Sometimes a fresh new style just seems right. Whether it’s the change of the seasons, a big life transition, or simply a whim, it’s energizing to switch things up every now and again. We at Garmentory were thinking exactly that when we set out to find a brand-new look that felt more like the most modern iteration of ourselves.
Because Garmentory is a marketplace, we have long steered clear of having a strong brand personality in the hopes it would let our community of designers and brands shine. However, we’ve come to realize that in order to create a collective space that fits the whole, while also telling our own story, we need to incorporate more of a "self." We wanted to implement colors, shapes, and styles that would help our own personality and core messaging stand out so that our boutiques, brands, and customers (YOU!) could clearly see our vision and what our community is all about.
As we began our rebranding journey, we knew there was no one better than the creative agency Round Two to help us in our transitional endeavor. Round Two is a team of quick and innovative thinkers who clearly have an eye for fashion and design. Their deep understanding of fashion’s community and culture is what drew us to them. We interviewed Sewart Clementz, Co-Founder and Creative Director, and Elon Grobey, Graphic Designer, to dig deep into the whats, hows, and whys of our revitalizing rebrand. Find out more about the look below. We really hope you like our style.
Garmentory: Tell us a little bit about your agency, Round Two. What makes you unique?
Stew: Round Two Agency is a creative marketing agency based in LA. We work with social media and influencer marketing, however, our focus is on branding. Our agency began solely as a branding agency and quickly evolved into so much more as we discovered that we had many more talents to utilize such as photography, film, and social media. We realized that opening our scope of work allowed us to deliver high-quality products to many more brands. We took advantage of the unique situation of working in LA and filled a need that we saw for the kind of bespoke, creative work that we wanted to do. Additionally, our approach to branding is unique in that everything we do is one-of-a-kind and everything we create is done by a graphic designer with a dedicated project manager and creative director—whereas most of those around us are using rinse and repeat templates off Canva. (No slander to Canva, we still love it for smaller items). We are constantly seeking to move culture and contribute to our community artistically in everything we do.
G: What was your team's vision for the Garmentory rebrand? What did you see as most important for Garmentory to be able to convey?
S: Our vision for the rebrand came from our meetings with the Garmentory team, a group of highly creative, artistic individuals that we got to know during this process. While we learned about the brand’s luxurious, highly editorial feel and serious messaging around sustainability, we were missing the playfulness and individuality that we saw in the team. We wanted the brand to feel inclusive and colorful while maintaining the same upscale aesthetic. In response to feeling that Garmentory’s personality had gotten lost, we shaped the site and brand to highlight the highly unique and fashionable look and messaging that the team was already conveying. The most important message we wanted to convey was that everyone was welcome. Many high-end designer brands and fashion retailers are exclusive and not friendly to the broad landscape of consumers, and we wanted to change that. Through our messaging change to “For Everyone, but Not Anyone” we brought the Garmentory team’s vibe to the Garmentory brand: inclusive, creative, and elevated—and always searching to help you find your unique style.
G: What elements of the rebrand really stand out to you?
S + ELON: Our favorite elements were definitely the color palette, unique shapes, and font combinations that we created. We felt that the colors and shapes aided in the welcoming and friendly tone that we wanted for the brand, highlighting our messaging of “For Everyone, but Not Anyone.” Additionally, we wanted the fonts to maintain the elevated and upscale feeling of the content while mixing uses of bold and different font styles. The two sides of inviting-yet-curated are different, yet they came together to be cohesive and unique through the use of our designer’s work.
G: Did you have a favorite process of ideation and creativity that came from this project?
S + E: The process of mood boarding was one that we really enjoyed as it allowed us to see that not all of our inspiration was coming from fashion directly. We utilized art, food, and makeup, in addition to fashion, to create the culture that we wanted to surround the brand: free flowing and breaking the rules. The mood board allowed us to really start out the process by taking inspiration from elements found everywhere else and make it into something tangible and cohesive platform for Garmentory and the boutiques and designers that they sell.
