Dresscode
At a glance
For this project a cross-media campaign was developed to make the traditional menswear store “Dresscode” in Ansbach more attractive to a younger target group. The concept included a new advertising poster, an image film and Instagram content, which was intended to convey the brand identity in an appealing way with a mixture of modern and retro elements.
My role
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Concept & design: Development of the campaign idea and design of the advertising poster
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Production & assistant director: Participation in the planning, production and implementation of the image film
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Photography & post-production: Creation and editing of product and model photos for Instagram
Technologies & methods
Campaign planning, photography, Adobe Lightroom, Adobe Photoshop, social media content strategy
Result
The campaign implemented a modern yet nostalgic style that appeals to young customers in particular. The advertising poster and image film complemented each other with a unique visual style that reflects both the past and present of the “Dresscode” brand world. Despite the challenges posed by COVID 19 measures, a coherent overall project was successfully implemented.
Demand and Requirements
Björn Müller has been running the menswear store Dresscode in Ansbach for 20 years. His regular customers have aged with him. By targeting young people, he wants to create a new generation of customers. To achieve this, I designed a cross-media campaign in a team with three other fellow students.
The Idea
A new advertising poster for the exterior facade of the store, an image film and pictures, as well as short stories for Instagram were developed. The aim was to create a mixture of flawless studio shots and a modern retro look. Especially for young customers the attractiveness of the store should be increased.
Advertising poster
As the poster currently displaying the store façade was a little outdated, we decided to design a new advertising poster. The photo was taken during the image film shoot and I added the logos to it.
I intentionally placed the logos of the companies run by dresscode at the bottom of the image to create a clean look that didn't distract from the models.
As the 3.55m x 1.88m billboard has a central strut and therefore no important content can be placed in the middle of the image, I placed the dresscode logo clearly visible at the top right and left a larger space between the company logos in the middle.
Image Film
Filming took place both inside and outside a studio. The rather minimalist studio shots against a white background form a contrast to the outdoor shots.
For the outdoor shoot, I put together the models' outfits from the clothes provided to us, scouted and determined the locations and planned the shots. I also took on the roles of production manager and assistant director.
Look
Visually, it was important to us to replace the digital look of today's cameras with an analog, organic image style in the best possible way.
With the use of 16mm film emulations, overlays and a special color correction, we were able to take a trip back in time.
Many of the brands offered in the store were founded at the end of the 20th century and grew with the skateboarding community.
Even back then, the community had its own visual style, which some brands are now reverting to and experiencing a renaissance with visual influences from their founding period.
The visual style of the skate community has certain established elements. Fast cuts, imperfect shots, image noise, wide-angle shots or halation effect - a mostly red frame around the bright parts of the image.
We were able to incorporate many of these features into our image film.
We took photos of the product as well as model photos in the studio. I shared the task of shooting the product photos and then editing them with a fellow student.
I then arranged all the images to create a coherent overall picture in order to create a preview of a possible Instagram feed.
Detailed shots of the individual items of clothing can be found in further slides of the posts.
Conclusion
The biggest challenge with this project was working under the prevailing COVID-19 measures. We didn't have any planned locations, our male model canceled the evening before the shoot and the day of the shoot was unfortunately cloudy and rainy.
But with a bit of improvisation, we still ended up with a coherent project.