Canadian artist Kate Zessel spends a lot of time in the mountains. When she’s not skiing or hiking with her dogs, you can find her biking the wild places of British Columbia, seeking inspiration for the bold and intricate artwork she creates at her home studio in Pemberton.
Canadian artist Kate Zessel spends a lot of time in the mountains. When she’s not skiing or hiking with her dogs, you can find her biking the wild places of British Columbia, seeking inspiration for the bold and intricate artwork she creates at her home studio in Pemberton. This season we teamed up with Kate to create a capsule collection interwoven with her graphical impressions of the trails, peaks, and valleys surrounding Squamish along the Sea to Sky Corridor. Under one arm, you might find a mountain. By your side, a flow we ride most weeks. It’s a journey of discovery that speaks to the joy of exploring new places and seeing familiar routes in a whole new light.
"I liked the idea of having a full story behind the kit," explains Kate Zessel about her collaboration with 7mesh. "I tried to create a piece that had enough elements that you could pull each one out, like a circle with layers of mountains and ocean, ferns, even a topographical map." Interwoven throughout the design, Kate also incorporated elements that resonated with her experiences on the bike, like seeing the Armchair Glacier, a famous mountain feature in Whistler, for the first time from the Lord of the Squirrels mountain bike trail.
But despite the design's mashup of motifs, maps and recognizable places, Kate was keen to tell a story above all else. "I tried to ensure everything flowed together to create a cohesive design," she explains. "It's great having so many local references, but the overall illustration still has to look good on the rider!"
