Our typical DesignGood client usually fell into categories like therapist, speaker, coach, health and wellness, etc. Apparel clients were not something we worked on often. But we were happy to create a beautiful brand and website for Lounge by H, an apparel brand focused on luxurious loungewear. As it turns out I have a background in fashion design and so I was very happy to work on an apparel-related client.
I began by creating Visual Identity options for the client. As the designer for this project, my main goal was to make sure that the Lounge by H presence felt elevated enough to compete with brands such as Sleepy Jones, Lunya, and Eberjay. Secondarily, it was important for me to include small bits of things I knew the client liked. I created palettes that included hues from her collections, and used textures and imagery that felt soft and tactile. Other than these throughlines, each option could stand on its own identity. I was sure to include some visual identities that felt very trendy and fashion-forward, while others felt more contemporary and heritage.
Ultimately the client selected the first option below, a visual identity that included muted skin tones, arched shapes, and soft-feeling photography. What is fun about this option is the combination of soft aesthetics with little pops of neon and straight-edged graphics. This combination of elements felt new and unique compared to the typical buff-toned vibe you'd expect.
As is expected in branding projects, our client's logo and visual identity morphed over time. The arched photography was beautiful but in practice the client wasn't super excited about it. The logo itself eventually changed, as did the client's monogram. Instead of our original stacked serif wordmark, the client requested a logo that felt more 'her'. She provided us a sketch of her 'H', and I created the logo (left) that she uses today.
Additionally she opted for a bright robin's egg blue for her pop color. Though she seemed to like the neon chartreuse, I think the blue felt more authentic to her brand; this shade in particular was a hue she used across a handful of her products.
Below you can see her website direction. Though we generally do our client sites in Webflow, product-centric clients end up with so much more functionality in Shopify. So I designed her site with Shopify in mind. We used the Prestige - Allure* template as a base because it had fun features such as a 'Shop the Look' type section that displayed products based on the image they appeared in.
While designing the Lounge by H site, my main focus was ensuring she had large, beautiful photography across the site. There's nothing worse than online shopping and finding the product photography to be poorly lit or grainy. To a user, a lack of nice photography just sends up alarm bells in terms of brand trustworthiness. So I did a lot of legwork to track down as much Lounge by H photography as I could and supplemented it with free, high-quality stock photography from Unsplash and Pexels.
Shopify was the biggest challenge on this project - the software certainly makes designing a little bit less flexible since the site isn't being coded from scratch. But the functionality of the service far outweighed the downsides. In the end the client received a beautiful, soft, tactile site that displayed her product in the best light.
*Please note that the Prestige - Allure template has been since updated and doesn't have the same visuals/features as in 2022 when this site was designed.
As a designer and illustrator, I'm always looking for new ways to create magic for others. Whether you're looking for a rebrand, a new website, or even a new long-term designer, let's make the connection.
