Brand Purist • Branding projects • ICON Printing

Brand strategy and visual identity refresh for custom clothing company

Overview

ICON Printing, a custom branded clothing company, reached out to Brand Purist to develop a vibrant and coherent brand identity.

Following an immersive branding process, we reinvigorated ICON’s brand by focusing on design, quality and serving the creative industry.

  • The back view of compliment slips with ICON Printing's signature geometric graphics.
  • The front of ICON Printing’s comp slips featuring parts of the brand’s logo as design elements.
  • ICON Printing sticker with geometric shapes in green and purple.

“Our rebranding has been a huge undertaking – one which has required us to rethink how everything from our logo and stationery look to the design of the website. But we couldn’t be happier with the results.”

Portrait of Alex Econs, Director of ICON
Alex Econs
Director of ICON
The office of ICON Printing with a pull-up banner in the background, and a computer screen displaying on-brand online ads and social media posts.

1.

Brand research

The analysis of the highly saturated branded clothing sector revealed opportunities for ICON Printing.

Competitors’ brands felt generic. As they were trying to target a wide audience, they failed to resonate with any particular group. ICON Printing could stand out by truly speaking to the challenges of customers.

In addition to competitor research, we visited printing facilities and conducted surveys that highlighted ICON’s strengths. Their excellent customer service and attention to detail in printing frequently featured in feedback.

Selecting the perfect garment style and material from a rail full of printed samples at the ICON Printing headquarters. Craftsman of the ICON Printing team inspecting a screen printing mesh with the diagonal mark on it. Ink spread across the screen printing mesh at the ICON Printing print house. Close-up photography of an embroidery machine at the ICON Printing studio. Finished screen printed ICON Printing t-shirt before final heat treatment. ICON Printing expert pre-treating a t-shirt for direct-to-garment printing.

2.

Brand strategy

The objective of the rebrand was to identify and express what ICON Printing, as a business and brand, stood for.

The renewed brand had to be impactful and memorable, to get people noticing and talking about ICON. It also had to be a brand that audiences would want to associate with, and even wear clothing featuring its logo.

The brand ethos of ICON Printing was summed up in three core values: Progressiveness, Proactivity and Agility. These ideas provided the foundation for the brand, influencing all of its facets and touchpoints.

3.

Brand design

Dynamism, modernism, flexibility and clarity were the guiding principles for the visual direction.

Our goal was to create a stand-out look, with bold elements and unique details. The colour palette was selected for its distinctiveness from competitors and appeal to designers and creatives. Avenir Next, a modern classic with a geometric, yet human-centric style, was chosen as the brand typeface.

  • The front design of ICON Printing’s business cards feature simple, clear typography. The back of the ICON Printing business cards feature elements of their logo.
  • The back of the letterhead has a strong green colour with the ICON Printing logo artwork elegantly positioned in the lower third of the page. The layout of ICON’s letterhead follows a clear grid system.
Logo design

We designed a typemark for ICON Printing that features a diagonal rectangle replacing the letter "O" in the name. This slanted shape was inspired by tools used to spread paint as part of the screen printing process. It represents a blank canvas for creativity, acting as a frame for images and videos.

  • ICON Printing typemark features a diagonal rectangle replacing the letter ‘O’ in the name.
  • The diagonal rectangle of the ICON Printing logo acts as a frame and a blank canvas.
  • The ICON Printing logo mark was inspired by screen printing tools.
Visual identity

Zooming in on the logomark, we created distinct patterns and artworks. These brand expressions are integral to the visual identity across print, digital and motion graphics.

  • ICON Printing logo on the front of a sweatshirt. The ICON Printing logo artwork used on the back of a t-shirt.
  • Canvas tote bag with bold, graphic artwork based on the ICON Printing logomark. ICON Printing logo on a canvas tote bag.

4.

Brand implementation

After our design solution was approved, we moved on to delivering the final assets for a full brand launch.

The core part of this work was redesigning the e-commerce platform of ICON Printing to match the new brand. We photographed various printing processes and details of items to emphasise craftsmanship. We also generated thousands of product photos to bring consistency to ICON’s website.

Web design

The website redesign was an extensive exercise, covering the product catalogue, item customisation, order process, and many content pages. All page layouts follow one clear grid system. Large headlines in the brand’s distinct green colour are combined with high quality large images for visual impact. We liaised closely with ICON’s chosen web developers to ensure the final product was true to our designs.

Brand films

We partnered with production studio Haus Pictures to create four short brand films, each showcasing a different production method. Animated graphic artworks of the brand’s signature design elements complement the videos.

Photography

We captured the printing and embroidery processes at ICON’s facilities and took close-up shots of high-quality, finished products. The images have fashion and lifestyle aesthetics to bring creative audiences closer to the brand.

Direct-to-garment printing in progress at ICON Printing. The printer head of the DTG machine operates along the same principles as a regular inkjet printer. Close-up of the embroidering process. Before the screen printing mesh is created, the artwork is printed in black on a transparent sheet. The printers keep an archive of recent screens. To dry the ink faster, the garments are treated with heat.

As each clothing manufacturer had their own unique style of product photos, ICON’s online catalogue was an eclectic mix of images. We introduced consistency by creating thousands of product images following a unified aesthetic.

Ready to elevate your organisation’s branding? Get in touch to find out how we can help you.