Nirali
Mehta
Client: Eternity Lifestyles. 2012/2021 Field: Design strategy
Opium Eyewear
Opium is a part of Eternity Lifestyles, the brainchild of prodigies from the eyewear world. Eternity Lifestyles is the exclusive distributor and marketer of luxury brands like Chrome Hearts, Cartier, Ralph Lauren, John Galliano, and more in India Pioneers of their field, they are the first to bring Oakley to Indian shores and to be associated with Luxottica, the world’s largest eyewear company.
The Ask
Help, Eternity Lifestyle to strengthen its brand Opium’s position as an Indian eyewear brand. Being a marketer and distributer for high end sunglasses, Opium’s challenge was to establish its unique characteristics with the customers and stand out against the competition. Drawing from research and company’s data, I realized that the brand needed to incorporate some base line approaches to differentiate its offering. To introduce itself as an eyewear brand making its users experience a feeling drawn from perceptions.
Outcome
Together we worked on the first strategy to formulate the brand identity with design principles at its centre.
I proposed and worked on their first in-house signature collection leveraging the ideas of altered perception through Op-Art influences and thought-provoking language. For the brand resonance, there needed to be a visual identity on the product too.
Eyewear is not a product of function but an extension to one’s personality. First feature that we as human recognize is the face, thus by virtue of that any accessory on the face becomes either a part of who we are or who we would like to be.
We realized that we needed to direct the brands overall approach in this direction with the product & communication. I devised a product range and rollout plan in collaboration with the internal team to allow thought exchanges and to arrive at a shared creative vision - to make the brand name visible in the most stylish, appropriate, and a production-friendly way in order to -
-Deliver the message clearly
-Connect to the target customers
-Build a strong user loyalty
Opium with its successful growth over the years, started looking for new ways to connect with its customers through new products and experiences. In 2021 I was given the task to develop capsule collection of T-shirts for Opium as a part of their pilot.
Having worked with them in the past, I had the advantage of building on the idea with some liberties. I took the creative direction of making its product offering more than just objects that one can see, feel, touch, and wear. It was meant to be more than that - to carry stories with it. For this collection I created a visual identity by leveraging ideas of altered perception through Op-Art influences and thought-provoking language. It speaks to the immersive, transformative experience sunglasses provide, and promotes an independent, critical thought it inspires.
Whimsical elements using the brand logo and name with a clean but visually enticing imagery of the brand to making it enticing & inclusive.
