CASE STUDY
Chasing the sun & finding a voice
After 20 years in eyewear industry, Shane Heist had seen it all – except for well-made, affordable sunglasses. He came to us with a logo, prototype drawings, and the belief that no one should have to sacrifice adventure with shades that don’t perform.
A better sunglass company that believes adventure feeds the soul.
SunHeist hired us to design packaging and build an e-commerce site, but they also needed help finding their voice.
After 6 weeks of research and strategy sessions, we uncovered that the foundation of the brand’s story was built upon two things: a passion for adventure and the great outdoors, and superior quality and durability that their competitors couldn’t match.
What I Did
Brand Strategy
Messaging
Art Direction
Visual Design
Packaging
Web Design & UX
Email Design
Video Editing
Each style of SunHeists is named after a tree. Early on, the Heists knew they had to do more than just make better sunglasses — they had to protect the great outdoors, too. For every pair of SunHeists sold, a tree is planted through One Tree Planted.
Communicating the superior quality of the product was crucial for a new brand entering a crowded space. We reinforced it through messaging on all digital experiences, targeted towards fellow adventurers and thrill-seekers alike.
We ran Facebook ads to build brand awareness and an email list for product launch. We use the pre-launch welcome series emails to drive home the brand attributes.
Just before the product launch, the Heists wanted to add some swag and inserts to the packaging. We created bandanas, buttons, pins, stickers, and strategized a social media campaign for product giveaways that would incentivize people to share their photos on Instagram — a win for brand awareness and user generated content.
The website was custom-designed and programmed on Shopify. We organized products by lifestyle, sports, aviators, and polarized and created filters for visitors to shop however worked best for them.
We used our own experience shopping for eyewear online, trying to find a pair that fit and worked with our face shape, as a pain point when designing the product pages.
From day one, we aimed to elevate the design of marketing emails and build authority with the audience in its infancy.
The adventure continues.
Within the first two months of launch SunHeist got over 100 sales and garnered hundreds of email subscribers and followers on social media.