Zen
Overview
Zen is a hybrid media and e-commerce platform built around sneaker culture — merging product drops and brand storytelling with real-world activations at events like ComplexCon.
Brought on post-launch to propel the brand forward and give it a real identity, I led web and editorial design across the site — lookbooks, landing pages, and launch partnerships with PUMA, ASICS, and Chinatown Market.
Outcomes:
- Brand partnership launches with PUMA, ASICS, and Chinatown Market — lookbook through landing page.
- ComplexCon activation design for Zen's partnership with Complex, the brand's flagship IRL moment.
- Fully responsive design across lookbooks, product pages, and campaign landing pages — built to hold up from desktop to mobile.
Inside Sneaker Culture
I wasn't a sneakerhead going in. Getting the brand right meant a real dive into the culture behind it — I built mood boards to pull the visual references together, dug into Highsnobiety, listened to the music, learned the lingo.
What I found: sneaker culture runs on contradiction: hip-hop, punk, and heavy metal in equal parts, aloof but irreverent, comfort-driven but exclusivity-obsessed, one foot on the street and the other in high fashion. That tension became the visual language for everything that followed.
We’re enabling our users to actually play a role in the site itself, and not just make it a catalog where people can click pictures.
• Karim Wazani, ZEN Founder
Lookbook & Brand Partnerships
I built Zen's editorial lookbooks and web experience for launch partners including PUMA, ASICS, and Chinatown Market — scrollable, responsive layouts that pulled readers in through editorial storytelling, not just product grids and CTAs.
ComplexCon
When Zen partnered with Complex for ComplexCon, I designed the landing page for the collaboration — the brand's biggest IRL moment, translated into a digital experience built to move as fast as the hype around it.
