Building Your Brand: Suits and Stationery

My fashionista friend and design columnist JJ Lee convinced me to have a new black suit custom made by Modernize Tailors. It’s the first tailor-made suit I’ve ever purchased and as I experience the myriad of choices such as fabric, weight, colour, texture, pattern, lapel style, cuffs, buttons, pockets, pleats, hems, etc it occured to me: This is just like the many choices we make when executing stationery components as part of a client’s brand identity. Paper surface (matte, dull, gloss, uncoated), colour (process, spot), textures (deboss, emboss, watermark, linen), finishing (diecut, custom flaps and sizes) and various other choices all make a huge impact on the success of a brand identity roll out.

In the same way a 3 button jacket with high peaked lapel and kissing buttons has a totally different look and feel than a two button low, “tipped over” lapel with no vents and real surgeon cuffs, a 130lb cover weight business card with converted square flap envelopes leaves a very different impression than a flimsy stock weight and standard crossback envelope selection. Choosing the options for my suit really reminds me in every way of the many choices we make as print designers, knowing that in the end it’s the smallest details that others may not even notice that make the difference in how a brand is perceived. Let’s hope my suit improves my personal brand – I hear black is slimming.

UPDATE: The suit is done and the rsults are in. I look HOT. Trust me, you just cannot find a suit of this quality or fit anywhere for the money I spent. And the service and care from the men at Modernize was beyond compare.

Posted by Mark Busse

Tags: Branding, Design