BRAND IDENTITY / BRAND EXPRESSION SYSTEM / BRAND STATIONERY DESIGN / PRODUCT PACKAGING DESIGN / WEBSITE UX/UI / WEBSITE DEVELOPEMENT
Clothing Startup Branding Case Study
Project background: Despite the plethora of shopping options available, the founders of Arisa Atelier had identified a gap in the market. They perceived that existing options lacked decent quality clothing. Conversely, high-quality designer labels were often inaccessible to the middle class due to exorbitant prices and exploitation of handcrafting techniques. Arisa Atelier aims to bridge this gap by offering high-quality clothing at affordable prices, striking a balance between both ends of the spectrum. To realize this vision, the founder sisters, Indira Poosapati and Aswani Poosapati, approached Arabella Design to craft a brand that aligned with their company’s vision and mission.
Brand Purpose Pillars
Brand purpose pillars are the official declarations of business objectives. It describes why a business operates and the products or services they offer.
Uplifting Customer Lifestyle: Making exclusive fashion accessible to people regardless of their geo-location. Good fashion enabling a good lifestyle.
Elite Customer Experience: Enabling an elite shopping experience as compared to shopping from giant warehouses like Amazon, Myntra, etc.
Handcrafted Original Designs: Garments that look great and feel great when worn.
Company Core Principles
The vision, mission and values provide direction for everything that happens in an organization. They keep everyone focused on where the organization is going and what it is trying to achieve.
They define the core values of the organization and how people are expected to behave. They are not intended to restrict or inhibit initiative and innovation, but they are intended to guide decisions and behaviors to achieve common ends.
Vision Statement: To become a one-stop destination for Indo-western designer wear shoppers.
Mission Statement: To make aesthetically pleasing and superior quality garments accessible to all.
Values: Honesty, sincerity, social inclusivity, and ethical manufacturing practices.
Brand Archetype : The Creator
We recommended the ‘creator’ archetype as we plan to be dedicated to providing customers with the most up-to-date fashion trends. Creator attributes such as independence, honesty, curiosity, and excellent quality are also embedded in the brand’s principles.
The Creator brand archetype is all about innovation and creativity. These brands are typically non-conformists, becoming pioneers in new technology or creating unique combinations of features. Creators strive to create meaningful products with enduring value that align with their vision. They also empower their clients to express themselves freely, with the help of a tool, a new feature, or a design. Because of this, they naturally appeal to more creative or artistic consumers who place a lot of emphasis on self-expression.
Brand Look & Feel
The brand is Modern / Luxurious / Top Quality / Desirable
Brand Look: Minimal / Bold / Sophisticated
Brand Feel: Highly Professional / Exclusive / Premium
Brand Logo Design
The brand logo unit is an iconic design that reflects luxury, style and exclusivity. It is made up of two parts, with both of them complete in themselves to be used in a stand-alone manner. The first part is the brand symbol, made using a fundamental shape - a square. The other part is the wordmark that has been developed using custom-crafted typefaces, designed from scratch specifically for the brand.
Both the words in the brand name ‘Arisa’ & ‘Atelier’ have been given equal weightage so that the complete brand name gets popular in people’s minds. This is also done because the full brand name makes complete sense. ‘Arisa Atelier’ has been written in continuation (ArisaAtelier) without keeping any space between the two words so that the logo appears like a single visual unit. By having both the initial letters of ‘Arisa’ & ‘Atelier’ in upper case (capital As), we have made the two words appear visually distinct despite writing them together. The uniform stroke thickness across the logo makes it coherent and displays the company’s ideologies. The fundamental block (square) used in the symbol is also equivalent to the stroke of the typefaces, making the unit a single visual family.
The custom typeface family of the brand identity can be extended to include all alphabets and numerics for application in all brand communication in the future.
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The typeface architecture of the logo and the brand symbol is designed to appeal to both the genders. The curves of the typefaces have been carefully crafted to get a balance between feminine and masculine connotations. Square being a unisex shape, has been chosen as the fundamental shape of the brand.
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The logo and the brand symbol have been designed to go well with Indian-style garments and western outfits.
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The finely defined construct of the logo creates a luxurious appeal and helps the brand logo stand out and appear aesthetic in all sizes.
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An overall minimal look of the brand is maintained through the identity design. The feel is kept modern and sophisticated. The curves and styles are kept elegant and bold.
Brand Color Palette
The brand colour palette and the colour combinations have been recommended keeping in mind the emotions we want the brand to evoke and that the brand should appear unisex at all times. We recommended black to be the primary colour of the brand. The colour black is unisex, bold, elegant, modern and luxurious. It brings out our brand personality in the best manner. For branding at key touch points, we recommended that the brand should try to use a white-on-black background colour combination (as showcased in the example above). It was also the primary colour combination recommended for the brand.
