Common Assembly

Common Assembly was a fast fashion startup targeting value-conscious millennials. The company was driven to do good in the world, but they were launching into a crowded category where cause-based brands were the norm. We needed to build a brand experience that could connect with value-driven shoppers, drive revenue, and accelerate the company’s growth.

A comprehensive quantitative study identified a complex millennial woman who lived a life of duality. She made choices that both helped and hurt the world. Her identity, her values, and who she wants to be in the world were all so closely tied to her style. But fashion doesn’t always make her feel great because it often comes at the expense of those values.

To answer the consumer tension we built the brand strategy around something bigger. Something driven by emotion. Something that changes lives. The positioning? To make kindness more common in the world of fashion. This belief-driven approach allowed the startup to differentiate itself and created deeper emotional connections quickly with the customer.

The Common Assembly logo brings to life the values and practices of the company. We crafted the logo with softened, customized letterforms to symbolize the kindness and impact they make in the industry. We used a variety of shapes and sizes to illustrate inclusivity and speak to the diverse ethnicities, body types, and backgrounds of their shoppers. After that, we curated a fresh and modern color palette that was fashion-forward but would last through the seasons. Handpainted brush strokes and swashes were created to bring in a human touch. Lastly, a bespoke handwritten typeface was used to deliver the voice of the brand, injecting encouraging yet cheeky moments of kindness throughout the customer’s shopping journey. Down-to-earth photography, beautifully textured paper, and warm woods further amplified the warmth in the art direction and presented the brand as premium and high-end, yet kind and approachable.

Through a series of planning workshops, we identified that the key principles for the website–creating a frictionless shopping experience–was an obvious requirement. But the deeper opportunity was to incorporate the brand’s beliefs and behaviors into our digital platform so that the site could go beyond functional transactions. We crafted navigation that allowed the user to quickly shop for the items she cared about. We explored the UX to find additional moments of utility, such as machine learning fit guides to ease any worries the shopper might have. We designed a user interface that felt warm and approachable. Finally, we cherry-picked moments in the shopping experience where we could build a deeper brand story of kindness, positivity, and love.