Tierra Natives - Case Study

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It's hard to go about your day without hearing or seeing the word "sustainable" these days. This is with good reason because we are more and more aware of our effects on the environment and are working hard at preventing major catastrophes for future generations. As a result, we have adopted this approach in various industries. One of them being the fashion industry. However, as we live in a Dual world, for every good there is an equal bad. In this case, bad is companies claiming to be "green" when they aren't (greenwashing). The truth is that "sustainability" is very complicated and a lot of companies jump on the bandwagon without being truthful, or shying away from the fact that it's not as simple as dealing with everything in an ethical manner or choosing to use certain materials over others.
Tierra Natives, a newcomer in the sustainable fashion industry wants to change that; they believe that being honest and bold with their customers is a risk worth taking.

MY ROLE

Brand Development & Strategy
Audience Persona
User Stories
Flows, Sketching & Basic Concepts
Moodboard & Stylescapes
Wireframing
Brand Identity Design
Visual Design
UI Design
Art Direction
Copywriting

MY MISSION

My mission was to not only help Tierra Natives' owners Celeste and Matthias build their sustainable clothing brand from the ground up but do so in a way that creates contrast in a market filled with deceit. One thing stood out from our first meeting - they wanted to be different. After that, we had a series of sessions where we defined what "different" meant and how it would be portrayed. Ultimately, it would be Empathy and Boldness that would best represent the brand's personality, so we decided to keep those at the forefront of the brand's Verbal and Visual Expression.

THE OUTCOME

After joint efforts, we created for Tierra Natives not only an identity it can launch comfortably with but one that can support and adapt to their community for years to come.

POSITIONING

Tierra Natives' goal to be different in an oversaturated, deceitful industry, meant that we needed to develop a brand that properly distinguishes itself from others and articulates its intentions well. To start, we looked at Tierra Natives' competitors and analysed their approach. What stood out is that there's a big disconnect between companies and their clients when it comes to sustainability. As mentioned previously, it's a complex matter and isn't as simple as being ethical and choosing certain materials over others. There are always more factors at play, and to control all of that is very difficult. The issue with sustainability is that there are no proper criteria set in place, and anybody can come and say that they are sustainable as a result. This allows for dilution of the word and its meaning and people to become skeptics. Or worse, people thinking that they are making and buying green choices only to be unaware that the opposite is the case.

Our goal was not to change this, but to be honest about the whole process, and educate our customers that we as a society is a long way away from true sustainability. Thus, Tierra Natives is the only sustainability clothing store that combines boldness and empathy to wake up inner badasses within fashionable, empathetic yet reserved skeptics in The Netherlands, who feel inadequate to take action against climate change in an era where greenwashing is so prominent.

BRAND STRATEGY

BRAND DEVELOPMENT & DEFINITION

I have done a series of online Strategy Sessions with Celeste and Matthias. These sessions can be tedious, but what emerged from them were concrete answers to pressing questions we had since very beginning.