Ross Towbin - Dangle

Dangle

Branding | Entrepreneurship | Apparel Design

As one of my first experiences combining art and design with entrepreneurship, Dangle was a clothing brand I created with one of my best friends. Through this project, I learned to develop an identity and recurring theme in my designs for the brand and started getting feedback to make my designs as polished as possible. In addition, I gained and improved a plethora of technical skills, including screen printing, sewing, and photography. I also grew as an entrepreneur, gaining a following of hundreds on Instagram, setting up an online shop, creating various advertisements, and making our products an everyday sight in our community.

Objective

At the onset of developing the brand, I held several objectives in mind. First, I wanted to establish an all-encompassing aesthetic and a clear brand message; I wanted our products to bring people together. In addition, I wanted to evoke a sense of fun and playfulness within the brand's identity. Finally, I felt our products needed to be reasonably priced and easily accessible.

Early sketch of a graphic

Idea board of various designs

Printed draft of a graphic

Draft for tag design

Early sketch of a design

Blanks for screenprinting

Ideation

I created numerous designs, with each one going through as many as 12 revisions until it was nice and polished. It was essential that each design corresponded well with the brand's identity and reflected its recurring themes. I gathered these designs onto an idea board for review, and from there I selected what I felt the top-performing designs would be to be moved into production.

Research + Marketing

Social media was fundamental to our brand's strategy. We implemented polls on Instagram with the intent to gauge which designs would garner the most popularity. Regular posts containing various engaging content were also a large part of our initiative to maintain follower interaction and elevate our brand's visibility. Additionally, we sought exposure on news outlets to broaden our reach. All these concerted efforts helped drive our sales and were crucial to our brand's success.

Production

We used various production techniques for creating our products. For the t-shirts, I created screens and screen-printed on blank tees. For products that required embroidery, we utilized an integrated print-to-order service within our online shop platform. Thanks to our low production costs we were able to reasonably price our merchandise, making it more accessible.

Execution

Ultimately, our products turned out to look quite nice. We struck a deal with an aspiring photographer, offering them some of our merchandise in exchange for professional photos of our products. The results were outstanding. Taking into consideration the successful blend of design, marketing, and production strategies, I can confidently say that the Dangle project was indeed a success.