kara smarsh
kara smarsh
kara smarsh

Abercrombie & Fitch
Brand Revitalization

Art direction
Brand identity design

2019

Redesign of the iconic Abercrombie & Fitch brand identity, crafting a more elevated-feeling brand experience to attract new, trend-conscious shoppers.

This project included an updated typographic style guide, digital design guidelines including global brand homepage, product landing and display page updates, in-store and out of home design, as well as a complete rebranding of the Abercrombie & Fitch loyalty program.

Our Starting Point

I joined Abercrombie & Fitch to lead our creative marketing concept team and was tasked with re-imagining the brand for a more trend-conscious customer who was willing to pay for full-price new arrivals. Utilizing existing brand codes like our well-recognized serif logo typeface, I created a revitalized style guide and visual language that appealed to new consumer audiences, while maintaining the brand heritage.

Regular customers had long remained the same, primarily purchasing basics with a preference to purchase on sale items. This behavior forced the brand to place items on discount to generate transactions,  negatively impacting overall AUR.

Previous Abercrombie branding didn't feel elevated enough and lacked clear and consistent hierachy. When everything is bolded or capitlized, clear communication loses priority.

kara smarsh

Visual Refresh

Starting by evaluating our existing brand typeface, Trade Gothic, which was being used as a bold and imposing headline, and Garamond, which had mostly disappeared from the typographic style guide, although it is the basis for the brand's iconic Abercrombie & Fitch logo, I proposed focusing on repositioning the highly-legible sans serif Trade Gothic as body 

 

copy and the elegant and regal Garamond as the headline typeface, a more refined visual language began to take shape. With the addition of a few well-considered elements, such as italicizing for emphasis and the em-dash as a decorative and functional piece of punctuation, the brand began to feel simultaneously more human and more premium.

kara smarsh

As a part of the brand revitalization, a style guide was created for the brand to follow, and for the abercrombie kids brand to emulate. Guidelines were created for typographic hierarchy for narrative messaging, as well as for more complex typographic lockups like the many and varied promotional messages utilized by the brand throughout the year.

Our goal was to take messaging that had in part eroded the public perception of the brand’s value, and although we could not eliminate promotional marketing messaging, to elevate and and subdue its appearance. We moved away from the capitalized, bold, and often red Trade Gothic serif and created guidelines for promotional messaging that felt seamless with the brand’s other typographic treatments.

kara smarsh
kara smarsh
kara smarsh
kara smarsh

Beyond the face of the brand, we also began to focus on the functional, including the structure of homepage, updating the typography and structure of product landing pages, aligning an increased frequency of new products with the cadence of new arrivals messaging, and the alignment of direct marketing such as email with our social and ecommerce messaging.

kara smarsh
kara smarsh
kara smarsh

Loyalty Program Rebrand

A part of refreshing the Abercrombie & Fitch brand for a 2019 trend-foward consumer was taking the "A&F Club" and transforming it. We began with the name, which we user-tested and selected to imply a move toward enhanced personalization in your rewards and shopping experience, and a tagline that made it obvious that the loyalty program's focus was on earning rewards.

 

Creating a logo for the new myAbercrombie loyalty program happened in tandem with renaming the program. I also designed a visual language for the program, including reward "coupons" and the rewards dial which indicates your loyalty program status. I art directed designers who executed these elements within a loyalty dashboard on the Abercrombie.com website and various trigger emails for both the adults and kids Abercrombie brands.

kara smarsh

Loyalty Program Name and Logo Design

When working through the name for the loyalty program, we user-tested three variables: program name, program tagline, and logo design. We were internally hoping to move away from the name "A&F Club" due to our desires to hint at personalization, evolve the program into a more rewards-based platform, and also add maturity for an older demographic.

Before we could do this, we wanted to test if 1) "A&F Club" held too much recognition for existing customers and if they would feel alienated by a sudden change and 2) if the word "Rewards" needed to be in the name of the program for customers to understand the program benefits.

kara smarsh

Tracking Rewards

In order to track rewards, we developed a dial to gauge points and status and coupons to communicate when rewards had been earned. Tickets operated as visual rewards indicators, while the elongated ticket fit within the existing shopping bag UI.

kara smarsh
kara smarsh

Behavioral Emails

Included in refreshing the Abercrombie Loyalty Program was an update to all triggered, transactional, and behavioral emails. Between the Adults and Kids brands, there were over 50 individual emails requiring template updates including Member Sign-Up, Post-Purchase, Abandon Cart, Rewards, Loyalty Status, and Anniversary email for the brand.

kara smarsh
kara smarsh

Abercrombie App and Login

I worked closely with our UX team to implement  App as well as the functional design elements of the site, such as login and checkout, which are largely tied to Membership.

kara smarsh
kara smarsh
kara smarsh
kara smarsh
kara smarsh

Abercrombie & Fitch
Brand Revitalization

Art direction
Brand identity design

2019

Redesign of the iconic Abercrombie & Fitch brand identity, crafting a more elevated-feeling brand experience to attract new, trend-conscious shoppers.

