GENET COLLECTION

Context

Genets reputation preceded her. When I met her all I knew was that she was a force to be reconned with, little did I know that by working with her I would find an inspiring role model and a mentor. Genet has such a strong vision and has built a longstanding enduring fashion brand “Paradise Fashion” that paved the way for designers in Ethiopia, while also empowering an entire community and championing sustainability.

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The problem

The website in the state it was presented to me had not been updated for a long time. It did not reflect the subtlety and refinement of Genets brand. It also did not represent her market position as a leader in the industry. This meant that it was more difficult to be competitive in a western market.

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The goal

The goal for this project was to rebrand “Paradise fashion” and to redesign the website to establish presence and be competitive in a western and local market as a legacy brand. This would include a rename, a new logo, branding and branding guidelines, a wordpress site and a functional e-commerce platform.

My approach

1. Kickstarter workshop
2. Research
3. Branding
4. Identity
5. Art direction
6. Web design

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1. Complete alignment

‍In my kickstarter workshops I have a series of questions and research to make sure we are aligned on what the brand should be before I start designing. We went identified the vision and mission, laid out a competition assessment, segmented target audiences, created clear user personas, pinned down the personality through different exercises and finally wrote down the brand values and value propositions. Finally we all put together a mood-board to make sure I had a sense of their visual direction.

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2. Uncovering the foundations

‍Before I started any designs I needed to make sure we started with the correct foundations. So I started with a website audit of the current site and an audit of the brand. This allowed me to start planning clear information architecture for the new website as well as get a clear sense of what assets needed to be created. The next step was to do some market research and through this stage I was able to create a clear brand positioning statement that would lead the design of the brand: Genet is an atelier for specially designed handcrafted fabrics for women by women.

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3. Lead me to paradise

‍After the research we decided that the brand name should change from paradise fashion to “Genet”. Locally and internationally her name was more established than her brand so it made sense to use that as the brand name to give her brand the legacy angle.  Genet means paradise so I decided to start there for visual cues. Taking inspiration from, textiles, ethiopian christian geometry and symbolism and the infinity sign for paradise I created a logomark that was different to the competitors in the market. The Design represents the four leaf clover which is one of the symbols of paradise in the Garden of Eden it also represents a G and E which is all Symbolic of Paradise.

4. The Brand comes to life

‍At this stage I started on the other elements that defines a brand. The tone of voice I wasnted it to have a light playful and friendly tone, it needs to feel personal and make the customer feel like they are our only concern. The color palette is soft and has warm coastal tones, to reflect the light nature of her materials. I chose a Sans serif museo, adobe caslon serif for the body text and quentin as a highlight font, the combination of these fonts would communicate that its a modern brand but is still backed by history while having a handwritten font that can be used in places to give a personal touch.

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5. Shaping the visual story

It was important to make sure that if we are designing a beautiful website, it goes hand in hand with considered beautiful imagery. I created clear guidelines for photography in different settings. Genet showed me her next collection “Warm like the glow of topaz” and we based the design and the art direction on that theme. Together we made sure that we were aligned and Genet took my guidelines and produced spectacular images of models wearing her new collection. When I got the images I edited them to make sure they reflected the brand.

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6. Bringing it all online

Because Genet and I had collaborated so well up to this point, I was equipped with everything I needed to design a cohesive website the reflected the brand personality. I had a clear sense of the story we were going to tell on the site, and all of the information that had to be communicated. My limitation was that I had to start with a wordpress site, but once I found one that I felt was suitable, I took some of the general outline and applied the brand, the colour, graphic elements, typography and designed the UI and then collaborated closely with an engineer to get the website through the door as soon as possible.

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Conclusion

Finally the website was launched and the brand was changed across all of their touchpoints just in time for their 30th anniversary in 2022, which received a lot of media coverage. Genet was by far one of my favourite clients to work with, she gave me space to apply my own creativity and showed through action how she champions women in the workplace.