Lettees: A Case Study
Lettees owner Winslett Watson recognized a need for well-designed, custom kids apparel and gifts for Southern families. Using her graphic design degree and natural business prowess, Winslett turned her “craft room hustle” into a legitimate brick and mortar business with show room and mini event space.
What started as a custom kids apparel business soon evolved to include home decor, gifts, and even a women’s upcycled jewelry line. Her intro email gives some backstory:
“We plan to continue growing our wholesale program and want to drive more online sales through our website. I would love to tighten up our online presence and brand vision. [...] There comes a time in every small business when you realize that you can no longer do it all yourself if you want to continue to grow.”
Flourish was hired to bring a cohesive brand message and identity to Lettees’ expanding product line, as well as act as a soundboard for Winslett as she developed new ideas.
Services Provided
Brand Development
Identity Design
Print Catalogue Design
Packaging Concepts
Brand Photography
Brand Video
Lettees’ original logo.
As part of our 5-week Bloom Package, Flourish and Winslett embarked on a series of in-person conversations to unearth the deeper meaning and purpose behind the products she offered. Some of the questions asked:
What kind of experience do you want people to have after they encounter your brand (takeaways, feelings, etc.)?
Where would your business need to be in 5 years in order for you to consider it a success (comment on size, structure, impact)?
If your brand were a person, how would people describe him/her?
Once enough information was gathered, we began to develop her core beliefs and her target demographic narrative. We use Simon Sinek’s Golden Circle method for outlining a brand’s WHY, HOW, and WHAT statements.
After the Golden Circle is solidified, we identity three core brand beliefs. These are considered to be the “pillars” of a brand’s actions; that is, what drives them to act and how they keep their word on those drives.
Messaging is important, but only half the picture. Next is understanding who you’re directing this messaging to, which is where our target demographic narrative comes in. For Lettees in particular, we developed a persona around The Conscious Giver. Below we outline what traits and worldviews this consumer carries:
Only when all of the above messaging has been developed do we move on to identity design. We ask the client to compile imagery that speaks to their brand aesthetic - these images can be anything from other logos, photographs, products, or even images they’ve created that they feel are in line with where they want their brand to go.
We then identify patterns throughout those images (color, composition, mood) and create a final brand mood board:
Three logo concepts were then presented to Winslett that we felt encompassed both her messaging and her brand aesthetic. Lettees had recently been featured in The Scout Guide and felt that this ad in particular represented her company’s direction, so we used this as a mockup to help determine which logo we’d move forward with.
The chosen concept was then cleaned up and further expanded upon to include secondary logos and misc. graphic assets as seen below:
Email newsletter mockup by Flourish Collaborative.
Packaging concepts by Flourish Collaborative.
After brand development was complete, it was time to create a rich image bank of branded photography (and videography) for Winslett to use on her new website, social media platforms, and her wholesale jewelry catalogue.
Flourish Collaborative acted as Creative Director and Day-Of Coordinator on a half day photo shoot with video. Another half day was spent styling flat lay images intended specifically for Instagram.
All following photography by Apt. B Photo.
Kimson Productions captured the Lettees brand video, intended on promoting the Lettees brand (and wide range of products) as a lifestyle:
The final piece of scope included The EveryDay Collection: Lettees’ upcycled women’s jewelry line. This warranted an entirely other half-day shoot and came together in a custom designed wholesale catalogue.
All following photography by Apt. B Photo.
“Erica, Caty, and Flourish Collaborative have been like a breath of fresh air to work with! Their creative perspective and expertise to help tighten up branding, solidify message, and to organize future goals were exactly what Lettees was looking for. [...] I am so thankful to have invested in FloCo and am happy to have them now as an extension of my creative team for help with print collateral and future brand [photo]graphy!”
Like what we did for Lettees? Send us an email at info [at] flourish collaborative [dot] com.