Quality branded merchandise is a difficult thing to find.
That is, unless you’ve found Merchsmith – the one-stop-shop for high-quality, easy to design branded goods. The company’s innovative 3D-render tech displays your merch isometrically as you design, so you’ll see an ultra-realistic representation of your products before you buy it.
Often, for companies that specialise in branding and marketing, it can actually be pretty difficult to brand and marketing themselves. Merchsmith wanted an outside viewpoint to help them create the perfect look-and-feel. So they approached Arch to develop and design a logo, brand icon, colour palette and an original font, plus develop some campaign ideas.
The Merchsmith icon is a combination of M and S – displayed in a flattened version of the isometric style that businesses can use to create their brand merch on the website. We also developed a brand pattern, which builds on the MS icon, making it three-dimensional.
The icon serves the dual purpose of giving the brand an instantly recognisable logo, and representing a key USP: that you can 3D-render your merchandise for a realistic vision of your branded goods.
Merchsmith wanted a wholly unique brand – so we developed a bespoke font to set them apart from any competitors. Our aim was to develop a clean, simple font, which could be larger or smaller and not lose legibility. This was in line with the creation of a Merchsmith app, which we designed the icon for.
We developed several copy lines to reflect Merchsmith’s company values – a mix of simplicity, fun, professionalism and great design. And, of course, nothing makes great copy even better like a beautiful, distinct font!
A must-have for any new brand is a concrete set of brand guidelines explaining how to use the various assets (and how not to). We created a comprehensive guide on maintaining the integrity of the Merchsmith look-and-feel, with easy to follow instructions, ideas for display and dos/don’ts.
Brand guidelines are crucial if you’re aiming to create a new identity. They can help to fully develop a brand, and give an overarching example of how the various elements fit together.
Merchsmith is an example of a brand that Arch Creative designed from the ground up. Their continuing success is a testament to their commitment as brand guardians, and the great work from the Arch team. This project is a brilliant example of an outside viewpoint being able to refine and develop a comprehensive business identity.
