Connected Retail by Zalando

"Have fun with it"

Connected Retail by Zalando

"Have fun with it"

Connected Retail by Zalando

"Have fun with it"

Connected Retail is Zalando’s solution that enables brick-and-mortar stores to serve customers on the Zalando platform. The program counts more than 5,000 active stores, selling to millions of Zalando customers online.


I was brought in to support Connected Retail’s early art direction development by making multiple proposed key visuals, in the form of website headers. I was provided with an internally-made logo and black, white and green accents for colors. As for instructions: keep those elements, add a handmade touch and “have fun with it”.


The challenge presented lied in figuring out where Zalando wanted to bring the visual direction. Through lots of communication, experimentation, research and collaboration, tons of ideas were presented to bring Connected Retail to life.

Connected Retail is Zalando’s solution that enables brick-and-mortar stores to serve customers on the Zalando platform. The program counts more than 5,000 active stores, selling to millions of Zalando customers online.


I was brought in to support Connected Retail’s early art direction development by making multiple proposed key visuals, in the form of website headers. I was provided with an internally-made logo and black, white and green accents for colors. As for instructions: keep those elements, add a handmade touch and “have fun with it”.


The challenge presented lied in figuring out where Zalando wanted to bring the visual direction. Through lots of communication, experimentation, research and collaboration, tons of ideas were presented to bring Connected Retail to life.

Connected Retail is Zalando’s solution that enables brick-and-mortar stores to serve customers on the Zalando platform. The program counts more than 5,000 active stores, selling to millions of Zalando customers online.


I was brought in to support Connected Retail’s early art direction development by making multiple proposed key visuals, in the form of website headers. I was provided with an internally-made logo and black, white and green accents for colors. As for instructions: keep those elements, add a handmade touch and “have fun with it”.


The challenge presented lied in figuring out where Zalando wanted to bring the visual direction. Through lots of communication, experimentation, research and collaboration, tons of ideas were presented to bring Connected Retail to life.

Disciplines


Art direction

Web design

Draft

Year


2021

Disciplines


Art direction

Web design

Draft

Year


2021

Disciplines


Art direction

Web design

Draft

Year


2021

First iterations

Basic instructions

All I had to start off of were a simple black logo, a shade of green, and some photos of their independent shop partners.


We decided on adding handmade elements to counterbalance the roughness of the black and white base, as well as showcasing Zalando's way of mirroring the craft of small business owners. We wanted to show real people, real businesses, and the sometimes scrappy way of doing things that comes with their reality.


Here's a selection of how the first batch of ideas came out looking like.

👇 Swipe left or right

Next batch

Go crazy

Sometimes, clients don't know what they want, and it's often difficult to figure things out and move forward with a project. When a client isn't sure of what they're looking for, I double down on research, communication and wilder ideas.


Among many, many iterations, some stood out as pretty interesting.

👇 Swipe left or right

Visual elements

How best to support the content?

The headline, tagline and CTAs being the focal points, supporting visual elements were needed to bring it all together and give it a unique flair.


Aside from the photos, which were also central to the brand imagery, those elements aimed to bring the handmade touch to the design, either by using brushes, or a slightly more illustrative style.


Thin or large brushed lines, additional colors, gradients, different button shapes, illustrative elements, playing with the logo… anything went!

Typography

Classic black sans-serif

The font family, Helvetica Now, is strong as hell. It's a classic sans-serif that works for a lot of different applications. In this case: a bold, ALL-CAPS headline, and its related copy. The choice was made, as a team, to keep it simple and to the point, yet modern and fresh.

Photos

Image treatment

One of the requirements of this project was to use the photos of the shop owners featured by Zalando. The way to present them became another challenge in itself.


Square or rounded corners? Color or black and white? Do we cut them with scissors or have them occupy half the page height? We tried it all.

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