Field-Ready Email Design

Oru Kayak and Condition 1 share a common thread: their customers care deeply about what they buy and why. One makes folding kayaks for people who want to get on the water without a roof rack. The other makes hard protective cases for people who can't afford to have their gear fail. The emails had to match that seriousness — clear hierarchy, purposeful composition, and layouts that work as hard as the products they're selling.

In This Project

My Role

Senior Graphic Designer

Disciplines

Email Design
Outdoor Campaigns
DTC Communications

Layouts Built for Informed Buyers

Neither brand sells on impulse. Oru Kayak's audience researches before they buy — they want to know how the kayak assembles, how it fits the family, whether it folds down small enough for the trunk. Condition 1's audience is evaluating protection specs, case dimensions, and foam configurations. The design challenge in both cases was the same: build layouts that surface what appeals to that kind of buyer, without making the email feel like a spec sheet.

Hierarchy That Does the Work

Each email was built around a clear primary action — whether that was following a Kickstarter campaign, reading a press review, or claiming a seasonal discount. Secondary information was structured to support that action, not compete with it. Product details, comparison layouts, and feature callouts were organized so a reader could scan or read in full without losing the thread.

The Split Composition Launch

A product launch email built around a single compositional idea. The hero divides into two distinct halves — above the waterline, the headline and subtitle sit in natural light against an open sky; below it, the body copy and CTA sit in the deep blue of the water. A plank bearing the Kickstarter logo floats at the waterline, reinforcing the campaign context established in the copy. The footer was redesigned to work over the deep blue background carried through from the underwater half — keeping the visual logic intact all the way to the bottom of the email.

The Seasonal Composition

St. Patrick's Day gave the brief a specific palette and a set of cultural references to work with — the design's job was to use them without becoming a clip art exercise. A small black case wearing a green hat sits on top of a larger olive case. A pot of gold, a horseshoe, and a clover complete the scene at the base. The composition makes the product the subject of the holiday. Below the hero, an alternating layout pairs feature callouts with product imagery, each text block sitting inside a contained box to keep the structure clean at a glance.

The Win-Back Flow

The hero opens with a lifestyle image of a person sitting with a foot rested on a case, camera in hand — three framed product images composited into the background behind the case. A "ONE CASE IS NEVER ENOUGH" text treatment with downward-pointing arrows bridges the hero into the product section below, doing the work of a subhead without breaking the visual continuity of the composition. The product grid uses Condition 1's black and red palette in an alternating layout. The email closes with a checklist section followed by a framed GIF — different lifestyle images cycling through, with Condition 1's cases sitting on top of the frame.

The Press Campaign

Reviews from Treehugger and Gear Junkie open the email — each given enough space to land, with the publication logo anchoring its credibility. Below them, a Q&A section addresses the questions a prospective buyer is most likely to have about Oru Kayak's newest product. Each question uses a different layout approach: the first uses an alternating structure with product images placed on Oru Kayak-branded yellow blob shapes; the second uses a three-column layout with lifestyle images inside the same branded blobs; the third places the image — a snapshot of the one-minute assembly demonstration — inside a white-bordered frame with a drop shadow.

The Black Friday Campaign

A glitch text effect on the "UP TO 30% OFF" headline creates visual noise that reads as urgency before the offer is fully parsed, while "SITEWIDE" uses a colorful stroke treatment. On the left side of the hero, a snapback, a floating case, and a grounded case are arranged against a dark red and blue Black Friday background — keeping products visible while the offer holds the right side. An "UP TO 30% OFF SITEWIDE" banner with an arrow bridges the hero into the best sellers section below, where an alternating dark gray and red layout gives each product its own contained row.

The Newsletter

A content-heavy newsletter that covers three distinct sections without losing visual coherence. The hero composites a YouTube player frame over a lifestyle background image, partially overlapping it — the frame scrolls through stills from an Oru Kayak University video. Below it, the giveaway winner's portrait sits inside an Oru Kayak-branded blob with a graphic of the brand's gift card laid on top. The email closes with a card layout for the Paddling Map — title, body copy, and CTA on a clean background, composited over a lifestyle image of a person on the water.

The Firearm Security Campaign

A GIF scrolls through lifestyle images on the right panel of the hero, with the headline and body copy sitting on the left against a dark background. In the foreground, a hand holds a red case at the boundary partially overlapping the hero GIF and background, with a "KEEP YOUR GUNS SAFE" badge overlaid beneath the case. The feature section uses Condition 1's alternating black and red layout, one row per case size. The email closes with a separate section for the brand's apparel line, giving the non-case product range its own visual space without competing with the main offer.

†Desktop layouts are where most visual decisions have room to fully play out. Every email in this collection is also responsive and dark mode-ready — mobile comes with its own constraints and its own design decisions, and an email that only works on desktop isn't finished.

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