With firm focus now on sustainable living and conscious consumerism, companies that adopt a mindful approach to selling their goods and services are being favoured over faceless corporate conglomerates.
Eco-friendly brands are taking centre stage, propelled by a desire for change in the year the UK has declared a climate emergency. But communicating these values to consumers at first glance can be tricky. Eco branding requires a nuanced and thoughtful approach, choosing imagery and colours that truly reflect the nature of the company they represent. As a result, choosing a design agency for eco products has never been more important.
Eco Swim is a British-born brand which is set to make waves in the swimwear industry. We were thrilled to be chosen to work with the company when they approached us recently, looking for specialist eco branding that shared their sustainable philosophy and ethos.
What is Eco Swim all about – and why is this swimwear brand a cut above the rest?
Eco Swim was created by former Miss England and swimwear model Angie Bowness, supported by Dragon’s Den star Touker Suleyman and several other prominent business powerhouses. The brand promotes sustainability and recyclability in every sense of the word – as its stylish products are made entirely of ocean waste.
Human activity in seas worldwide has a devastating effect on sealife. Between 4.8 and 12.7 million tonnes of plastic waste enters the ocean each year – on top of an estimated 640,000 tonnes of fishing gear such as nets and equipment discarded by fishing boats. More than 100 million sea mammals die as a result of pollution annually – affecting around 700 marine species. Eco Swim takes this plastic waste and abandoned fishing materials and purifies and recycles them into textile yarns used to create their luxury swimwear collections. Angie explains:
“It is devastating reading all these articles and seeing the images of the devastation caused by plastics and other waste – I have seen this for myself having travelled the world.
“We have to do something about it now before it is too late. I don’t want my future grandchildren to inherit a waste, so if I can do something to help, that is what really matters.”
As a result Eco Swim will play a vital role in combatting ocean plastic whilst also capitalising on ocean waste in a conscious and impactful manner. Angie hopes to change the way the industry operates altogether, encouraging a more thoughtful approach to fashion.
The other aspect of eco swim involves the UK economy – since the products are designed by Angie herself and made in her hometown of Nottingham. Saddened by the decline the local manufacturing industry Bowness was keen to create jobs, bringing a sense of industrial pride back to the area whilst also championing better pay and conditions for textile workers.
Unique logo design for a unique product
We opted for a bold brand identity centred around a strong iconic symbol featuring sunset and waves, which instantly communicates the eco-friendly nature of Eco Swim’s products and philosophy. Colours are clean, crisp and contemporary – coming together to create an instantly recognisable brand.
This served as the basis for a number of other crucial elements – such as social media posts and graphics and the ecommerce website design.
An innovative eco brand identity for a ground breaking business
As a design agency, eco-friendly practice is always at the forefront of our minds – whether we’re deciding how we can reduce our personal impact on the environment or purchasing printer paper. This branding project required a sensitive and holistic approach, incorporating soft elements with a sense of confidence and familiarity. We decided to keep things simple, creating a brand that is instantly noticeable as conscious and responsible, whilst also reflecting the luxury nature of the swimwear itself.
There is no other brand like Eco Swim, so it was crucially important that the branding concept and logo matched its uniqueness. We focused on combining a minimalist, fashion centric brand image with iconology that would be instantly recognisable. The cleanliness of the brand also intrinsically reflects the ambitions of the product – conscious fashion that actively works towards oceans free from plastic waste. The logo is also simplistically beautiful to reflect the design of the apparel itself – Eco Swim’s collections typically feature soft curves, clean lines and muted tones.
The value of branding that truly reflects your ideology whilst also communicating your company’s values cannot be overestimated. An innovative product deserves to be branded professionally – with design that will stand the test of time (in this case until the oceans are clear!)
Ecommerce website design and development for Eco Swim
Alongside the branding Eco Swim required ecommerce website design and development. Shopify was our platform of choice, to quickly get Eco Swim to market and trading online. It also provides a simple CMS for easy client control and management, plus efficient transactions process, Google-friendly interface and host of valuable add-on tools to supercharge the swimwear brand’s launch. We created a simple, clean design for the site to reflect the brand and product perfectly. Social media will be key for Eco Swim; which is why we extended the branding to include icons and graphics, and integrated social into the site itself.
You can follow Eco Swim on Instagram here and Facebook here.
Are you a start-up fashion brand looking to launch an awesome brand and website? Are you bringing an innovative new product to market? Get in touch with us today for apparel brand design, eco logo design and more.
