AMUGONNA
Brand Profile
An athleisure brand focuses on creating apparel with an oversized fit. Amugonna prides itself having a unique fabric blend that promotes leisure as well as athletic or performance training.
Services
Discovery & Research
Logo & Brand Identity Design
Brand Style Guide
Brand Strategy & Architecture
Rebranding
Social Media Content Strategy
Collateral Design
Brand Positioning
Website Design
Web Development (Shopify)
Storyboarding
Video Production
Photography
Copywriting
Client Name
Amugonna
Industry
Athleisure Apparel
Date / Duration
2021 / 6 months
CHALLENGE
Reconstruct the Amugonna brand from an oversized streetwear brand to an athleisure apparel brand that appreciates the arts culture. The brand needed to be reconstructed from the bottom-up and be placed on a direction that the owner can resonate with as well as manage. The goal was to redevelop the brand from visual branding to smoothing out the customer shopping experience.
OUTCOME
Provided the Amugonna brand with a cohesive brand identity touching on all brand assets. Directed and created a social media content pillar strategy to assist the internal team on content curation. Redesign and test the UX/UI of the website shopping experience to provide a smooth and customer focus purchase experience. Utilized e-mail marketing strategies to construct an engaging audience base via social media and through sales. Established an ambassador program to highlight key figures within the Amugonna audience that helps promote the brand values. Directed, produced, and implemented 2 promotional campaigns with Southern California musical and fashion talents. Enabled a partnership with Blue Soju of Berklee School of Music to produce their student organization apparel. Increased sales by 200% enabling 8/14 product lines to be sold out. Established a production workflow to assist internal team for future photography and video endeavors. Developed internal creative team to lead projects involving multi-disciplinary creative professionals.
WHAT HAPPENED ?
Amugonna started off as a brand that focused on providing oversized street basics and slowly transformed into an athleisure brand that provided basics popular to athletes who need a warm-up and cool-down outfit. With the rise of Amugonna’s popularity, the brand started becoming the main apparel provider for student organizations of Berklee School of Music.
IMPACT BY NUMBERS:
Increase in sales by 200% causing 8/14 product lines to be sold out.
Enable an ambassador program hosting 8 brand ambassadors.
Increase social media following and engagement by 90% (+1000 followers).
Complete 2 collaborative promotional campaigns.
Strategy & Approach
Developing a Plan for the Brand
Over a two-day facilitated session, we discovered all of the starting challenges that the Amugonna team were facing when starting the brand. During this discovery process they prioritized their customer needs that would help the target audience to connect with the brand. Moving forward, they wanted to have a guide that would help their team build with a direction for business operations, design, and engagement protocols. They wanted to run a strong e-commerce business and develop a brand that speaks with their audience.
Through a series of sessions and exercises, we were able to define the key pillars of the Amugonna brand. This defined the brand’s personality, voice, and visuals. We wanted to truly understand the motivational story for beginning the brand and embody those traits in the development. Understanding where the Amugonna brand came from and who they wanted to serve, helped define the personality and design philosophy moving forward. The Amugonna brand wanted to create the apparel that can be used for anything from athletics to casual life. This defined the positioning of Amugonna as a go-to for everyday life.
What Amugonna Meant
Who the Users Were
Amugonna was created for the introverted hustlers who grind endlessly for their goals without the need for external affirmation—the silent champions. The Amugonna word meant “anything” in Korean. When asked for a preference, one can reply with “Amugonna” meaning, anything is fine. With that in mind, we took what was originally created and transitioned it into a more modern but simplistic typeface logo. We refined it to work on a broader scale of applications and sizes.
Brand Positioning
Amugonna was a brand that works with the community as opposed to simply providing for the community. They wanted to be a brand that is in constant conversation with it’s audience and innovating based on the feedback of their customers. Hearing this and seeing the goals they expressed helped define the brand with the statement: The go-to for the silent champions.
Brand Refresh
The New Amugonna
The previous logo did not have a design-based structure to it and was simple a typeface. However that served the brand well, and so we did not want to stray too far from what is working well. We updated the typeface to a simple modern version and adjusted the kerning to allow the logo to be applicable on a variety of situations and sizes. Further, we dismantled the type logo and utilized the upside down A as an mark logo for the opening brand.
Keeping in mind that the brand wanted to reach out to the aspiring champions, we worked to create a design system that expressed the relaxed mood, but aggressive energy in the typeface and copy. We constructed the website to be a simple format that did not require a lot of exploration to understand the brand and have a shopping experience. With the brand trying to be a “go-to” apparel, ONESIX concentrated on replicating that experience and not making the navigation difficult to make a choice. The ONESIX team went through numerous sessions of UX testing to make sure the goal of visually appealing, but simple shopping was accomplished.
The User Experience
Measure, Test &
Adjust
With several iterations on the website, ONESIX first focused on a mobile-priority shopping experience. When dealing with a simple shopping experience, the goal was to make sure that using a mobile device was just as easy as shopping online—without the need to navigate for more information. With numerous A/B testing on the website, we were able to simplify the experience to feature what is new, what has been the current favorites, and other shopping filtering systems. Further, we got the brand started on an Email Marketing and newsletter system to help notify their customers and stay connected.
As for the internal team, we documented the process to help illustrate the amount of time commitment is needed so they were able to plan better for future endeavors. Our process also helped the internal design team to create “go-to” assets to minimalize constant creation, but rather create versions of a source material.
Social Media
Content Strategy
After understanding the target audience and developing the user personas, we created a social media content pillar strategy to guide the content creation for Amugonna. We defined 5 key pillars that their audience would like to see from Amugonna and ones that the brand resonated with. Further, we constructed a structure on how the Amugonna brand can connect with influencers and other social media personalities. We started a strategy for their social media platforms that focus on Instagram and YouTube. The strategy give the brand an increase in followers by 90% and increase engagement with their audience by 250%. In addition to other projects for social media and brand promotion, we gave the Amugonna team a guideline on how to prepare for specific projects in case they would like to continue more in the future on their own.
How did it
turn out?
Increase sales by 200% since brand opening and influencer associations across the International borders. A concrete social media presence with an active following. A newsletter subscription base of over 500 subscribers. Became the direct producer of apparel for student organizations at Berkeley School of Music. A cohesive brand design system with an immersive e-commerce shopping experience. Well crafted collateral for a brand experience upon receiving a purchase. Amugonna started off on a strong foundational note that paved the way to pursue further creative and business endeavors.