For ethnic and Indian collections (such as wedding/festive wear) or branding on Indian occasions, we recommended using the green+light golden combination as it goes well with the cultural values of Indians, across religions.
The significance of the colours used in the palette is explained below :
Black: Black symbolizes power and elegance. It stands for minimalism and is a sign of luxury.
Dark Green: Green brings a sense of visual balance and harmony, projecting a soothing feeling of relaxation and safety. The colour projects a calm, trustworthy optimism.
Brown: The warmth of brown is associated with reliability, healing, and strength. The colour is considered all-natural and earthy.
Light Golden: Gold is the colour of wealth and luxury. It also signifies wisdom and magic.
White: White is the lightest colour, meaning purity, innocence, perfection and integrity. White is impartial, independent and neutral towards everything.
The Brand Symbol
The finely detailed brand symbol, made of equidistant 5x5 repeated square patterns, catches immediate attention. The brand symbol is the unique version of a square, a well-known, basic, balanced shape. It brings an authentic, genuine and iconic brand appeal to the brand. The symbol pattern represents a fusion of cloth (micro vie level) and a diamond (referring to the quality of our garment designs).
The symbol is recommended to be used independently in smaller places like buttons/zips/embroidery etc. The brand symbol comprises simple geometric figures and is friendly for all embroidery and punching works.
Logo Morphology
The morphology of our logo gives it a unique personality. Its characteristics serve as the basis for our graphic system and are replicated in other assets to give coherence to the entire system.
Brand Typography Family
The below typography system has been chosen in line with our logo morphology. The font for the heading is Manrope. It is recommended as it looks good in large formats and all sizes. The body font, Nato Sans, has been chosen to work in small spaces and smaller sizes. The alternate font, Arimo, has been recommended to be strategically used at places to break the design monotony. All the fonts have been chosen to maintain the overall brand look and uniformity in style at each touch point.
Brand Stationery Design
Packaging Design Strategy for the Brand
Defined Geometric Shape
To create a premium and sophisticated look, we recommended using a defined geometric shape for the packaging. We recommended to avoid using flimsy materials such as pouches and instead opt for rigid materials like cardboard. A rectangular or square box shape for ease of stacking and storage or a unique geometric shape that aligns with the brand image was recommended.
Elegant Look & Subtle Branding
To create a cohesive and stylish brand image, we recommended using subtle branding on the packaging and focusing on elegance. A minimalist design using our pattern with our logo in small size on the packaging creates a premium and elegant look. The focus is on creating a high-quality look that complements the brand, as the packaging will be placed inside an outer shipping box or branded shopping bag.
Fabric Display
To create a visually appealing and unique unboxing experience, we recommended designing the packaging of select collection with a cut-out or die-cut window to display a portion of the garment's fabric from the outside. This will not only make each packaging design unique but will also make it easier for your team to identify SKUs during inventory management.
Eco-Friendly Materials
In line with the current trend towards sustainability, we recommended using maximum eco-friendly materials for the packaging. Materials such as recycled cardboard or biodegradable plastic help reduce waste and our brand's environmental footprint. Achieving around 70-80% eco-friendly material ratio should be good enough.
Minimal Text Usage
To create a clean and modern look, we recommended keeping the usage of text on the packaging to a minimum. The focus should be on visual impact using high-quality materials, subtle branding elements, and unique fabric displays. Any necessary information could be included on a small insert like a ‘thank you’ card or label inside the packaging or on the sides.
Easy to Manufacture & Pack
We had to also make sure that the packaging that we chose should be easy, cost-effective and eco-friendly to manufacture and also the process of packing a garment should be quick and simple.
Brand Store Look
The brand store’s look was recommended to be minimal, modern and iconic, in line with the overall brand image. We recommended using backlit branding on black surfaces or bold white branding on glass facades. The brand symbol was recommended to be used in large formats to strengthen the brand’s visual identity system.
Website UX Design
In terms of UX design, our goal was to create a seamless and enjoyable shopping experience for customers. We prioritized ease of navigation and a user-friendly layout, ensuring that customers could quickly find the information they need and complete their purchase with minimal effort. By incorporating user feedback and testing our design iteratively, our aim was to create a product page that not only meets but exceeds customer expectations.
Website UI Design & Development
Our UI design focused on creating a visually captivating and intuitive interface. The aim was to showcase the product in a way that highlights its unique features and benefits. By using a clean and modern design, we ensured that the user's attention is drawn to the product itself, making the shopping experience engaging and memorable.
EXPLORE SOME OTHER WORK
Case studies of some other brands we’ve built.
Branding is at the core of everything we do. Every design, every detail, every decision — all purposefully crafted to strengthen the brand. Our outcome-focused solutions span research, strategy, creativity, engagement, and execution.
