After years of different creative directions, a key objective identified by Peace Out's leadership was the need to update the brand's tone, look, and feel while remaining true to their core audience.
My role was to lead the development of a defined brand visual identity, create design systems, apply those across consumer touch points, and establish a foundation for future campaigns.
Working closely with marketing and the founder revealed many of the core aspects that originally made the brand stand out. The initial branding was simple, used a pastel color palette, and valued bold, straight forward messaging; all of which helped garner a loyal audience.
Together, we discovered that over time the brand's focus on confidence and simplicity had become diluted. Without a clearly defined identity, its tone gradually shifted toward a playful skincare experience rather than the calm, effective solution it set out to represent. This insight became the foundation for redefining the brand's personality and building a scalable creative system that could guide future campaigns.
While the entire brand book was to be reworked, defining the brand personality and its model representation with intention was of high priority. Establishing who a “Peace Out Girl” is would allow the brand to meet consumers where they are at by creating relatable narratives and aspirational personas through visual storytelling. This, along with the following key principles, guided many of the decisions we would make moving forward.
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Establish a casting philosophy that embodies the brand personality.
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Reinforce calm, confidence, and simplicity through a restrained color palette and organized layouts.
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Communicate with clarity first, educate without overwhelming.
The biggest challenge I faced working on this project was having too many cooks in the kitchen. Working on this with leadership meant there were many voices that felt the need to be heard and their ideas implemented.
The solution to this was creating a clear understanding that the design systems were not being driven by opinion, but instead by the goals and objectives determined by the brand’s mission and target audience. The pastel colors, the model aesthetics, the style of photography, etc.. were all established as a system working towards a cohesive brand presence.
The final result was a revitalized visual system that communicated confidence, effortless beauty, and a sense of calm knowing that Peace Out has the simple skincare solution you need.
The brand book now contained a system built to create cohesive and consistent campaigns, improve brand recognition over time, and improve decision making for the creative and marketing teams as they approached future visuals.
