I’ve been approached many times by fashion designers, usually in the midst of starting their own collection, looking to hire me to design their upcoming fashion brands. The expectation of working with a client-designer is usually high, so I still get surprised when they come to me with a sketch of how they want their logo to look like instead of a conceptual briefing.
I find it to be quite odd explaining a fashion designer the differences between a logo and a brand. Should I feel this way? Maybe not, but branding is such a crucial part of the fashion world that feels like any fashion designer should understand branding as much as I do. The facts point to an entirely different reality, fashion designers are specialists in designing clothes not brands, and that’s why I decide to write this quick article.
If you are a fashion designer and you’re looking to start your own fashion brand, before you even starts to think of how do you want it to look like, take a good look at this selection with top fashion designer brands and ask yourself on question, why the typical fashion brand has in its essence a simple typography-based logo?
Louis Vuitton
Calvin Klein
Dolce & Gabbana
Versace
Hugo Boss
Gucci
Givenchy
Emporio Armani
Dior
Fendi
Chanel
Burberry
I hope this questioning spark a line of thought in your mind to help you make the right choice in regards to your branding, but if that is not enough, reflect on this, If I commission a fashion designer to design my own line of clothing, should I draw a sketch of what I want and ask them to push some threads around? Or should be more appropriate to brief the fashion designer with the style I’m looking for, and let the designer do the actual design?