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Creative Direction. Integrated Branding. eCommerce.
3D Design: Trevor Gessay Motion Design: James Heredia
In late 2020 I was approached by Robert Coviak, an entrepreneur with a business idea in need of some brand marketing to back it. Having helped passionate owners like Robert before, I was excited to peel back the layers of his idea as well as figure out what made it unique.
I gave Robert a small questionnaire that gathered insights around the name, his target demographic and any other pertinent information relevant to his business. He was very candid and open, providing me with an anecdote that shed some light on his naming rationale, amongst other great intel. I also introduced him to a bit of the brand strategy and hierarchy.
Since the store could literally have anything in stock at any given time, it was important for the visual identity to avoid the use of realistic objects as the logo. Since consumers might perceive the mark as a representation of the shop's inventory, I instead focused-in on the use of expressive lettering to convey a broader sense of meaning and personality to represent the brand.
After showing a few visual directions to Robert, we landed on a custom-made script that felt fun and rang true to him in terms of its expression. On top of this vertically stacked version, he wanted a horizontally oriented mark as well for various applications. Both needed to occupy very different spatial dimensions yet feel identical in their overall sentiment.
In order to replicate the logo in another layout, I identified unique characteristics that when put together formed its visual DNA. There were two main identifiers: first, the staggered or jogged baseline, and second, the ligatures where two letters joined into one-another. These characteristics set it apart from standard typesetting and elevated it to a more memorable and custom mark. Those traits were cascaded to the horizontal mark to create cohesion across both versions.
After finalizing the two logos, I added in color and crafted the brand's motion identity, further capturing the logo's upbeat energy. This would also book-end social content and act as a brand sign-off. Color was decided on by auditing popular competitors in the space and intentionally avoiding those which were being used or associated with already-well-known brands. We noticed a lot of blues and greens (think Amazon, Walmart and Dollar Tree), so we chose an orange-red that could stand out amongst the crowd and disrupt the status quo.
Now, what fun retail shop would be complete without a tagline? After coming up with multiple options based on Robert's questionnaire responses, we chose something direct and whimsically unapologetic, in-line with the store's namesake. This way the tagline truly felt like a natural extension of the overall brand while conveying a succinct elevator-pitch for our uninitiated customers.
For visual guidance across the brand as a whole, I developed a Look and Feel document, which helped illustrate the branding in-situ. From business cards and t-shirts, to re-usable totes and store signage, they were ready to set up shop.
After launching in late 2020 during the height of the pandemic, The Junk Store continues to chug along. It opened two stores in Ohio and does even more business on its eCommerce website. The Junk Store is anything but, and it's great to see the little guy win for a change!
