Custom Invitations
Designer · Personal project
Freelance
A small brand wins attention by being unmistakable — stripes, sunshine yellow and a round pair of sunglasses you can spot from across a feed.
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Visual identityLogo designTypographyPrint collateralSocial media designPhoto & video
The Brief
My close friend CB makes croakies — beaded sunglasses chains — under the name Chicky Collective. I noticed her social media profile image could be improved. The old look was hard to read and didn't reflect the vibe she wanted to give her audience.
So I took the initiative and designed a few alternatives that better reflected her product. She loved them and put them to use, and I kept going — the rest of the visual identity, then the business materials — until I was her branding and marketing consultant. She jokes that I'm her intern, which isn't entirely wrong. The product and the business are hers; the identity is what I made for it.
The Identity
CB asked me to keep her stripes and colours, so this was a makeover rather than a rebuild: new typefaces, new colour placement, and a pair of round sunglasses as the recurring mark. The sunglasses were my idea — she makes chains for them, and the round shape screamed funky, which is exactly what we were going for.
We didn't work from a moodboard, just a handful of words — creative, authentic, personalised, elevated, stylish, fun, playful chic, functional chic. And, above all, funky.
The logo works at three sizes. The primary lockup stacks CHICKY over COLLECTIVE for anywhere with room to breathe. The secondary compresses it to CHKY CLTV for tighter spaces. The tertiary sets that compressed version inside a pair of round sunglasses — and it's the one we use most.
Primary and secondary logos. The tertiary sunglasses mark, in regular use. Primary logo on the primary background. Secondary logo on the primary background.
Cubao carries the voice — heavy, rounded and a little retro — with Cubao Narrow for tighter spaces and Phenix American, a tall condensed face, for supporting lines. I'd bookmarked Cubao while working on other projects because it looked funky, girly and playful; when I started on Chicky, I knew it was the one. Navy and baby-blue stripes are the brand's primary background, so even a crop with no logo in it still reads as Chicky.
The Materials
Every piece here is in use. The business materials borrow the product itself — a beaded chain frames the back of the business card, and the sunglasses repeat into a pattern for postcards and personal notes — while the swing tag and the profile image put the primary logo on the stripes.
Business card, front. Business card, back. Postcard and personal note. Swing tag and circular profile image. Chain illustration, navy and yellow. Chain illustration, single colour.
Behind the Camera
The identity isn't the only thing I make for Chicky. While I've been in Texas, I've shot photos and videos for its Instagram and helped shape the creative concepts behind them. CB models in most of the posts; I'm usually the one behind the camera.
From London, I keep making new materials and graphics from the brand toolkit, and offer advice whenever CB wants it. Chicky Collective is still in its early stages — I just happened to be there at the beginning.
What I learned
- A small brand needs a system more than a logo. The stripes and the sunglasses do as much of the recognition work as the wordmark does.
- Designing the compressed CHKY CLTV mark early paid off everywhere space was tight — and it became the tertiary mark we use most.
- A makeover can be braver than a blank page. Keeping CB's stripes and colours gave the new type and the sunglasses something familiar to push against.
Where I would take it next
- Turn the photos and videos I shoot into a simple style guide, so the feed stays as consistent as the identity.
- Package the brand sheet into guidelines CB can hand to a printer or anyone making something for the brand.
Next project
Custom Invitations
One birthday, four invitations — three Wes Anderson movie-night options and a cocktail-bar poster, each borrowing the whole visual language of what it invites you to.