Design Marketing
Throughout this project you will learn more about the business of fashion and gain a
an understanding of key aspects of the goods to consumer timeline.
an understanding of key aspects of the goods to consumer timeline.
Brand Profile A -Cold -Wall
Narrative
The brand founded by designer Samuel Ross projects an image of technological design innovation. The aesthetic is very minimal with shapes and silhouettes inspired by brutalist architecture very clear throughout the products. It explores the possibilities within luxury menswear by combining it with functionality. The brand is very much inspired by urban settings of London and working class British, hence the focus on function. Ross's graphic design history is also very clear throughout the brand image, reflected by the minimalism. All of these components portray a modern luxury brand with a very contemporary feeling.
Product
A-Cold-Wall products use technological fabrics and materials. Combining this with traditional tailoring techniques, the outcome is a very modern looking silhouette. The products are very versatile. Very functional yet also very contemporary, the type of luxury product is very modern. The functionality of the products offer something which other luxury brands do not. Products could be seen on the runway or in a rainy London street. Ross has broken boundaries combing this functional innovation with luxury fashion. The products seem super experimental through using this functional materials, such as PVC.
Looking at their newest Spring/Summer line, I was amazed by all the bright colours in which Samuel Ross has started to incorporate into ACW. He is evolving the brand to to be brighter during these darker times which again incorporates another layer into how ACW wants to be perceived in the future. The focus on ready-to-wear diversifies the audience of who is consuming luxury, and how luxury is being perceived, with luxury functionality becoming favoured with a different audience over the; Avant- garde and Haute Couture.
Colour Palette
The bright colours they used for their recent collection inspired me to base the campaign around this collection as a celebration for the spring/summer. I'd personally never experienced a city during these seasons and was excited to document this feeling, despite being the near end of winter not quite spring.
A new concept which the brand have introduced is availability to purchase hardware to customise ACW products. This allows consumers to purchase into the brand without spending hundreds of pounds. Also it enhances the interaction between the individual and the brand. It allows the consumer to personalise the products they want, making it far more personal. This creates brand loyalty, consumers feel the brand is catering towards their needs. Also if any of the hardware on their existing products break, it means they can replace it easily, extending the cycle of the product.
Products from A-Cold -Wall are priced in line with many other contemporary luxury brands. For accessories and basic tops such as ; T-shirts and hoodies, prices range from £100-£500. For basic products this is very expensive, but taking into account the innovative materials used and the unique design language behind the products are fairly priced. Generally products range from £100- £600 with outerwear being the most expensive products.
The pricing strategy for A -Cold- Wall is competitive and also a bit penetrational when comparing with other luxury brands. For example, a trench coat from OffWhite could easily cost £1000+. Therefore consumers are drawn to A-Cold-Wall as they understand the high-quality of the garment, yet are paying less than the competitors for a luxury product, therefore the product seems worth the money. In my opinion this strategy is very effective as products aren’t priced too low to give a low-quality feeling, but aren’t priced too high dicouraging customers.
Promotion/Product
A very innnovative collaboration A-Cold-Wall featured in was with Beats by Dre. The headphones which are covered in a concretre grey, yet again synonymous with the streets of London, are worn by US rapper Lil Durk. This perticular person was chosen in my opinion in order to further penetrate the North American market. The reason being Beats are a much bigger company in the US, therefore using a rapidly growing icon within US pop-culture was a very effective move for the promotional campaign. Majority of the target customers within the US market would know of Lil Durk somehow being a-part of the culture. Therefore seeing an American icon wearing an A-Cold-Wall collaboration with one of the favourite headphone brands in the US is a good way to be introduced to the American Market.
Recently with Doc Martens. The campaign features a photoshoot and short video of some young brits riding around an estate on a moterbike. To me this campaign truly does resonate with a “working class” Britain. Also it gives the brand a very energetic youthful image truly conncecting with it’s target consumer. At the same time the video has an artistic imagery being bordered by big yellow/brey blocks. Referencing brutalistic structures yet again, and when looking at the actual product, the same yellow blocking is on the heel counter of the shoe. Maintaing the brand image throughout, from promotional material to product, truly shows how well thought out and how clear of a vision Ross has for A- Cold- Wall*
For their collaboaration with Doc Martens a few months ago they teamed up with artist “Slawn” who has a growing reputation within the London scene. When connecting with a local consumer market this strategy is very effective. "Slawn" is a part of the up-coming pop-culture scene in London specifically. Supporting a growing artist in a local community truly connects to other people in the community, showing that local artists can become successful. This gives people in the local area of London respect for the brand as Ross also came from humble beginings, but is now supporting the culture which inspired him to start the brand in the first place.
