Gorgea
The Gorgea Branding Project was a comprehensive rebranding initiative for Gorgea, a global fashion brand specializing in personalized, customizable apparel that blends vintage aesthetics with modern fusion styles. As the lead designer, I was commissioned by the client to develop a cohesive visual identity that encompassed a wide range of materials, including letterheads, business cards, flyers, social media graphics, magazine layouts, and billboards. The project aimed to elevate Gorgea's presence in the competitive fashion industry by emphasizing themes of personalization, timeless elegance, and individuality. Starting in early 2024, the project spanned six months, involving iterative design phases to create assets that could be used across print, digital, and outdoor advertising. Key deliverables included a refined logo with elegant script typography, a warm color palette of earthy tones like burnt orange, deep maroon, and neutral beiges, and versatile templates featuring fashion models and motivational taglines such as "Fabrics Is Not Just Fashion! Fashion Is Personality!" and "1.5 Million+ Personalized Customers."
Challenges and Objectives
The primary challenges stemmed from Gorgea's established history (dating back to 1970) while needing to appeal to a younger, digitally-savvy audience in 2025. The brand faced stiff competition from fast-fashion giants and sustainable clothing startups, with outdated visuals that didn't convey their core message of personalized, high-quality fashion. Objectives included:
- Creating a unified brand identity that felt luxurious yet approachable.
- Ensuring scalability across formats, from small business cards to large billboards.
- Incorporating elements like custom icons (e.g., clothing, shopping bags, and stars) and photography of diverse models to highlight inclusivity and personalization.
- Balancing vintage roots with contemporary appeal to attract 1.5 million+ customers, as targeted in their marketing goals.
- Addressing budget constraints by focusing on reusable templates that the client could adapt internally.
Research and Discovery
I began by conducting thorough research to understand Gorgea's market position. This involved analyzing competitor brands like Zara, H&M, and emerging players like Everlane, focusing on their visual strategies, color usage, and messaging. I reviewed Gorgea's existing assets, customer feedback from social media, and sales data to identify pain points—such as low engagement on personalized product lines. Discovery sessions with the client, including stakeholder interviews with the fashion manager Jonathan Harris and team, revealed key insights: the brand's strength in custom fusion fashion from 1970 to present, a loyal customer base seeking personality-driven clothing, and a need for visuals that evoked emotion and aspiration. Mood boards were created using tools like Adobe Illustrator and Pinterest, drawing inspiration from mid-century fashion magazines and modern minimalist designs. This phase lasted two weeks and informed a design brief emphasizing earthy tones for warmth and script fonts for elegance.
Concept Development
Building on the research, I developed initial concepts starting with logo iterations. The final logo featured a flowing, interconnected script for "Gorgea" to symbolize fusion and connectivity, tested in monochrome and color variants. Color palette development focused on versatile hues: burnt orange for energy, maroon for sophistication, and beiges for neutrality, ensuring accessibility and print-friendliness. I sketched wireframes for each asset—letterheads with clean layouts for professional correspondence, flyers highlighting "Favourite Apparel Standard Fashion!" with model imagery, business cards for Jonathan Harris incorporating contact details and subtle branding, social media graphics with bold taglines and icons, magazine spreads with table of contents and editorial photography, and billboards for high-impact outdoor visibility. Prototypes were created in Adobe Creative Suite, with three rounds of feedback from the client to refine elements like typography spacing and image placement. This phase emphasized modularity, allowing assets to adapt to different campaigns, such as the "Cycle of Fashion" magazine or "Love Fashion?" social posts.
Results and Impact
The project was completed on schedule in mid-2024, delivering a full branding kit that the client implemented across their channels. Post-launch, Gorgea reported a 25% increase in social media engagement, attributed to the eye-catching graphics and consistent messaging. The personalized customer base grew toward the 1.5 million milestone, with positive feedback on the brand's refreshed, personality-driven image. Billboards and flyers contributed to higher foot traffic in key locations, while the magazine layout enhanced their content marketing efforts. Overall, the rebranding strengthened Gorgea's market position, providing a scalable foundation for future expansions and solidifying their tagline that fashion is more than fabrics—it's personal expression. The client expressed satisfaction, noting the designs' versatility and alignment with their vision.
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