The worst possible way to work on three important things is to focus on all three at the same time. But apparently I’m a glutton for punishment and I chose to work on the Peculiar PPL logo, shirt design, and website overhaul at the same time. Today is the magical day that I can finally check-off all three items from my to-do list as I release all three to the public. Allow me to tell you the excruciating details about each project.
The Peculiar PPL Logo
From the beginning, I’ve always wanted a Peculiar PPL “mark” in addition to a logo, but I didn’t want to rush and create a subpar design. Now that the brand is on the cusp of exponential growth, I wanted the branding to grow as well. I wanted a fresh perspective, so I enlisted the help of artists who came up with a number of different concepts. Here are a few of the logo concepts that I didn’t make the cut:
In the end, the logo that I went with was one that depicted a Peculiar hand reaching for a star, and the entire logo is in the shape of a P, for Peculiar. This logo reflects every aspect of the brand with one image. Each person is reaching for their individual “star” and Peculiar PPL exists to inspire and enable Peculiar PPL to do so. Here’s a mock-up of how the logos would work together in the future, when we have a nice, swanky Peculiar PPL boutique.
The Peculiar Shirt
For this design, I enlisted the help of a very talented artist from Spain. I wanted a design that said “Peculiar” in a simple, elegant way without being too distracting or ornamental. Here are a couple iterations of the drafts that we worked on:
In the end, I selected the image for the newest shirt, and got it in both cranberry and black. Then I ordered hem tags for each shirt in order to compliment the design with the Peculiar PPL logo. Here’s the finished product, that you can order on PeculiarPPL.com
The Website
With the website, I had three goals in mind:
1. Simple
2. Mobile Friendly
3. Informative product pages
After working on the site for three months, I was almost ready to launch when I felt like bride who is having second thoughts on the night before her wedding. The design didn’t seem as good as it had the potential to be, so I trashed the entire thing and started working on a new version. Then, when I was ready to launch the second time, I had the idea to put invisible models on each t-shirt product page, and each video took hours to create and implement. Then the three weeks leading up to the launch had so many tiny hiccups that required late nights and lots of technical support. Somehow I was able to pull it off and launch a user-friendly site with secure, encrypted account management and checkout pages, even though I’m not a web designer by any means.
The end result is a website that will serve as the foundation for many new additions in the future. I’m confident that the website is solid and scaleable enough to grow as the brand grows, and I’m looking forward to hearing feedback from people who use the site to make purchases.
Now that these things are finished, I’ve got so many other Peculiar PPL related things to launch. Since I’ll be making all announcements on www.PeculiarPPL.com and on the associated social networks (Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram), follow the brand there to see what is coming next in the wonderful Peculiar world.
I quit my full time job to focus on this full-time, so if you want to help support the growth of the brand (and my business endeavors), feel free to purchase a product or ten from www.PeculiarPPL.com. I’ll love you for it.