landsend.com evolution - Lands' End

The next step in a never ending process. Evolving the digital presence of a brand can be daunting until you have a vision of where you want to go, mind you, an evolving one. Breaking down that vision into a strategy on how you plan to roll out change without having to wait for a big tada is where the fun comes in. Simple consistent updates won't "scare" anyone away but an update to your digital commerce navigation is in my opinion the most visible and impactful for your customer. Below is sample of both a taste of the vision and the first step.

Squall - Lands' End

The Squall Jacket has been being perfected over the last 30 years. It's been put to the test by mountain rescue teams, hundreds of thousands of customers and a goat. This time we decided to send it out on the largest lake in the world with a crew of merchant mariners.

Designer: Stephen Clough | Writer: Randy Horton | Creative Director: Michael Tallman

Kids Squall - Lands' End

The Squall collection spans all divisions at Lands' End. The kids version was for the first time water proof and full of other details. To demonstrate the new and classic features we thought it was best to put it to the test the way every kid would imagine it being done. As a way to showcase the multiple styles squall comes in we utilized a simple slide show supported with lifestyle images.

Designer: Pamela Stant | Writer: Alex White | Creative Director: Michael Tallman

Plus - Lands' End

The plus size segment is a classically under served demographic within fashion retail. Lands' End has worked hard to fill that need with a line that is both fashionable and full of innovation. To help launch this line and add an editorial angle we partnered with blogger Brittany Gibbons. We produced a series of videos of her speaking to her favorite looks and products.

Designer: Michael Grace | Writer: Robert Humphries | Creative Director: Michael Tallman

Spring Break - American Eagle Outfitters

In the spring, AE had a single marketing goal, "Own spring break." Below is an example of just that. Not only did we have a venue at perhaps the most cliche spring break destination, Cancun, we also had significant presence at Padre Island as an eco volunteer break. To round out the locations Squaw Valley provided a scenic venue for the Gym Class Heros to play and have a lodge experience. What about the college kids that forgot to save up for spring break? Well, we played it all back online leveraging the site for live concerts, photo pickup from the actual event and of course the opportunity to ease your jealousy a bit by shopping online with our host iJustine.

AE Jeans - American Eagle Outfitters

From a pure aesthetics standpoint, one of my favorite denim guides. Simple execution and limited functionality.

Designer: Kayan Moussoba | Creative Director: Michael Tallman

Checkout - Lands' End

The checkout process is arguably the most important application on a commerce site. Without it, there isn't commerce. Regardless how great your brand is represented online, if you can't purchase you won't be able to afford to continue to deliver the branding. The landsend.com checkout is no exception. Below is an after and before. Highlights include: one page style, in page editing of products in bag, shared bag and checkout, save for later, easy account signup after completion, visually more contemporary.

Product Pages - Lands' End

The product pages at landsend.com were notoriously bad when I started. One of my first orders of business was to update them. Below is an after then before. Features of note are: Add to bag above the fold (no brainer), size and color qualifications that are interactive and communicate existing vs. available combinations, updated description name and pricing layout and significantly larger product images.

After

Before

Denim Photography - American Eagle Outftters

Consistently updating product photography to enhance the brand image is important, especially in a category like denim at AE. Settling with product imagery should never be an option. Below shows a before and after. We were able to make clear improvement in styling, lighting, and poses.

Product Imagery - Martin + Osa

I always loved the way these images turned out. The diptych style creates a nice contrast that allows you to appreciate the the product as a whole based on a macro shot that provides detail you wouldn't get otherwise.

Not the same style but I do find a certain life between the lighting and styling.

Denim Montage - American Eagle

How does 2006 seem so long ago...well, my team and I were killing it then too. This was an experience that was used at the top of the denim index pages pages on ae.com. The coolest part was the stop motion denim rotations. Here it is live but I won't promise it all works. I mean come on it's 6 years old that's like 80 internet and 42 dog years.

Live Version Here

Design: Michael Tallman & Kayan Moussoba | Interactive Photography: Greg Bassinger

Next we upped the ante a bit. Stop motion? What? Not this time.

Interactive video with graphics. This was in 2008.

Live Version Here

Please Read the Copy - Lands' End

There is an ongoing, well, um..."discussion" at work about whether or not people read online any more. The most compelling argument that I can provide is, if you have compelling content people will want to read or interact with it. If you your content isn't interesting, well there are other, better uses of my time.

With that in mind we wrote up some scripts and pulled out my iPhone to cook up some home grown content...the series can be found here.

We decided to shoot a few more after the first round but went ahead and used the studio and better camera.

Backpacks - Lands' End

Backpacks and Back-to-school are like Xmas for the kids business. For that reason significant effort is put into making sure the shopping experience is dynamic, informative and simple. Starting with the Landsend.com/kids landing page. With so many stories to tell it was important to make sure backpacks cut through while the rest of our product lines got some play too.

Designer: Pamela Stant | Writer: Alex White

We partnered with blogger Audrey McClelland at momgenerations.com to create 2 videos. The first featuring our all new redesigned backpacks and the other promote Iron Knee.

The backpack experience was designed to showcase the collections and provide important fit, sizing and quality information. This was achieved through a dedicated landing page and series of product videos that were designed to be informative but provide a touch of whimsy at the end.

Additionally we carried the product detail through onto index and product pages using a badge system that allows for multiple denotations and plenty of info for mom to make a confident decision on product pages.

SwimMates - Lands' End

The SwimMates collection posed an interesting challenge: How do you communicate that your most flexible swimsuit is now the 4 piece bikini? Meaning, how do you let a customer know that we had created a line of swimwear that was really meant for layering. You could wear the cover-up pieces into the water because they were not just cover-ups but also part of your bathing suit that was optional pending on where or what you were doing.

Our solution, like the suit, was more than one piece to create a layered experience of informative graphics and video content.

To accompany the graphics, two videos were created. One to be used on swim product pages on landsend.com and the other as an extended play for external sites and as marketing.

Full Version

35 sec version for product pages



Beyond a standard launch graphic on the home page, we created a simple 1,2,3 step design that was used throughout the site and as display advertising explaining the concept as simply as possible.

An additional animation was created for marketing and display advertising purposes. The focus here was to create differentiation within the swim universe and show that Lands' End is different and has developed a new line based on your life style.

Animation

Dress Diaries - Lands' End

When Lands' End launched a new collection of dresses in Spring 2012 we created an experience that was based on journal entries and provided an opportunity to showcase outfitting for our customer. The top portion was developed as a page turning book while the bottom was a slider to help inspire the pairing of accessories and footwear.

Designer: Stephen Clough | Writer: Marcia Jablonski