Drop School Ep. 2 How to come up with a brand signature

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Welcome to Drop School, an eight-week journey in which WePresent will teach you how to build hype around your products as a fashion designer. In episode two, we follow young designer Jordy as he learns how to come up with a brand signature for his product.

This Episode

Ever wondered if you actually like a product or it’s just a designer’s brand signature and you’ve gotten so used to seeing it? That brand psychology is explored in this episode.

Helen Kirkum of Helen Kirkum Studio tackled a problem related to a hype-driven product—trainers—where so much material was going to landfill. She wanted to use the raw material to create unique shoes and that became her brand signature. In her advice, Kirkum suggests taking the emotion out of pricing. Your price is based on logic so don’t be scared of pricing your product generously, she says.

Kirkum suggests that Jordy’s brand signature could be something that’s not a logo—some little detail that could live in the trousers. Maybe it’s a color thread or a stitching detail. Jordy decides to include a patch. Kirkum likes this and tells him to think about its thickness and feel, telling him it’s adaptive and works with different garments and with the military theme.

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“From a design perspective a Tabi boot is really left but I think of it as classic. Is that because it’s repetitive as a signature item?”
Alizé Demange

The Expert

Helen Kirkum of Helen Kirkum Studio. Every pair of Kirkum’s sneakers is unique, allowing the owner to own something inherently personal and one-of-a-kind.

The Learnings

  1. “A good product is so subjective. Everyone’s got their own style, but as creators, as designers, as artists, there are some fundamental things that drive you to make a good product.”

  2. “I didn’t do any business courses, I just learned by doing and listening to a load of podcasts.”

  3. “The product has to exist in order to improve it. It will only evolve.”