Creating a Resonating Brand

The human psyche is a fascinating thing, we know so much but so little - we know more about it from a philosophical perspective, than a psychological one.

When building the visuals and the branding behind Online Shop, I went through various designs, dozens if not hundreds. Various logo types, typefaces and perspectives, messages, art.

I also thought it would be good to conduct a study on a sample set of 22 potential customers, /7 short of a full π. They came from various backgrounds, with highly different Alma maters, to no academic background at all. From enthusiastic shoppers, to ones which were highly resistant of pressures derived from a consumerist driven society. The ages were between 19 and 43.

In total, we showed the subjects over 1,500 different media, this also included various sounds and videos. Some say it would be a highly irrelevant study, however the results presented were quite fascinating and helped create the brand you see before you - it had shown us how people view not only what a successful brand is, or may be but how they necessitate success and failure, love and hate, happiness and vitriol and so forth.

We concluded that the subjects perceived top of summits or hills as light, and representation of happiness and success - ascension. This ascension invigorated return to nature, and natural order of life. This contrasted with their perception of metropolitan areas, which represented the brooding atmosphere, symbolic of consumerist perversion; artificial lights and neon representing natural light, which was being covered by the brick-and-mortar cityscape, with the only beam of 'hope' being the sun and the moon, in-turn representing these urban areas as a 'basement of heaven' - as one comment suggested. This also represented sadness, and this sadness represented strength, of course, in this case study we'd assume strength represents one taking a leap of faith, to disconnect from the 9 to 5 status quo and believe in their own capability, to venture out and have the courage to experience success and failure - to ascend from the darkness of a city, to the light of a summit peak.

This wonderful foundation also presented with a challenge of converting such a common term, into a resonating brand. Since we know the foundation of what we want to convey in emotion, and perception we needed to find a colorway which would match the aesthetic of melancholy to convey into strength, and wonder. It didn't take much to figure out the opposing forces in the color spectrum of black and white. Each unique and wonderful in their own perceptive ways; just like the moon and the night sky surrounding it. A glimmer of hope, in a sea of darkness.

The 'n' in online connecting with the 'h' in shop to represent a mountainous hill, and the 'p' representing a crescent moon in the night sky.

This new brand identity, from the logo to the tagline of 'we put you at the top of the hill, whilst your competition sleeps' proven to resonate with a lot of people; providing them a way to find the ascension through software, to build their own business, their own brand - their own journey, and all of that starts with a foundation to build on.