Lunarepic wasn’t just a running shoe—it was Nike’s attempt to redefine the very sensation of running. Built around a mid-height, sock-like silhouette and laser-cut cushioning, the shoe introduced a new kind of fluidity and comfort. But it also carried a bigger idea: what if a run could feel otherworldly?
In the early stages of concept development, I helped explore how this product could break category convention—not just through tech specs, but through narrative. Lunarepic wasn’t about speed or distance. It was about escape. Running not as effort, but as transcendence. The creative direction leaned into weightlessness, moon gravity, and the surreal stillness of motion in space.
-
Visual Identity System
We explored a visual language that felt atmospheric, abstract, and elevated. Concepts referenced orbital rings, lunar surface textures, and thermal gradients. Imagery imagined the shoe as if it had just landed—part gear, part artifact.
Typography was vertically stretched, haloed in glow, or contrasted against deep-space black. Color stories focused on navies, ash, and infrared—anchored in Nike’s performance palette, but shifted toward the ethereal.
We treated the shoe not as apparel, but as a vehicle. And that changed everything.
Design System Principles
Our early frameworks prioritized fluid motion and spatial rhythm. Conceptual UI and editorial layouts moved like a runner in zero gravity—long scrolls, soft fades, uninterrupted lines. Storytelling followed a launch arc: from the grounded body to the lifted mind.
-
We pushed for a world where the product could float—both physically and metaphorically. Environments were imagined as near-future landscapes, with materials that glowed, refracted, and responded. Every design principle mapped back to one feeling: this isn’t earthbound.
-
