Commonly associated with Elegance Fashionable for men - Europe - 17th Century Simple black dress - Coco Chanel - 1926 ‘Black is the colour that goes with everything. If you're wearing black, you're on sure ground.’ Karl Lagerfeld Essential element of women’s wardrobe "Elegance is a combination of distinction, naturalness, care and simplicity," Christian Dior - black exemplified elegance. The expression "X is the new black" is a reference to the latest trend or fad that is considered a wardrobe basic for the duration of the trend, on the basis that black is always fashionable.
Brief
Starting Point
Design a high end fashion brand that could compete with the current market. Plus a campaign to market it across multimedia.
I focused on the word ‘Black’ and looked into it’s history particularly in fashion. It seemed to really fit with this sector due to it’s classic elegance. I decided to run with this and brainstormed possible concepts of the store.
Research To gain some inspiration of how branding is applied in fashion I looked at fashion branding. These stood out in particular to me due to the processes and materials used to show quality and consistency.
Typography Fashion has particular aesthetic in terms of typography specifically in editorial. I researched into these typefaces in search for the perfect typeface of my logo. I wanted it to use a classic serif typeface to represent the traditional, timeless and experienced aesthetic for the brand.
Market Research I went several different high end fashion stores requesting for any printed material in which the branding was applied to. The main things were bags, clothing tags, compliments slips, mailing list detail cards and receipt holders. I also looked at how it had been applied and it was usually through just the logo and the choice of stock and finishes.
Concept
Brand Development
The concept of the store is that it will sell the crème de le crème of black fashion. It will be the location in which every season you can get the statement black piece, that be a dress, bag, shoes etc, that your wardrobe will revolve around. It will be provide top quality clothing and fashion forward pieces.
I initially struggled with the name of the brand and began with LBX (short for little black x). However I struggled to make this work and communicate exactly what the concept of the store was. I then changed this due to a discussion which brought me to ‘Black Label’ which I felt was much clearer in expressing the stores purpose. I decided to use a type which had been hand written for me, to get the true high end fashion aesthetic as if by a designer.
AW13
Creating the Brand Once deciding the logo I then created a concept in which the typeface of the logo would be used for key words which would be combined with the logo to talk to customers. Such as ‘Your Label’ and ‘Buy Black’. This would create a brand language and the brand would adapt to different products.
Initial Ideas
Problem Solving
I then experimented with this copy using different stocks and colour schemes and applied them to the products I had found appropriate to the store from my market research. I tried using fashion photography to make the outcomes more visual and interesting. This led my to use my own photographs which progressed my concept in a new direction.
I didn’t feel the brand language and typeface was working as well as I had planned. The typeface didn’t appear to be the same as the logo and it wasn’t speaking as strong as I wanted the brand to be. My own photography however I felt was a new direction I could push the branding identity.
Production I created nets for the carrier bag and gift box, laser cutting them out on black stock. I embossed the square of the logo as using processes added quality to the products as I identified from my research.
I also rastered the logo into the tissue paper, experimenting with sizes and levels to achieve a good depth.