparel designs to support our goals, focusing on higher quality products that align more closely with the target audience, including office decor along side the apparel line.