STILLEN
Branding / Print / Web / Illustration
The Client & Solution
STILLEN (Steve Millen Sportparts, Inc.) is an automotive aftermarket parts company created by Steve Millen, a former race car driver. When helping develop the brand, the main challenge was creating a consistent brand story while showing off many of the products and brands STILLEN sells to consumers.
The “S” Matters
One of the main challenges presented was keeping a consistent brand presence when you pair STILLEN with another brand or logo. It would feel like both logos were fighting for attention. Through problem-solving, I decided that the “S” icon can be the constant brand presence for all media. Though I did not create the original STILLEN wordmark or “S” icon, I went ahead and updated the icon’s design to become a consistent, flexible mark that can be applied across coupons, emails, printed material and even different departments and events (STILLEN University and the STILLEN USA being two examples).
Icons, Icons & Icons!
STILLEN has a whole range of products that they make as well as sell from third party manufacturers in their online shop. It can get pretty intimidating if you don’t know what you’re looking for. As a result, a stylistically-consistent set of icons was needed to help simplify the product search. Breaking each icon down into a basic form allows retail customers to quickly identify what they’re looking for in the online experience.
Telling Different Aspects of the Brand Story
One of the best ways for a brand to share their identity is through stylish shirts that help communicate the brand story. Plus who doesn’t like merch? I created three shirt designs where each design told a different aspect of the STILLEN’s story. The first design harkens back to a more “vintage” look given that STILLEN has over 30 years of history in the industry. The second emphasizes that they originally specialized in making Nissan parts while the third one highlights how simply it is to be “cool”. And, because I really like that S mark, I designed the cleaning instruction tag to have STILLEN branding.
Emails Came in More Than One Form
Since STILLEN is a major player in the retail industry, emails are the company’s most efficient way to contact customers of all demographics. Aside from regular weekly sales, emails also came in the form of informative articles for dealers as well as how-to’s for the average Joe through STILLEN University. What I really enjoyed about the email designs was making each “branch” unique but still tying it back to the STILLEN brand as a whole. You’ll always see a car, that distinct red or that logo/ S icon in one shape or another.