Where Function Meets Fun

Where Function Meets Fun

Within
  • branding
  • digital experience
  • ux
  • development
  • retail

We worked with the team at Lamour to ideate and launch a new brand in their robust portfolio of hosiery and apparel products, which we named Within. Made for every body in every stage of life, Within sells high-quality essentially that won't break the bank.

Together, we helped define the brand's values, create high standards for Within's tone of voice, built out a series of taglines, the identity system, an ecommerce website launch strategy and more. Pact built the Within brand from initial ideation to launch and continues to support them as they grow.

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Laying the Groundwork

At the earliest stages of our work with the brand, we helped to question and establish the reason why the brand exists and help differentiate the product's offering. This ultimately helped us to establish the brand's unique position as somewhere between a big-box retailer and a DTC darling. From there, we helped solidify the brand's unique purpose and distill that into a sense of clear values.

Rough cuts give way to precious gems

Pact explored four creative directions that anchored to a specific value proposition that the Lamour team identified as meaningful in our early conversations. These explorations are broad in nature and meant to generate discussions about what the team loved (and loathed) – as well as which aspects they wanted to lean into, like playfulness and transparency. At this stage, everything is very rough – but the assortment of ideas proves to be a useful jumping off point for further refinement.

What's in a name?

Along with the creative explorations, Pact also worked to shortlist names based on our discussions with the Lamour team. We use the following criteria to shortlist a few names that aligned with the brand's values and goals:

  • Location: The brand would live in the US and Canada, so the word needed to be regionally appropriate in both nations
  • Domain Availability: Any name we shortlisted needed to have a few domain options available.
  • Easy to Say: Can this name be easily understood in a crowded, noisy bar? If it's easy to spell, that makes it a winner in our books.
  • Values Alignment: The name needs to fit in with the brand's overarching values of inclusion, generosity and sustainability.
  • Definition: Similar to the points above, the word's definition should be clear, concise and easily understood.
Ultimately, the name “Within” was instantly beloved by everyone on the team. The word is imbued with meaning and nuance, and allowed us to play with all kinds of taglines that represented the brand's commitment to creating a better marketplace – for you, for me, for all.

A logo comes full circle

A bold mission needed a logo to match. However, we wanted to build in a certain level of playfulness, adaptability and modularity into our logo that would look equally sharp in static applications as bubbly, bouncy animated contexts. 
 The dynamic dot is ever-changing and ever-evolving depending on its contexts – standing in contrast to the letterforms of the minimal, gender-neutral logo that is meant to to support a number of brands in the marketplace.

A brand system comes to life

Across the Within landscape, the brand system comes to life. The letterforms are abstracted to create a toolkit of dynamic shapes that can be infinitely remixed and rematched across marketing collateral. The logotype comes to life to create all kinds of options and ways to express itself. Bright colors signify the brand's evervescent "come-as-you-are" tone – inviting everyone to find something within.

A modern marketplace

In addition to their namesake brand, Within carries more than 12 high-quality brands for basics including Bench, Thorlos, Trimfit and more. We worked with the team at Within to create a website that would allow the brand's distinct personality to shine through while highlighting a portfolio of brands for folks of all ages, shapes and sizes.

The result is a marketplace that prioritizes wayfinding and multiple points of entry – a robust navigation system, a way to shop by brand, age or category, inclusive search, powerful filtering functionality and more.

A bold voice

Within's messaging speaks like a friend rather than an authority, and offers support in a fun, laid-back way. We don't talk down to our customers, we simply explain our purpose, products and pricepoints transparently and lightheartedly. However, we are talking about underwear after all, so don't be surprised if the tone gets a bit cheeky every once in a while.

A picture is worth a thousand words. None of Within's photography was retouched, and we prioritized casting a wide variety of ages, skin tones, races, body types to reinforce the brand's mission across all touchpoints.

Launch and beyond

We helped get the brand ready to meet the world. Beyond telling the Within’s story, we worked with their internal team to develop a distinct look, feel and tone of voice to build their audience, establish their social media channels and provide a clear message to lead with. Hear, hear!

“The Pact team is creative, engaging, enthusiastic, thoughtful, super detailed, and extremely, mightily fun to work with. Pact is not simply a great partner. Pact is not simply a great team. Pact has quickly become our key brand partner and key extension of our team. That’s how we thought of them. And how we continue to work with them. They created a brand with us from scratch. The whole process was a two-way street, and they delivered over and above what we envisioned, so much so we changed a part of our brand strategy for our Ecommerce business.”
Johnny RussoChief Digital Officer at Lamour Brands