https://www.anothermag.com/another-man/12586/four-people-on-why-they-love-wearing-a-cold-wall-samuel-ross-hugh-hayden
A Cold Wall when promoting the brand, typically use social-media channels such as Instagram as a majority of their target audience use these platforms on a daily basis. Specifically using icon’s in pop culture to promote their product is a very effective method. Recently, famous rapper Gunna. Who is currently going viral on Tik Tok over his song “Pushing P”, recieved an ACW gillet in which he posted on his Instagram story thanking the brand for the gift. This exposure puts the brand in the spotlight of pop-culture. This ensures the brand is staying relevant, and consumers then idolise the brand because of this.
Another way the brand promotes itself is through it’s well thought out campaigns. Recently they featured UK drill rapper Pa Salieu who has recently risen in popularity. A new part of British pop-culture in recent years is Drill music as it connects to a Gen Z and Millenial age group. A huge part of the growth of Drill is through social media and digital platforms. One small instance of the popularity of Drill music with this target audience is; a song called “Packs and Potions” by Hazey. A up-coming Liverpool rapper who at the young age of 17 gained; over 6 million views on YouTube and over 45 million views on short videos related to the song on Tik Tok. Showing truly that this music culture is gaining huge popularity in Britain, and worldwide.
Pa Salieu is also an artist who is growing at a fast rate, in the last year he has collaborated with two huge icons currently in British pop-culture; Slowthai and Aitch. Specifically wearing the “Storm Jacket” which is a high-end puffer coat, which is targetting competitors in this market; Stone Island, Canada Goose, Moncler etc. These competitors are also very popular within pop-culture. This is very effective when conncecting with young British consumers as it is part of their “pop culture”.
Store Visit
When visiting the ACW store in Harrods, it truly reflected Ross’s love architecture and design. Clearly inspired by brutalist architecture from the London streets, the display features corragated steel, with pops of colour throughout the display. It feels very elegant but also very elgant and calculated at the same time. The display reflects the clothing perfectly in this regard, focusing on the materials used as part of Ross’s design language.
The website also relfects this focus on technicality and minimalism. When entering the site, the consumer is greeted by a detailed photo of their products, ensuring the material used is clear to the consumer. This allows the customer to visualise the garments texture more effectivley. The website then becomes more sensory, not only visually, but consumers feel they can touch the garment, despite it only being on a screen. The continuous focus on technicality throughout the brand, from store to website, gives an innovative imagery. Making A- Cold -Wall feel like one of the most forward looking contemporary luxury brand in the market.
Christian Louboutin Display
Givenchy Display
Miu Miu Display
https://www.anothermag.com/another-man/12586/four-people-on-why-they-love-wearing-a-cold-wall-samuel-ross-hugh-hayden
Samuel Ross (Founder)
Samuel Ross is the founder of A -Cold - Wall which started in 2015. He began studying graphic design and illustration in DeMonfort University. After graduating with flying colours. He then started working for some industrial brands such as; Wilkinson and Beko Kettles. During this time he was working on his own creative output under many different aliases ranging from; Film making, street art and garment design. In 2012 he was scouted by Virgil Abloh as an intern, later being hired as a first design assistant.
His practise has been informed hugely by his up-bringing. Growing up in Brixton during the 90’s he was exposed to ‘working class’ Britain at an early age. Then travelling accross Britiain during his education gave him a much better insight into industrial Britiain. He started A-Cold -Wall from a notion of “How do we lift the vale on the abject and the unseen accross working class Britain? What does that look like in terms of geography and architecture? And how can these architectural forms and raw materials and those pallets and nuances inform almost like a poplous or a fragment or a slice of society that maybe isn’t being brought to the fore-front.”
This unique notion to his practise has given A-Cold-Wall a very unique brand identity. To me the brand has a very contemporary feeling but at the same time also very innovative. The reason being “working class” Britain is the inspiration behind the brand, yet it operates within the luxury market.
"Extracting the unseen and thrusting that into pop-culture."
"The perception of whom Luxury belongs to needs to change."
"You'll probably find more luxury object and goods in these brutalist neighbourhoods than in these middle class neighbourhood."
