Assignment 1: Exercise 3

Brief: Research one contemporary brand that you as a designer admire and that appeals to you. Explain the appeal. Source visual examples and information about their corporate philosophy, identity an image. How would you go about changing or improving the brand's strategy or image?

Click through to their website here.

Dirty Collective is one of my favourite local brands at the moment. It is a concept store that provides a platform for local up-and-coming designers, clothing brands and artists. The creative director saw a gap in the market for this kind of thing and decided to actually make it happen. Small local brands have been popping up everywhere but a problem arose when there was no proper selling platform, and this is what Dirty Collective provided for them. Now products that might only be made in Jo'burg will be readily available to purchase online through a safe and secure payment system and reliable delivery of high quality goods. 

It appeals to me as a graphic design student because it provides some kind of comfort knowing that local designers will be able to build themselves a proper brand and image through Dirty Collective. Also the fact that they handpick every designer shows how they showcase the best of the best and inspires me to become a better designer.

The only way in which I would improve this brand's image and strategy is to maybe have pop-up stores in main big regions of the country like Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban to boost the brand even more. They were already at Design Indaba 2013 and the clothes they had at their stand showed some interesting, skilled illustrations at affordable prices.