G.CULTURE: African Streetwear Promoting Cultural Travel
The Challenge: Modern Design with African Roots
G.CULTURE is a startup streetwear company infusing African cloth print into their streetwear clothing designs that promote travel and enjoyment of other cultures.
The brand features apparel branding inspired by African and diaspora cultures. Focusing on travel as a means of learning about cultures, G.Culture promotes free-spiritedness and freedom.
This challenge requires:
- Modern design: Create modern, slick logo design
- African roots: Tie back to African roots
- Cultural connection: Connect to African and diaspora cultures
- Streetwear appeal: Appeal to streetwear market
Brand Strategy: Researching Adinkra Symbols
The client came to Spellbrand with a simple requirement – create an iconic logo design and brand identity that would look modern, slick, and still tie back to the African roots. We started the process of discovery for this client by researching Adinkra symbols which are ubiquitous in Ghana, a beautiful West African country on the Atlantic, situated between Cote d’Ivoire and Togo. On cloth and walls, in pottery and art, these Asante tribe symbols can be found everywhere.
This brand strategy works because:
- Modern and slick: Iconic logo design that looks modern and slick
- African roots: Ties back to African roots
- Adinkra research: Researched Adinkra symbols from Ghana
- Cultural authenticity: Asante tribe symbols found everywhere in Ghana
- Cultural connection: Connects to African and diaspora cultures
Logo Design: G and C with Adinkra Symbols
We then created a primary logo design with the company initials G and C enclosed in a circle. The circle is broken on the top and bottom with two secondary icon symbols that we created. These symbols also form independent secondary brand marks to be used on package branding, on t-shirts, and more. We also created a beautiful brand pattern using Adinkra symbols.
We extended the primary logo and the official brand pattern into the Facebook cover image design to create a striking visual. Social media cover images are crucial in creating engagement with your target audience and your brand identity must be used to create a cohesive look.
This logo design works because:
- Primary logo: G and C initials enclosed in circle
- Broken circle: Circle broken on top and bottom with secondary icon symbols
- Secondary marks: Independent secondary brand marks for package branding, t-shirts
- Brand pattern: Beautiful brand pattern using Adinkra symbols
- Social media: Extended to Facebook cover image for striking visual
- Cohesive look: Brand identity creates cohesive look across touchpoints
The Streetwear Market: $175 Billion Opportunity
If you weren’t aware of this already, streetwear has taken over the fashion industry. Many people are still under the assumption that streetwear and urban wear are just niche markets within fashion. However, the fact of the matter is that the streetwear market is valued at over $80 billion in the United States and over $175 billion worldwide. Fashion shows, Instagram feeds, retail stores, online shops, and everything in between is absolutely full of street fashion. And there are no signs whatsoever that this upwards trend is changing direction anytime soon.
This growth in the market has prompted hundreds of start-up streetwear brands to make their way into the marketplace. And oftentimes, these small brands are solely working online, thanks to the explosion of digital marketing and the popularity of social media in the fashion world. But the questions come when these brands look to set themselves apart as unique fashion companies. How could they possibly set themselves apart from the competition?
Results: A Brand That Stands Out
Even though G.CULTURE plans on doing all of these things, they still thought they were missing something when they came to speak with our design and branding team. This client of ours wanted to seriously set themselves apart from the other many competitors they were facing. When they told us this, the answer was pretty clear – they needed a strong and professional logo. Whenever you’re a startup fashion brand, it’s crucial that you put your best foot forward when presenting yourself to customers and other brands. The first step towards achieving that comes when you have a great logo that everyone can remember your brand by.
G.CULTURE is a pretty unique streetwear company. They infuse African cloth print into their streetwear designs to not only promote travel to African countries, but also the enjoyment of other cultures and their beauty. The logo we designed for them promotes G.CULTURE as an edgy and trendy streetwear brand. It’s a very simple and urban design that includes GC surrounded by a disjointed circle.
The brand identity we created for G.CULTURE successfully sets them apart from competitors in the $175 billion streetwear market. The modern, slick logo design with Adinkra symbols ties back to African roots while appealing to the streetwear market, creating a strong and professional brand identity that helps them stand out from the many competitors they face.
Today, G.CULTURE uses this brand identity to attract customers who appreciate African cloth print in streetwear designs, positioning them as a startup streetwear company that promotes travel and enjoyment of other cultures, with a logo design that promotes them as an edgy and trendy streetwear brand with a simple and urban design that includes GC surrounded by a disjointed circle, creating a cohesive look across all touchpoints from package branding to t-shirts to social media.
