Made for Sunny Weather| Toucan Shirt Co. Brand Case Study
The main 3 things to keep in mind when you see anything related to the Toucan Shirt Company is this:
- Stylish
- Simple
- Comfortable
Those are the guiding principles behind the brand and everything that has been designed for it. When we came up with these 3 core principals about the product itself, The brand had to feel the same as well. What Toucan Shirt Co. brought to the table that other clothing brands in Jakarta — and there are so many of them — was the combination of a simple pattern style, amazingly smooth, comfortable and airy materials as well as the affordable price. All the other brands had some elements of them but never all 3 of them and that’s what made this brand unique in the market.
Brief
As mentioned before, Michelle — the client — needed help with crafting a brand for a men’s fashion clothing company. While she had experience in the fashion industry with women’s clothing, she’d never done anything for men before and thus wanted to showcase a style that resonated with what the target market wanted. We decided that the comfy-but-smart attire that she was selling could benefit from having a chill, relaxing but bespoke vibe to it. It needed to be something that the target market felt like they needed not wanted.
Solution
What I found unique about this project compared to previous brands that I’ve worked with is that, there was already a clear idea about what the brand is about and we quickly agreed to the direction that we wanted to go with. It had to look comfy, relaxing and inviting but in a way that was cool and can draw the attention of the target market, young guys who are fashion-aware. After that it was about showcasing the brand through various touch points, this is where mockups were created to flesh out the Toucan Shirt Co. and breathe some life and inspiration so that Michelle could continue on with the brand.
Initial Thoughts & Brainstorm
Sticking to the core themes of being stylish, simple and comfortable, Me and the client decided to stick towards a simple brand, having a few elements but being able to use them in unique ways. Unlike for women’s fashion brands that usually have a more pastel tone to it, that kind of colour palette wouldn’t really suit a men’s fashion brand. I looked up inspiration of beachwear brands and surf/diving shops on Pinterest and how they designed their logos and common elements among business that have to do with beach life, such as stamps/postcards/distressed textures, hand-drawn monoline illustrations to have a good idea about what direction to take this brand in.
Logo Design Process
We didn’t want to commit too much to the Hawaiian beach theme since the products are going to be sold in Jakarta, far away from beaches and oceans. But we still wanted to hint at that idea which is why I decided on a simplified monoline script font for the logo name and to add a touch of whimsy and also to include a mark to be more easily identifiable and memorable, I sketched out and vectorised a simple toucan logo to fit with the monoline script font that we chose for the logo.
After all the elements were put together, I explored different layouts that would work and created variations that could be used for different situations, whether they are big — like for booth signage — or small — like on clothing tags. I always create different sizings for the logo but still keep the design style relatively similar whether its through using certain elements again, or keeping the same dominant color, in this case, a Tropical Rainforest Green (or #045E5E, in case you were wondering).
Other supporting elements were also developed to add to the brand’s image and feel. Simple marks that don’t overpower the logo, but rather, help elevate it. The idea of including supporting elements is so that you have a better and clearer picture that further solidifies the brand. These can be done through creating posters, descriptors, small icons/illustrations.
Colors & Textures
Considering that we’re using a toucan symbol as the logo, and creating the character of Theo the Toucan to give the brand even more life and make it more fun, I decided to stick with the concept of the bird and incorporate similar colors, like the yellow-orange bill of the bird. This opened the door to using subtle shades of orange and yellow as a good accent color on the backdrop of the dark green. It’s a common color combination since it is very obvious in nature. I chose a dark green that had more shades of blue in to give it a cooler tone and felt that it connected more with the target market as well as contrasting better with the orange accent color of the brand.
Lastly, a nice Floral White (#FCF8ED) is used as the neutral color to give it that washed out sandy beach feeling as compared to full white.
Brand Applications
After the main bulk of the logo and branding process was finished, it was time to move on to designing the collateral elements of the brand. Business cards, tote bags and box packaging were among the few things that needed to bring the Toucan Shirt Company to life.
All these collateral items are planned to be slowly introduced as the brand slowly grows traction in the market and more and more people start taking an interest in, not only the products, but the idea and the brand as a commodity.
Final Thoughts
I’ve actually been waiting for a project like this to come up and am so glad it did through the client I had. We were on the same page all throughout the process and there was the appropriate amount of creative freedom while working within certain restrictions that yielded the best result possible. I’m really excited about how this business will grow and am a big fan of the products already. They really are as soft and comfortable as they say.
Hopefully, with the help of the brand and identity we’ve created here, other people interested in these kinds of products will see that too.
It should go without saying that a good brand won’t guarantee you sales. A good brand should speak to its intended audience and connect with them and I’m confident that Toucan Shirt Company has done exactly that through the process we took on throughout this branding project.
Thanks for making it this far! check out the full presentation and other mockups on my behance page.
Please give me feedback if you guys got any. Would definitely love to hear feedback from other people on this! As someone who is a self-taught, I don’t have many connections with designers (or just people who can give me solid constructive criticism on my projects) so any feedback from you awesome readers are very welcome!
Give yourself a round of applause for making it this far! You deserve it!
