sam-price.design

Halten

Branding, Logo Design, Style Guide & UI Kit

Brand Development

The challenge- designing a brand from the ground up. The company- a heritage outdoor gear retailer.

To get my footing, I set out on a competitive analysis of the outdoor gear space. To narrow the field, I focused initially on the backpack category studying brands like Herschel and Hunter. 

Aesthetically am inspired by Danish / Swedish design for this brand- I want to create something minimal and modern, with classic influences... Like so many good design things, it all starts with mood boards.

Picking an aesthetic direction lead me to the question of a name- here, a little magic happened. 

'Vessel'- a hollow container, a method to carry things. Where better to begin? The word translates to 'beholder' in Danish. Before I know it the rabbit hole of word play leads me to Halten- the German word for 'hold'. Coincidentally, also the name of an abandoned fishing village in Norway.

With a blend of fact and fiction, the brand story begins to take shape and suddenly our product category broadens...

Logo Design

Its seems only natural that Halten's logo design would centre around the Halten Lighthouse. 

Using a custom typeface developed by a Norwegian type designer, I began to construct the likeness of the landmark from the lines and figures of the type design. Later, this method would be employed in building the icon set.

Assets

Before tackling digital design, I feel the urge to develop design assets. Photography and branded merchandise help me set the tone for the digital product I will develop around them.

Style

With all this in place, I develop a few style tiles for the digital product. Warm and cool variations are tested on a few subjects- having considered all the options, I settle here.

Digital Product Design

Contemplating mobile design, a process of rendering the brand logo as a mobile icon sees multiple iterations develop.

Icons are developed using the same method of extracting forms from the type design used in development of the logo design

Using atomic design principles, I develop the components of the digital product. These include elements of the UI library from buttons and inputs to headers & templates.

Finally, the design process culminates in the desktop e-commerce presentation of halten.com. 

See the web prototype here.

Style Guide & UI Kit

All the elements are now in place to flesh out a complete style guide. View the full Halten Style Guide, with expanded material on the co-brand, h. by Halten, here.