This project included an updated typographic style guide, digital design guidelines including global brand homepage, product landing and display page updates, in-store and out of home design, as well as a complete rebranding of the Abercrombie & Fitch loyalty program.

Our Starting Point

I joined Abercrombie & Fitch to lead our creative marketing concept team and was tasked with re-imagining the brand for a more trend-conscious customer who was willing to pay for full-price new arrivals. Utilizing existing brand codes like our well-recognized serif logo typeface, I created a revitalized style guide and visual language that appealed to new consumer audiences, while maintaining the brand heritage.

Regular customers had long remained the same, primarily purchasing basics with a preference to purchase on sale items. This behavior forced the brand to place items on discount to generate transactions,  negatively impacting overall AUR.

Previous Abercrombie branding didn't feel elevated enough and lacked clear and consistent hierachy. When everything is bolded or capitlized, clear communication loses priority.

 

kara smarsh

Visual Refresh

Starting by evaluating our existing brand typeface, Trade Gothic, which was being used as a bold and imposing headline, and Garamond, which had mostly disappeared from the typographic style guide, although it is the basis for the brand's iconic Abercrombie & Fitch logo, I proposed focusing on repositioning the highly-legible sans serif Trade Gothic as body copy and the elegant and regal Garamond as the headline typeface, a more refined visual language began to take shape. With the addition of a few well-considered elements, such as italicizing for emphasis and the em-dash as a decorative and functional piece of punctuation, the brand began to feel simultaneously more human and more premium.

kara smarsh
kara smarsh

As a part of the brand revitalization, a style guide was created for the brand to follow, and for the abercrombie kids brand to emulate. Guidelines were created for typographic hierarchy for narrative messaging, as well as for more complex typographic lockups like the many and varied promotional messages utilized by the brand throughout the year.

Our goal was to take messaging that had in part eroded the public perception of the brand’s value, and although we could not eliminate promotional marketing messaging, to elevate and and subdue its appearance. We moved away from the capitalized, bold, and often red Trade Gothic serif and created guidelines for promotional messaging that felt seamless with the brand’s other typographic treatments.

kara smarsh
kara smarsh
kara smarsh
kara smarsh
kara smarsh

Beyond the face of the brand, we also began to focus on the functional, including the structure of homepage, updating the typography and structure of product landing pages, aligning an increased frequency of new products with the cadence of new arrivals messaging, and the alignment of direct marketing such as email with our social and ecommerce messaging.

kara smarsh
kara smarsh
kara smarsh
kara smarsh
kara smarsh
kara smarsh

Loyalty Program Rebrand

A part of refreshing the Abercrombie & Fitch brand for a 2019 trend-foward consumer was taking the "A&F Club" and transforming it. We began with the name, which we user-tested and selected to imply a move toward enhanced personalization in your rewards and shopping experience, and a tagline that made it obvious that the loyalty program's focus was on earning rewards.

Creating a logo for the new myAbercrombie loyalty program happened in tandem with renaming the program. I also designed a visual language for the program, including reward "coupons" and the rewards dial which indicates your loyalty program status. I art directed designers who executed these elements within a loyalty dashboard on the Abercrombie.com website and various trigger emails for both the adults and kids Abercrombie brands.

kara smarsh

Loyalty Program Name and Logo Design

When working through the name for the loyalty program, we user-tested three variables: program name, program tagline, and logo design. We were internally hoping to move away from the name "A&F Club" due to our desires to hint at personalization, evolve the program into a more rewards-based platform, and also add maturity for an older demographic.

Before we could do this, we wanted to test if 1) "A&F Club" held too much recognition for existing customers and if they would feel alienated by a sudden change and 2) if the word "Rewards" needed to be in the name of the program for customers to understand the program benefits.

kara smarsh

Tracking Rewards

In order to track rewards, we developed a dial to gauge points and status and coupons to communicate when rewards had been earned. Tickets operated as visual rewards indicators, while the elongated ticket fit within the existing shopping bag UI.

 

kara smarsh
kara smarsh

Behavioral Emails

Included in refreshing the Abercrombie Loyalty Program was an update to all triggered, transactional, and behavioral emails. Between the Adults and Kids brands, there were over 50 individual emails requiring template updates including Member Sign-Up, Post-Purchase, Abandon Cart, Rewards, Loyalty Status, and Anniversary email for the brand.

kara smarsh
kara smarsh

Abercrombie App and Login

I worked closely with our UX team to implement  App as well as the functional design elements of the site, such as login and checkout, which are largely tied to Membership.

kara smarsh
kara smarsh
kara smarsh