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| Crossroads Brand Imaging Campaing |
Spring 2010 |
When I recieved a call to start working on a brand imaging campaign I was a delighted by the challenge. While I have an academic animation background, and have traditionally worked in the animation industry, the graphic design aspect of this project excited me. I was sure we'd need to put together a logo, website and maybe even a promotional DVD cover together. Little did I know I was embarking on a project that would lead me to:
- Research and utilise current color schemes
- Develop product templates with Illustrator for use in manufacturing industries in China
- Research, create and polish unique designs
- Create an interactive Flash website
- Create a timless logo that is relelvant to the brand identity
- Research and create in-store product displays
- Network with the heads of the company to deliver a professional product and image that appeals not only to retailers, but to the consumer as well
- Professionally photograph products and models for catalogue and advertisement uses
- Create promotional 3d animated videos
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| Crossroads itself is a great brand, start to finish. It's starting off with socks, and will in future years move on to clothing and accessory items. Where they stand out from the competition is that they've made a dedication to the customer, to always deliver Earth-friendly clothing. Weather it be items made from PET(recycled plastic bottles that are weaved into fabric) or Bamboo. They've made a commitment to change the world, one item of clothing at a time. My challenge as a Brand Imaging Artist was to portray this Earth friendly image without giving the brand a granola-hippy feel. |
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After understanding what the brand's identity and mission, I suggested the name Crossroads. The meaning of the name coming from the fact that everyone comes to a crossraods in life, where they make an important decision... hopefully the one that chooses saving the Earth. I decided to represent this with an hour glass, in which two roads cross. The middle, the pivotal point where the decision must be made, is the point where the two roads meet. The color schemes of blue and green were decided by the Company founders. |
After the logo creation, then came product research and design. Since I was relatively new to the fashion industry, I was required to get up to date on which colors were going to be popular in the upcoming year. I refered to major fashion websites, and recorded the Pantone TPX color codes for use in the products.
I used illustrator to make vector images of the products. I created a total of 100 different sock styles and color variations. The Crossroads founders then cut the products down to the 27 most popular designs and color way to be placed in stores. The expamle on the right shows a page from the PDF catalogue I put together to be sent to the manifacturing plants. You can download the catalogue in it's entirety in the link below the image. |
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Once that we had put together the manufacturing guideline catalogue and sent it out to China, it was only a matter of weeks before we got back the first samples. I was lucky enough to see my artistic work rendered into hard copies. I fiddled around with some of the designs again and we got a second batch sent through with a more professional look. I photographed the product with my Digital SLR camera and the touched up the photographs to have a professional look. Below are some examples of the finished photographs.
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After photographing the final product, I started putting together the print/web catalogue that would go to the retailers. I put an emphasis on visual continuity between the logo, the catalogue, the product dispaly and eventually the website. The main objective of the entire project was, if a retailer was picking up the catalogue he would understand that it was Crossroads as much as a consumer picking up a pair of socks and looking at the packaging.
I used Photoshop to create the catalogue in it's entirety. From digital painting and photo manipulation to resizing and color corrections. I have provided an image on the left of what the final catalogue looked like when printed. You can also download the PDF digital version of the catalogue in the link below:
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Once the retailer catalogue was completed there was really only one thing left to do: the website! I had a couple of different ideas for the site, and sketched them out. The company founders decided it was best to go with something fun, playful and unique so we agreed upon an interactive Flash site. I learnt alot of Actionscript in the development of this website. My animation skills were useful, but the programing aspect of this project was the real challenge. I learnt how to use buttons to link external pages, as well as utilise the timeline to tell a story and navigate. There's alot more to the programing aspect so if you'd like to know more about the particular skills I aquired during the creation of the website, please contact me by e-mail. Below are a few screenshots of the website. |
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That pretty much sums up the work I did on developing Crossroads Clothing. The brand has been well recieved by retailers accross Ontario, Canada thus far and continues to grow. Any future work on the product line in the upcoming seasons will be posted in seperate articles. If you'd like additional information on my work with Crossroads, feel free to contact me by e-mail, using the "Contact me" section of my page.
If you'd like to purchase any product form Crossroads, please refer to the Crossroads website:
Thank you for taking interest in my Brand Imaging Campaing,
All the best,
Luc Houle |
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