The Outdoor Archive

For decades, outdoor brands have put daring and aspirational images on the covers of their magazines and catalogues, pushing the limits of photography and graphic design. This collection of outdoors covers, drawn from the Outdoor Recreation Archive at Utah State University and spanning one hundred years, features seventy iconic outfits including Columbia, The North Face and Snow Peak. Together, they make up a stunning visual sequence that traverses generations, sports, styles and continents, and holds something for creatives of all persuasions. The images, from grainy climbing photographs to homely illustrations of happy campers and cinematic landscapes, are organized artfully by medium – from nature (outdoors photography) to processed (treated photography), remixed (collage) to lines (illustration), object (product photography) to words (typography). Personal reflections by more than twenty industry leaders, designers, creatives and sportspeople, including photographer Chris Burkard, designer Jeff Staple and climber Conrad Anker, are interspersed throughout. Four 8-page inserts, printed on a different paper stock, reveal a selection of fascinating pages from inside the catalogues, while a concluding ‘Making Of’ section gives a behind-the-scenes look inside the archive. With an unfurling sequence of varied and impactful covers from across several decades, The Outdoor Archive is both inspiration and a resource for graphic designers and creative studios, and a covetable item in its own right.