Creative direction for brands built outside.

I help outdoor brands, gear makers, and the people building them create a visual identity that gets noticed, not one that blends into another muted, mountain-logo crowd.

Emmalou‍ ‍Creative Director · Storyteller · Trail-Bound

I'm the heart behind Runaway Studio, a brand designer helping outdoor brands build identities as real as the places they're made for.

I grew up in Utah chasing adventures, the love of the outdoors never stayed in childhood. It turned into a life built around it: living in an RV for months at a time, bringing our dogs on every trip we could, and slowly checking off a growing list of bucket-list adventures. All through my design education, I was taught that a designer's real job isn't making things look good, it's telling a story. I took that seriously enough to bring my own story into a college interview once, and the interviewer told me it was too much, that I should cut it down to only the "professional bits." So I did, for years. It never once brought me closer to the work I actually wanted to do. It wasn't until I stopped shrinking my story, and let the outdoors be as central to my work as it is to my life, that things started to feel aligned.

That's the lens I bring to every brand I build now. I don't build brands that blend in. I build brands that stand out, because the ones that last are the ones brave enough to tell the truth.

Rooted in story. Built for the outdoors.

Your brand isn't just what people see, it's what they feel standing at the trailhead, scrolling past your gear drop, or deciding whether to trust you with their next adventure. I offer creative direction that blends strategy, storytelling, and visual clarity into a brand that's unmistakably yours.