Ecoscape Brand Development Case Study

Problem

Ecoscape is a small eco-friendly travel gear company for female adventurers. The company specializes in eco-friendly travel gear for female adventurers who want to escape from their everyday lives and coexist harmoniously with the beautiful earth while also discovering all its wonders.

With hopes to reach more customers, Ecoscape is working to develop an online presence and requires branding that reflects company values. Up until now their products have only sold at small boutiques with little to no branding, not even a company name.

Solution

Beautiful customized branding that reflects Ecoscape’s company values and visions to create products for female adventurers that have minimal impact on our planet.

Project Scope

  • This project is for freelance work that I did for a small local travel gear business

  • 3 month duration from March to June 2019

My Role and Direct Contributions

  • Solo Brand Development Designer. My responsibilities included building the company story, analyzing competitors and designing the company’s entire brand, including their logo, typography, and UI styles etc.

Tools

  • Sketch, InDesign, Photoshop, Google Sheets

Design Rationale

Company Discovery

I began this project by sitting down with the founders to discuss with them their values and vision for their company. I put myself in their shoes to empathize with their cause and based on their answers, I outlined general information about the company. See below.

Who is Ecoscape?

An eco-friendly travel gear company for female adventurers.

What do we do, and why?

We specialize in eco-friendly travel gear for female adventurers who want to escape from their everyday lives and coexist harmoniously with our beautiful earth while also discovering all its wonders. Our products include, but are not limited to backpacks, jackets and boots made from eco-friendly material, such as recycled fabrics, as well as biodegradable and BPA-free materials. Every product keeps women in mind, for example, bags would include makeup compartments and utilize stylish patterns.

What is our promise?

We promise to provide you with well made, eco-friendly, functional and stylish products for women that will make your next adventure a once in a lifetime experience that has minimal impact on our planet.

What can you only get from us?

We are the only eco-friendly travel gear company for female adventurers that you can rely on when you are on the road.

What is our story?

We are a group of environmentally conscious women who love to travel. We believe that some of the best travel happens when you step out of your comfort zone and connect with the world around you on a more personal level. Life on the road can be tiring, stressful and sometimes even scary. We’re here to help you have the best experience possible, while also staying safe, looking stylish and reducing your carbon footprint. After-all, the healthier our planet, the more there is to explore!

What is our future?

We want to be the go to brand for environmentally conscious women who love to travel and explore the world. Some of our future partnerships can be with environmental NGOs (e.g. David Suzuki Foundation) who focus on creating environmental awareness.

Who loves/may love us, and why? (aka Target Market)

  • Women ages 18-30 who want to discover the world

  • Environmentally conscious people who care about minimizing their carbon footprint as they travel

  • Women who love to travel, particularly those who love adventures and solo traveling because it gives them a chance to really connect with their surroundings

  • Women who have always wanted to solo travel but find the thought daunting or intimidating

  • Women who find current travel gear unappealing to look at and want to look nicer while they travel

Where do we want our touchpoints with customers to be (by priority)?

  1. Community events hosted by environmental, travel and female oriented organizations

  2. Sponsorship (e.g. from travel companies, hostels and environmental/travel/female oriented organizations)

  3. Social media

  4. Targeted advertisements

  5. Online retail through website

  6. E-Mail

  7. In-store Retail

Competitive Analysis

Using the above information, I determined that the company’s competitors include the stores listed below.

Stores women shop at:

  • Hudson’s Bay Company and Nordstrom Canada

General travel gear:

  • Mountain Equipment Co-op and Europe Bound Travel Outfitters

Eco-friendly travel gear:

  • Green Home and EcoGear products

I then analyzed each competitor based on their offerings, aesthetic, product positioning, photography, eco-friendliness and how female oriented they are. Each category was given a value of 1 to 5 (e.g. 1 for broad offerings and 5 for focused offerings). The chart below depicts my analysis which shows that EcoGear is our biggest competitor with focused offerings similar to our’s, products that are affordable, extensive photography and very eco-friendly products. This competitive analysis will guide my branding decisions as I move forward with my process.

What’s in a Name?

At this point it was important to give the company a name. What I landed on after presenting my ideas to the founders and receiving their feedback was Ecoscape.

Ecoscape combines the words ecology and escape to represent one’s desire to escape from their everyday lives to coexist harmoniously with their natural environment.

5 other possible names I had in mind were:

Discovher

  • A play on words combining discover and her to sound like the word discover

  • Alludes to a woman’s adventurous spirit and desire to discover the world

Wandherful

  • A play on words combining wander and her to sound like the word wonderful

  • Alludes to how wonderful it is to simply wander as a woman

Ecoxist

  • Combines ecology and co-exist

  • Represents one’s desire to coexist harmoniously with the natural environment

Voyagher

  • A play on words combining voyage and her to sound like the word voyager

  • Alludes to a woman’s adventurous spirit and desire to voyage the world

Voyelle

  • Combines voyage and elle (means she in French)

  • Alludes to a woman’s adventurous spirit and desire to voyage the world

Logo Concept

A significant amount of time was spent on creating the logo concept. I researched many eco, travel and female oriented companies to see the types of logos designed. Possible logo components I considered were: leaf, flower, outline of woman’s face, airplane flying, globe, navigation symbol, pin drop symbol, female symbol. Below is are digital drafts of my logo for Ecoscape.

Colour Palette

I then brainstormed the colour palette based on what the company determined were their brand values.

Brand Style Guide

Once the company name, logo, brand values and colour palette were decided it was time for the most fun part of brand development - creating the brand style guide! Below is the brand style guide I created for Ecoscape, which includes the finalized logo, finalized colour palette and rationale for my design choices.

Lessons Learned and Next Steps

Throughout this case study I learned that brand development requires many iterations to get the company’s look and feel correct. It was important to work with the founders and receive feedback consistently to ensure that what I was creating was inline with their vision. However, it was also important that I was able to defend my design choices when they were contested so that a cooperative solution can be agreed upon.

The next step for Ecoscape is to use the developed brand on all their materials to expand their customer base. In time, I hope to create their e-commerce mobile app using the branding I developed.