123K Studio · 1999–2015
For over two decades, the world's leading streetwear and sport brands didn't brief agencies. They called us. Here's some of what we built together.
Nike doesn't call agencies for this kind of work. They call the people who invented the language. Over multiple collections, we art-directed Nike's varsity universe from scratch: hand-drawn mascots, custom lettering, apparel graphics across Basketball, Air Jordan 23, and seasonal drops. Every glyph built by hand, no shortcuts. As Nike's preferred agency, we were trusted across all 16 of Nike's internal departments, a rare distinction reflecting the depth and range of the collaboration.
Hand-made fonts, logos, and mascots across multiple Nike collections. The full varsity typographic universe, from Durantula to Sir Charles, from Chicago Bulls to World Basketball Open, built letter by letter.
Hand-made fonts, logos and mascots, Nike Miscellaneous Collections
Broadcast Campaign
Let There Be Horns
Nike came to us for a TV campaign built around a fully animated superhero universe. We designed the entire visual world: a villain, Doctor Deflation, who steals Nike Air from the city, and seven superhero athletes, each with hand-crafted alter-egos and intro cards. Kevin Durant as Durantula. Charles Barkley as Sir Charles. Bo Jackson as Bo Knows. Megan Rapinoe as Crossfire. Ken Griffey Jr. as The Kid. Albert Pujols as The Machine. Allyson Felix as $printz. Style reference: 70s-80s Saturday morning cartoons. Format: 30-second broadcast spot. Production: February to April 2012, the studio at the core of character design and illustration throughout the full pipeline, from character studies to final animatic.
The question Nike asked the city was: "What is Sportswear?" A precise provocation, placed at the exact moment when street culture and sport culture were colliding into something that had no name yet. Nike planted the question across Mexico City. Two weeks later, the answer went up: "This is Sportswear." Klor and Scien were invited as one of eight internationally recognized cultural ambassadors for the grand opening of the first Nike Sportswear flagship in Mexico City. Brief: absorb Mexican culture, make it real. Three street posters pasted across the city. Then we painted the walls. Featured: Best of Behance.
Two distinct bodies of work for Adidas. A typographic system built entirely from hand-drawn letterforms, and a signed product collection spanning sneakers and apparel. Both rooted in the same principle: when the brief says "celebrate originality," you don't call a design firm. You call the originators.
Every typeface has a soul. That was the founding idea. Commissioned as a full art direction and creative direction project, the brief was radical in its simplicity: each hand-made logo, each letterform had to carry its own identity, its own energy, its own tribe. Typography is not decoration. It is a declaration. When you choose a typeface, you choose a world, a culture, a way of standing. At Adidas, the premise was that everyone builds their own personality, and the right typographic language is how that personality becomes visible. Each hand-crafted logo in the Celebrate Originality system was paired with a corresponding Adidas model. The shoe doesn't just fit the foot. It fits the person. Match the right logo to the right sneaker and you have given a pair of shoes a tribe.
The Stan Smith 123K, the End-To-End beanie and track jacket, and sneaker macro details. Products carrying the 123KLAN signature in the market.
Adidas, U-Dox and Foot Locker launched the End-To-End Project: a graffiti-inspired collection placing authentic street artists at the center of a global product line. The studio was selected as one of the featured collaborators, approached directly because of the studio's visual authority and graffiti credibility. The collaboration produced a signed Stan Smith alongside a full apparel range. At first, Adidas had planned different colorways. the studio wasn't satisfied with them, so the studio picked the final ones. That was the dynamic: the brand respected the originality it came to find, and the result reflected it. Covered by Hypebeast at launch, the project became a landmark moment of the graffiti-meets-sportswear era. The motion graphics film produced for Foot Locker extended the project into movement, bringing the world of End-To-End to life on screen.
Not a one-off. Not a single collaboration. A sustained creative partnership spanning multiple years and multiple collections, built to do one thing: restore the visual authority of one of streetwear's founding labels. Paul Mittelman, then Head of Creative at Stussy, reached out directly. He didn't send a brief. He came because he knew what the brand needed and who could deliver it. Over the years that followed, the studio contributed graphics across Los Angeles, International Tribe, and several regular seasonal collections: city-coded tees, skull systems, location-specific graphics spanning NYC, Tokyo, LA and beyond. Work rooted in the same principle that built Stussy in the first place: authentic culture, no shortcuts.
Full concept-to-garment work for XLarge across two case studies and a broader collection. Not vendor art, a full narrative built around the brand's world, from concept brief to illustrated characters to finished product.
Collection Case Study
Ice Cream Truck
A concept built around a fictional XLarge ice cream truck operating across LA, Tokyo, and London. Full mascot design, illustrated truck variants per city, and a black tee line with pink graphics front and rear. The brief was culture. The output was a world.
Collection Case Study
Burger LA. Burger NYC.
Two city editions of a gorilla fast food concept. Burger LA: white tee, red and yellow. Burger NYC: Knicks colorway, blue and orange. Same character, different cities, different codes. The gorilla owns both blocks.
A full collection built around the Hurley 99 identity: a mascot universe, a script logo system, and two apparel lines each pushed across six colorways. All art-directed from the original brief.
Selected additional work across collaborations and logo commissions.
Converse
Logo Treatment
Damascus
123K x Damascus, Contempt for the Critic
123K
Limited Edition Pin