Roark Adventure Essentials

Grooming for the Wild & Well-Traveled

Overview

Roark built its brand on adventure-driven storytelling, creating gear for a community defined by movement, exploration, and life on the road.

The objective was to extend the brand into the beauty category, identifying a product space that could integrate naturally into the routines of its existing audience.

The challenge was to create a brand extension that felt essential to the journey, not additive to it.

The Challenge

Extend Roark into the beauty category in a way that feels native to its travel-first lifestyle, not disconnected from it.

The Insight

For travelers constantly on the move, self-care isn’t indulgence, it’s routine. It’s how they reset, maintain control, and stay grounded between experiences.

The Idea

Reimagine self-care as travel-ready gear. A system of rugged, portable essentials designed to move as seamlessly as the adventures they support.

My Role

• Developed early concept directions for Roark Adventure Essentials, reframing grooming products as travel-ready gear within the brand’s adventure ecosystem.

• Defined the line’s strategic positioning, shifting self-care from a luxury category to a functional ritual for life on the road.

• Led AI-assisted visual exploration to prototype packaging, product aesthetics, and brand-world integration aligned with Roark’s rugged identity. (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google Gemini, Sora, Veo)

Men lack consistent grooming routines, yet feel overwhelmed by the number of products available.

Defining the System

The opportunity was to simplify the beauty category into something usable on the move as Roarks users were.

This led to a clear direction: reduce grooming to its most essential forms, designed to travel as easily as the people using them.

Each product followed the same Design Principles:
• Solid formats
• Multi-use functionality
• Durable materials
• Travel-ready construction

This system became the foundation for every product that followed.

Designing for Life on the Road

What deserves space in the bag?

Roark’s audience lives in motion, so self-care had to move with them.

Traditional grooming assumes bathroom counters, routines, and bottles.

Roark’s audience lives out of backpacks, vans, and trucks, making travel-ready essentials a natural extension of the brand.

The Adventure Essentials System

Adventure Essentials was designed as a tight system of solid, travel-ready products built to move as easily as the people carrying them.

Board & Beard Wax:
A multi-use wax designed to condition both surfboards and beards, merging grooming with adventure utility.

Bar Face Soap:
A durable cleansing bar designed to withstand travel conditions while eliminating liquid packaging.

Solid Fragrance:
A compact fragrance designed for life on the road. Solid construction eliminates leaks while allowing precise application in changing environments.

Suncare Stick:
A solid sunscreen designed for quick application in outdoor environments without spills or plastic-heavy bottles.

Lotion Bar:
A compact hydration bar designed to protect skin exposed to sun, wind, and saltwater.

Key Takeaways

Products should behave like the brand
Roark’s identity is built around movement, exploration, and life on the road. Reframing grooming products as travel-ready gear allowed the line to extend the brand’s philosophy into a new category.

Systems create stronger product ecosystems
Rather than designing individual items, Adventure Essentials was built as a cohesive system of travel-ready tools. Shared materials, solid formats, and durable packaging allowed each product to feel like part of the same adventure kit.

AI accelerates early design exploration
AI-assisted image generation enabled quick iterations of product forms and packaging directions. This allowed strategic ideas to quickly become tangible product concepts aligned with Roark’s identity.

Creative Team:
Creative Brand Manager: Libby Browder. | Art Direction: Kyle Bonenfant. | Storytelling: Gabe Glassmann