Aspire is a private label yoga brand developed for Sports Authority by my team with me as Associate Creative Director at forBrands / YFYJupiter. The original brief for Aspire was to create an outdoor sports brand for women with a pinch of namaste. By the end, the client’s direction had changed to be purely yoga-focused, explaining the number and breadth of visual explorations. In this case, extensive research wasn’t an option, so I developed a strategy from a small amount of consumer research provided by the client and an exhaustive analysis of competitors vying for the same space on-shelf. From this competitive analysis, I formed four strategy pillars: aspirational yoga, yoga purists, crunchy yogis, and sport-crossovers. The exploration and development led us into designs ranging from textural, nature-based camping and hiking styles to the clean and refreshing yoga attitude. From letterpress textures with vellum overlays to stitching, ribbons, and hair ties, we considered a wide variety of materials to help give the branding a tactile element. We were then able to apply naming and packaging concepts to each of the consumer groups’ pillars.

The team developed four brand names, each crafted to reflect a unique yoga enthusiast‘s key personality traits. The brands were: Sesha – aspirational yoga, Bodi – yoga purists, Reya – crunchy yogis, and Aspire – sport-crossover / aspirational yoga. The client came into the project with the name Aspire, to be considered one of the name options. When applied to multiple concepts, Aspire fit multiple groups‘ personalities and was kept as a secondary option in those cases. Ultimately chosen to be the most suitable contender in the current yoga landscape was my aspirational concept. Thin stripes of gloss varnish as ‘rays of light’ printed over aspirational photography of women in varying yoga poses give the packaging an enlightening shimmer tying perfectly with the bright, zen-like atmosphere of the design.