Samantha Walker & Grace Buckley
OUGD603
Brief 11 - Online Knitwear Store
Brief 11: Online Knitwear Store Collaborative Brief with Grace Buckley. The Brief
Concept
Produce the branding and identity for an online knitwear store.
Loop is a high end, online knitwear store that sells limited edition, hand knitted garments. Each garment is numbered as part of a limited collection, adding to the value of the products.
Apply the brand to a website, promotional materials and produce the appropriate packaging.
All Loop knitwear is contemporary in style and goes against preconceptions about knitwear. Context Knitted clothing can be perceived as a more traditional piece of clothing aimed at the older generation rather than being an everyday fashion item, that younger and fashion conscious audiences would choose to wear. The brand will aim to change this perception. Due to more disposable fashion stores, the craft of knitting has become less regarded and appreciated.
Audience Fashion conscious women aged 18 – 30 who have an appreciation of hand crafted products.
The brand is focussed on quality, the craft of knitting and style.
Deliverables Branding and Identity Design Brand Guidelines Website Mock-Up E-flyer Design Hangers Look Book Tags Social Media Presence, plus posts Home Delivery Packaging Primary Packaging
Samantha Walker & Grace Buckley
OUGD603
Brief 11 - Online Knitwear Store
Branding Research
Look Book Research
Looking at independent brands in particularly with unique elements to them such as selling one off items, and fashion and knitwear brands gave initial inspiration and helped identify certain products to produce and ways in which brands combine both a crafted and contemporary aesthetic.
A variety of fashion based look books were researched looking specifically at layout, format and interesting elements such as smaller inserts and different stocks. This was also helpful in seeing how brands continued their aesthetic into a book.
Samantha Walker & Grace Buckley
OUGD603
Brief 11 - Online Knitwear Store
LOOP
Brand Identity Development Initial ideas involving loop like shapes and connections were developed into the idea of a spirograph pattern involving many loops intertwining into one shape. Aiming to visualise the idea of making loops as this is a big part of hand knitting. Hand rendered techniques were applied using a variety of materials from charcoal to ink. This was simplified into a single
graphic mark, however this was still too complex. Hand rendered and more simple, contemporary typefaces were explored with the connecting of the two o’s being the most successful representation of the brand as a whole.
Samantha Walker & Grace Buckley
OUGD603
Brief 11 - Online Knitwear Store
Colours:
Primary Logo:
Fonts:
Secondary Logo:
HEADINGS - CAMBO ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ B o d y C o py - G i l l S a n s ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz Body Copy - Gill Sans Light ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz Visual Identity A custom, rounded typographic logo, working with Gill Sans, was used to represent the soft nature of knitwear. The use of the infinity symbol signifies the ever developing fashions in addition to the process of knitting as it visually suggests two loops. The symbol can be used in isolation as a secondary logo. The colour scheme is contemporary and clean, whilst still continuing the soft aesthetic.
Samantha Walker & Grace Buckley
OUGD603
Brief 11 - Online Knitwear Store
Delivery Packaging Corrugated cardboard boxes were made to post purchased items. The brand was applied to the boxes using grey vinyl to work with the brand colours. Branded tape was also created giving a fitting, higher end look whilst also providing extra security during delivery. Inside the box patterned tissue paper gave extra protection and again added to the high end experience of receiving the package.
Usually very dry paperwork such as the delivery note was considered and designed in such a way it acted as a thanking gesture to the recipient, held in an envelope.
Samantha Walker & Grace Buckley
OUGD603
Brief 11 - Online Knitwear Store
Tags, Hangers & Labels Swing tags and labels were foiled with a champagne foil to continue the brand colour and give a high end finish. Each label features a unique code and edition number, emphasising the limited nature of the garment. All garments were given female names to add to the personal aspect. A textured stock was used and torn by hand at the bottom to again give a soft and hand finished aesthetic.
Laser cut hangers were also produced and these would be an option for customers to add to their order.
Samantha Walker & Grace Buckley
OUGD603
Brief 11 - Online Knitwear Store
Look Book
The same textured stock was used for the cover as was used for the tags. This cover was made slightly larger than the inside book, allowing the reader to see the hand torn edges throughout the book. Textures and an appreciation of the craft of knit were a key focus in this book, so large dividing pages feature close up photographs of featured knitted garments.
Samantha Walker & Grace Buckley
OUGD603
Brief 11 - Online Knitwear Store
Website Research
Research into fashion websites assisted the development of the Loop website. A focus on photography and links to look book style paged on the home page were identified. Simplicity with layout seemed to be the key to allowing the photographs to be the focus.
Samantha Walker & Grace Buckley
OUGD603
Brief 11 - Online Knitwear Store
Website Pages
Payment
The website continues the brand colours and focuses on photographs and products. The limited aspect of products was include on the home page to ensure this was clear to all audiences. A newsletter sign up section was also included as a method of promotion for the brand.
The purchasing system needed to be as simple as possible and easy to follow. The aesthetic of the brand is continues onto these pages also with the lines breaking up elements.
Samantha Walker & Grace Buckley
OUGD603
Brief 11 - Online Knitwear Store
E-Flyer
Newsletters would be sent to previous customers and subscribers on a regular basis. This is an example of one potential e-flyer design. They would follow a similar aesthetic but content would be updated.