
“Our customers are beautiful, but not fussy. Our boots are for women who are fashionable, but not fashion plates; confident, wanting a touch of glamour, not afraid to be noticed. Unique… the Poppy Barley girl would perceive our brand as stylish, bold and refined. Original, trustworthy and FUN!”Working together, a strong brand voice was emerging. Escaping the “one-size-fits-all” mentality of mass manufacturing, they were offering an accessible lifestyle of inclusivity, customization and luxury. They had the vision to transform the way women shopped by returning to the handcrafted origins of footwear in an innovative and cutting-edge way. They needed that big brand feeling and wanted to become a household name. With the details of our meetings and branding brief in tow, I set to work on a visual inquiry. I explored all the brands and companies that they had referenced as inspiration, and evaluated their responses to questions, searching for my own visual inspirations that I believed to reflect what they were describing. I discovered that the ideas Kendall and Justine had about what they wanted to look like drastically differed from the richness of their dialogue about what Poppy Barley would achieve. I decided to take the conflicting pieces of the branding questionnaire and create three moodboards to see what they would be drawn to when presented with the comparison.
Moodboard 1
Moodboard 2
Moodboard 3
Not surprisingly, the modern and minimalist aesthetic of moodboard #1, which they had originally expressed desire for, did not capture their attention or feel “right.” A conversation ensued regarding the remaining two moodboards. There was richness to the Poppy Barley story that called for textures and details. Moodboard #2 spoke to tradition, elegance and quality, while moodboard #3 felt a little more “trendy," bold and playful. The decision landed on number 2, for its maturity, warmth and classicism. A series of sketching rounds, typography explorations and digital iterations were speckled with important reflective meetings and emails.