Listening to Ross discuss his design work and the thought processes behind it gave me a much better insight into the A-Cold-Wall brand as a whole. How exactly the brutalist materials of "working class" Britain inform the products he designs, from; colour palette, forms, materials used. These change based on the context of the work produced. For instance when working with Nike on the Vomero 5 silhouette, he decided to add a brutalist block to the counter of the shoe, the reason being it was a more commercial project. Therefore the shoe would be seen by the masses and it was to catch the attention of the audience to the upper of the shoe, but also referencing brutalism at the same time.
From this I learned that carrying the design language of brutalism/working class Britain through the campaign was to the up-most importance and had to reference this to make every decision. From this I wanted to base the campaign on a Brutalist structure in London as it would give me a good focus point.
Instagram : #acoldwall
https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/fashion/article/samuel-ross-a-cold-wall-aw21
Looking at the "#" section on Instagram gave me a lot of insight into what other brands current ACW customers were into. These were the most common brands which were also hash tagged when searching the "#acoldwall". A common factor which these brands have are they either are massively popular within "pop-culture" or they focus on the materials and technology of the garment.
A Focus on Brutalism, even naming a T-shirt 'Brutalist'.
Brutalist Structure Research
As Brutalism is a huge part of the brand, I thought it was important to gain a true understanding through visiting various Brutalist structures in London.
The Block structure is at The National Theatre in London. I was amazed by this building, and truly gained an appreciation of Brutalism. The visit happened at golden hour which was perfect for the one side of the structure to be perfectly lit whilst the other a complete shadow. With "The Shard" in the background you can compare the buildings, in my opinion The Brutalist building is far more astounding, especially the way it works with the light, despite being a basic a pretty raw material.
Location: Alexandra Estate
The Video
Visiting The Alexandra Estate and documenting my journey there, I tried to record every part of the journey there; public transport, cars going past, anything which I found interest in. Surrounding myself in Brutalism I felt would give the video an ACW aesthetic as it is visiting a source of their inspiration. The idea was to have an adventure around London because it was sunny, as I felt this would be relatable to a lot of ACW's customer base. I chose spontaneously whilst the sun was out to go and visit Alexandra Estate. The sun was important as it would truly make the video feel more summery, which is what the campaigns message is celebrating.
Using an old digital camera was the desired effect I wanted as the grain when zooming etc makes the video feel more home-made and friendly, which I thought would be a better feeling for this campaign celebrating summer in a city. Also it was important the camera was light and compact in order to document every moment of the day.
The Edit
The idea was to compile all of the videos into one longer video and one shorter video.The longer video has all the natural sounds from the camera and the shorter video has music playing to match the quicker pace. The longer video would be posted on their website as people visiting would have more time to watch the video rather than when their scrolling on social-media. The shorter video would be made for their social-media pages as people on these platforms generally have a much smaller attention span.
For the videos I was hugely inspired by ACW's most recent video with Doc Martens. The yellow blocking I felt worked best with the video, I did try various other shades from the palette I had made for the brand, but yellow did seem to work best. After placing all the clips from videoing my day visiting Alexandra and increasing the speed on each individual clip. I placed the yellow border, but the video still seemed it was lacking a quality. Adding black rectangles floating across the screen (which I had never done, but managed to figure out) was inspired by all of the blocky shapes which I had seen that day. This also gave the video an extra layer of movement. The sped-up video clips work well in my opinion and truly do document the journey as it is not only visual but audible.
It was also missing an intro into the video. The intro has a giant grey block which again is inspired by brutalism and the yellow writing and logo which was image traced through illustrator. In my opinion it works well and captures the attention of the person watching. Overall I was very happy with how the video turned out as I felt it does have the ACW aesthetic and does capture the sense of adventuring around London.
For the shorter video in which I cut clips and sped up some footage, I believe the pace is very quick, and does keep the attention of person watching. The music which I chose is the artist , "Ayrtn" is an artist from south-east London who is up-and coming in the rap industry. The song "Black Cat" works incredibly well over the video matching the pace of clips in my opinion, and also ends the video perfectly.
Instagram Mockup Post.
After having some feedback, the focus of multi-platform wasn't quite being informed enough. Therefore I decided to visualise the video in physical locations.
Focusing on travel; Tube, Bus and Walking in London was necessary to communicate with the "ACW" audience. Another aspect of the video in which could be improved was the branding, making it clearer to the viewer.
Another valid point which was made is that people using social media and the internet in general have a smaller attention span. Therefore it was necessary to capture their attention quickly.
Acting upon this choosing to create an even snappier video as both previous videos are over a minute long.
For all the mockups within the project I used Adobe Illustrator and have gained a much greater understanding of the program throughout the project.
Final Video Outcomes
Longer version
Shorter version