Worldly: Rebranding sustainability
relaunching the incumbent
Identity prior to rebrand
After being spunout from a nonprofit coalition, a new identity was needed for Higg, the leading sustainability data platform in the apparel industry.
Working with Watson Creative, I led a year-long process of rebrand and relaunch.
Our revised narrative put aside the technical vocabulary, for a future-forward story about a generational shift in how consumer goods are made.
And for our new name?
“Traditionally, ‘worldly’ meant being knowledgeable
about possessions and the material world.
We believe that climate change is creating demand for a
new type intelligence — and chose the name Worldly to
redefine material knowledge in the 21st century.”
VISUAL & verbal IDENTITY
After guiding our preferred name through trademark clearance, the team explored design directions. Ultimately, we opted for an urgent palette, angular letterforms, and a ripple motif—to suggest making order out of chaos. I paired this with encouraging language and affirmative calls-to-action.
BRAND CAMPAIGN
Worldly debuted in spring of 2023. The campaign included media takeovers of industry publications, programmatic ads, gated content for lead generation, and a new brand manifesto video (which I scripted).
The campaign earned positive coverage in Vogue Business and Business of Fashion, and led to a 175% growth of social following, tenfold increase in site traffic, and 250k+ brand video views within a month.
WEBSITE REDESIGN
Lastly, I established the initial strategy and visual direction for our new website.
In photography, we chose to foreground practitioners in apparel and sustainability at work—no vistas of green forests or deep blue oceans.
Our product presentation was also completely overhauled, to align with the needs of our distinct customer segments, and to present both native capabilities and third-party hosted solutions in a user-first way.
additional CREDITS
Design: Watson Creative, Halina Mader
Brand Copywriting: Watson Creative
Website Strategy: Ella Kobelt
Content Strategy: Giselle Waters
Website UX & Development: Fresh Consulting
Brand video/animation: Studio ADZ for FCC