WILLOW LAKE OUTFITTERS CASE STUDY
Visual Identity and branding project
Project Description
Willow Lake Outfitters is a fashion brand based in the Pacific Northwest. They make clothes for the fashion-conscious outdoorsy type: people wanting the look of their city clothes but with the durability of outdoor gear. My goal was to create a full visual identity for this brand that reflects their values as a company and appeals to their target audience.
Role
Graphic designer
Length of project
2 weeks
BRAINSTORMING & sKETCHES
Brainstorming with some basic sketches produced a variety of directions, not all were worth pursuing… but slowly some good outliers emerged.
Refining ideas
Taking what I had into illustrator and making renderings that were more fine-tuned made it easier for my client to visualize what I was creating. They ended up really liking the idea of arches on the beach. It represents the brand of nature for that area well, and the minimal theme they were after. With this in mind, I started playing with colour and fonts to match.
Mood & Feel
I presented my client with 3 finalized looks to choose from using colours and fonts we had agreed on. They chose the middle logo with the arches to represent their brand!
Final look
Finally with this look in mind, I created some requested materials for the client: business cards, a letterhead design, and clothing tags. Included in the full visual identity package was also imagery, moodboards, fonts, and other uses for their brand as a whole.
Biggest Challenge
Coming up with initial ideas for sketches is always difficult. To me, the process of creating logos sometimes feels like you either have an idea or you don’t.
Solution
My solution is probably similar to the process of most designers: I find a lot of ideas come from a mix of inspiration and reference. For this project, I looked at photos of the area, spent time in places that I felt the target market would spend time in, and looked to similar brands for ideas. I spent time sketching, and making hundreds of iterations on the same or new ideas until I came up with something I was happy presenting to my client. Once it came to finalizing the details and colour, it was smooth sailing.