Cat Duncan uses the tactility of tickets and calendars to invigorate the identity of Athene run club

Before working with Athene as the club’s go-to graphics gal, the London-based designer Cat Duncan studied fashion design. It was only when she came across a friend’s potato print project that she started to realise that graphic design might just be the job for her. “Now I see it as the most versatile practice to translate analogue work into so many different things, which is what most excites me about the medium,” says Cat. In the lead up to Athene Club’s five year anniversary, Cat spoke to It’s Nice That about her creative motivations for the club’s visual identity so far.

In 2022, Cat repeatedly pitched her work to Athene Club, a women-centred run and hike club; she loved its mission and sent over her portfolio as a way to get involved. “Eventually they caved and here we are now,” Cat says. “Persistence is key!” It’s an anecdote any budding designer likely needs to hear; if not for Cat’s dedication, Athene’s now instantly recognisable visual identity would probably look very different.

Cat brings a touch of personal style to the community project, and the wider design language incorporates visual references to the outdoors. Some pieces have a misty, hazy edge, like the sky when reaching to the top of a mountain summit. Others use colour blocking, cutting, layering and printmaking techniques, to concoct feelings of invigoration. Stretches before morning runs materialise into spirited figures rendered in motion that “bring the piece to life in a way that connects you to the activity and feels more human”, shares Cat.

A sense of play is evident in Cat’s process, from the early design experiments all the way up to the final product. In playing with different media, Cat uses humour and storytelling to bring forth tactility from the page and into the real world; her work thrives on the philosophies of recycling and repurposing. Some pieces are inspired by clippings, tickets, calendars and membership cards – all physical reminders of belonging.

Cat says that her sticker work for Athene’s Sweaty Betty x Merell collaboration still brings her joy. “I still see them now on people’s phones and water bottles and it makes me like ‘eeeee’!” It’s an important facet of Cat’s work for Athene – it doesn’t only exists on it’s Instagram feed; her work lives in the real world, its wearable and it’s design as a marker of belonging to a community. Both Athene and Cat are passionate about taking people away from screens and into nature and that something Cat always wants to see reflected in her crafty work – it’s tactile design for a tactile community.