KIN Published in Afrostyle Magazine, october 2025

A study of intimacy between Black men — a rare portrayal of softness, trust, and connection.

through haley erickson's narrative development, artistic direction, and image curation, “KIN” explores vulnerability and self-belief, reflecting the building of community and kinship in Paris.

As Head Strategist at Studio CTRL, haley erickson lead brand and narrative development across all creative outputs.

her work spanned campaign ideation, visual direction, and the storytelling systems that perpetuates the studio’s cultural and aesthetic identity.

she shaped concepts from inception through execution—building narrative frameworks, directing visual tone, and curating final images to ensure everything aligns with CTRL’s ethos and long-term positioning.

narrative & art direction

haley led the narrative and strategic direction for the studios first editorial portfolio, “CONTROL: A Journey Inward and Outward”.

This arc unfolded across seven visual chapters exploring identity, transformation, and authorship.

she defined each chapter’s conceptual lens, wrote all supporting narratives and social copy, set the visual tone for shoots, and curated the final image selections for publication.

Chapter 01 :
MIRROR STAGE

Before any journey outward can begin, the subject faces themselves. Here, reflections unveil discomfort, suppressed identity, and questions around visibility and voice. This is not limited to Black masculinity but extends to marginalized identities broadly.

chapter 02 :
PASSAGE

A Black man arrives in a new city. He is both subject and observer. The gaze of the city shifts around him as he maps his place within it.

KIN

A study of intimacy between Black men — a rare portrayal of softness, trust, and connection.
KIN explores vulnerability and self-belief, reflecting the building of community and kinship in Paris.
‍
published in afrostyle magazine october 2025.

The I.T Family

I.T is a unique multi-brand retailer in that it features two-parent brands in I.T and i.t as well as creating and managing multiple in-house brands.

The main brands are I.T - which hosts luxury designers such as COMME des GARÇONS, Off-White, Acne Studios, A.P.C., Balenciaga etc, - and i.t - hosting more lower-priced, youthful designers such as AAPE, :CHOCOOLATE, Carhartt, Fred Perry, izzue etc.

This unique approach lends itself to a two shop system for ITeSHOP that shares the same backend account and checkout between both brands under one website. Each shop provides its respective unique branding while sharing consistent functionality. Creating a consistent design system was key due to having two shops within one website that was also replicated across over 6 international regions with separate sites, platforms and vernaculars.

Launch Strategy, Merch Concepting & Brand Activation

haley shaped CTRL’s brand activation strategy ahead of its launch, advising on event concepting, location selection, merchandise development, and guerrilla marketing.

Every decision reinforced the brand’s cultural mission and narrative integrity.

Locations were chosen for creative sovereignty and cultural authenticity. Merchandise functioned as symbolic brand extensions rather than promotional items. High-impact, narrative-aligned guerrilla tactics built organic presence without diluting the message.

E-Commerce Curation: BED x Studio CTRL

for ctrl's first client, bed, haley erickson led art direction and final image curation for their e-commerce launch, prioritizing visual consistency, brand narrative alignment, and aesthetic coherence across digital touch points.

I.T consists of a family of in-house brands and our team were responsible for updating the Bape e-commerce site for existing and new regions as well as developing digital identities for AAPE, Bape Black, Bapy, izzue and :CHOCOOLATE. This included the design and deployment of the e-commerce sites and the creation and management of digital assets for product launches, EDMs, and advertising.

The goal of all brands within the I.T family was to create a platform that is scalable and can fit a diverse range of content efficiently while maintaining the different brands evolving design language. While challenging it was important to keep processes simplified and streamlined across over 6 brands, 6 regions and countless stakeholders to ensure smooth and expected outcomes.

Brand Campaign

“Discover Your Edge” brand campaign executed in 2021. Our team was responsible for the concept, messaging, visual direction and execution, and all formats and touchpoints. The campaign received over 600k YouTube views and over 1m impressions.

I.T Post

Although our team was primarily assigned with the ITeSHOP platform, we worked frequently in collaboration with offline and corporate teams to assist with their creative and digital needs. One example of this was the digitalisation of I.T’s revered quarterly magazine I.T Post.

I.T30

Creative Director
2018 — 2019

Shortly upon my arrival I.T was looking to celebrate its 30th anniversary with a campaign that celebrated the past and looked to the future of the retailer. I was assigned to lead the creative concept of the project that would look to feature both online and offline visibility.

We decided to collaborate with the Dutch digital fashion house The Fabricant to digitally reproduce our anniversary collection and visual campaign that shared our beliefs in the future of digital fashion.

Although created in 2018, this campaign looked to set a precedent digitally with I.T’s belief in pushing forward new experiences within fashion and The Fabricant’s belief in envisioning a future where fashion transcends the physical body, in which today they are the leaders in their Web3.0 field.

Along with the visual campaign, we exhibited our vision and exclusive anniversary collection around the world in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing and Paris. The popups featured architectural design by Jamie Fobert and interaction design by Your Majesty to create a unique experience that paired the digital and physical world of fashion together. Viewers were able to see the physical pieces alongside their digital counterparts and make purchases directly on their phones or at the digital kiosks placed throughout.

Fashion 3D Design by The Fabricant ↗
Installation Interactive Design by Your Majesty ↗