Outdoor Use Only Case Study

Project Goals

Outdoor Use Only was a private lable products company that I created under the LLC, Campbell Market & Finds. I needed to create a brand identity that included a logo, website, packaging, merch, social media graphics, and social media marketing. Outdoor Use Only wanted its customers to be inspired to get outside and into the great outdoors with friends and family while providing sturdy, reliable products that would enhance their outdoor experience.

Personality

Process

As with most of my design work, I began with pencil and paper. I sketched out logo ideas, layouts, and packaging ideas before moving them into production. In addition to the design, all of the copywriting and photography were done by me. My main inspiration came from my own travels and outdoor adventures with my family, so I used a lot of photographs from my travels in my designs. No stock photography was used. I also wrote all of my own copy for the web (including SEO), social media posts, and social media ads and I shot all of my product photography on my Canon both outdoors and in my indoor make-shift photography lightbox.

Solution

The logo is simple and bold, which makes it versatile enough to be placed on a variety of products and designs and in a variety of sizes. I wanted the logo to be just as no-nonsense as my products, conveying the idea that these products are adventure-ready. The typography used adds to the friendly nature of the company and has a broad non-gendered appeal. I created several graphics for apparel that were sold on the OUO website as well, which also invokes a sense of fun and adventure. The packaging was created with several things in mind: keeping costs down, clearly communicating the products’ features while maintaining brand standards, shipping, and staying within Amazon’s FBA Seller packing specifications.

Instagram post; sketch with measurements for the product packaging.

Colors

The main brand colors are black and white which allows versatility and helps the products take the main stage. Most of the color in the website, social media graphics, and packaging come from the mountain photo taken in Grand Teton, Wyoming (see below). Other occasional accent colors were taken directly from the photography. The use of black and white is bold, and the image evokes the sense of adventure that the brand portrays.

Website

The OUO website is not live anymore, since I’ve closed my LLC, however, the basic layout of the page can be seen here. The water bottles and camp hooks were sold and shipped via Amazon, so the links on my website for those products took the user to their Amazon listings. As an Amazon seller, I paid a monthly fee to house my products in an Amazon fulfillment warehouse to streamline sales and provide Prime shipping for my customers. The apparel was sold on my website. I linked my online store to my Printful account, which is a print-on-demand fulfillment company that printed and shipped out the shirts when an order was placed. The vast majority of my sales came from utilizing Amazon’s PPC ads in my FBA seller account, so I kept my website rather simple and easy to navigate. Most of my customers found my products via Amazon searches, however, I got the majority of my website traffic from my Instagram account. However, I did use SEO on my website to help drive traffic from Google. I used Amazon’s keyword search function to help me see what customers were searching for. I also kept tabs on my competitors. I used that data to help optimize my listings and to drive design decisions for my social media ad posts.