Make a gifting brand story come true
Supporting a brand for a well-known specialty gift company, by emerging new designs.
OVERVIEW
GiftTree is a specialty gift company that sells beautiful specialty gifts. For the past 5 years, I have worked with GiftTree to create their Christmas, Thanksgiving, Mother’s Day, Easter, Wedding, Corporate, and Real Estate catalog designs.
This year GiftTree was in need of both new packaging for their wine product labels and a new design layout for this year’s holiday catalog season. In addition, Gift Tree gave opportunities to small business owners to showcase their own products, which establish a sub brand called Giving Tree, which I helped them design their logo.
Gift Tree focus on quick turnaround high-end gifts for all occasions. Their services include custom gifts, holiday gifts, gift baskets, specialize wines and more. Their products range from decadent boxes of chocolates to customized martini glasses and from elegant charcuterie boards to champagnes.
Since its inception in 1997, gift-givers have been celebrating the important moments in their lives with Gifttree’s curated selection of quality gifts.
We need to focus on bringing together quality products and souvenir containers in a pleasing package.
Discovery and Planning Process
Since proudly establishing themselves in the gift industry for more than 25 years, GiftTree has made great leaps with their capabilities. Including their headquarters, they maintain three locations in the United States.
As a business that focuses on quick-delivery online sales, GiftTree relies on maintaining their image to generate sales. A redesign of their wine label packaging and an enticing holiday catalog was imperative for their branding.
A holiday catalog is not just a means of advertising their products. Each catalog serves many functions. In one concise magazine-style delivery, the brand needs to solidify their branding, convince a customer to buy into their brand, and allow a customer to select the products that they would like to purchase.
Also, GiftTree is unique, they carry a wide variety of gift options in a very broad price range. Thus, their products are accessible to a larger market of potential gift givers. This was another aspect to keep in mind for this project.
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Creation and UX Strategy
GiftTree sells many products that are slightly similar to each other in order to appeal to a wide variety of gift recipients. With so many options, customers needed a way to find what they were looking for.
To accomplish this, the design of the catalog could not be the same for multiple pages in a row. Implementing a repetitive display of GiftTree’s products would only serve to complicate the decision-making process for a prospective customer.
It was also understood that this catalog was destined to be a bulkier catalog. With so many wonderful options to choose from, there needed to be ample space to display each product, the product information, and at least one tagline to establish branding.
This was another major consideration during the planning phase. Without proper display of GiftTree’s products, the likelihood of customers following their call-to-action of purchasing a gift basket or wine bottle would be lower.
Each individual catalog showcases GiftTree’s best-selling products for each occasion. Throughout the 5 years that I have been working on GiftTree’s project, each project has required an elegant and professional design layout for buyers to make their purchases.
Creation and UX Strategy
GiftTree sells many products that are slightly similar to each other in order to appeal to a wide variety of gift recipients. With so many options, customers needed a way to find what they were looking for.
To accomplish this, the design of the catalog could not be the same for multiple pages in a row. Implementing a repetitive display of GiftTree’s products would only serve to complicate the decision-making process for a prospective customer.
It was also understood that this catalog was destined to be a bulkier catalog. With so many wonderful options to choose from, there needed to be ample space to display each product, the product information, and at least one tagline to establish branding.
This was another major consideration during the planning phase. Without proper display of GiftTree’s products, the likelihood of customers following their call-to-action of purchasing a gift basket or wine bottle would be lower.
Each individual catalog showcases GiftTree’s best-selling products for each occasion. Throughout the 5 years that I have been working on GiftTree’s project, each project has required an elegant and professional design layout for buyers to make their purchases.
Style Choices and Design Elements
Color Choice
A color palette that reflected the season of this catalog was absolutely necessary. Each catalog needed to be defined as clearly aimed toward the holiday.
A key description in their marketing is the word “gourmet”. Though GiftTree is able to accommodate varying budgets, their gifts are definitively sophisticated gifts.
While the colors were pre decided by the occasion, the shades were not. In order to embody the personality of the brand, I decided to go with a darker, more luscious red, a dark and moody green, and a more mature lighter green. These colors more closely resemble garnet, evergreen, and sage than the traditional bright and jolly red and green through the holiday season.
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Product Display
Luckily for GiftTree, their products are stunning. Displaying these products is also the majority of the purpose of having a catalog. In this way, the development of their catalog heavily involved finding unique ways to show off their delectable gifts.
To display these items, an intermixing of solo feature pages and condensed pages with multiple products was implemented. On many spreads, full-page product photos displayed especially attractive gift options while other related gifts were shown on the page across.
Occasionally, product photos without a purchase price or description were shown as two-page layouts to serve as transition pieces within the catalog. These pages intend to excite customers while also acting as a break in between sections of the overall piece.
This choice benefits both GiftTree and their prospective customers. Certain products were able to be highlighted and more likely to be purchased, while sorted grid layouts allow customers to narrow down their choices.
Wine Label Re-design
This year I helped to re-design their wine labels which includes Rhenard, Renoir, Adot, Piece Canyon, Montmore Reserve, and Aravanti. Each wine label has their own specific design style and brand.
To enhance these labels, I ensured that all of the labels have embossing and gold foil to add texture and quality to the design. I used color tones and imagery to provide a story behind each design.
The titles of the wine labels are also carefully selected to have their own distinct typography. For old-fashioned wines, I chose a vintage font. For the modern wines, I chose a trendier and sophisticated font to match their design style.
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Final Product
Through this project, I was able to help GiftTree present themselves for the holidays by optimizing their gift selection process. Their final 2022 holiday catalog is mature, refined, and in line with their branding. Most importantly, it is a functional piece of graphic design that accurately markets their products.
Both GiftTree and I are so thrilled with the final product for their holiday catalog and their re-designed packaging for their wine labels. The ability to flip through pages and view their products has never been smoother. Additionally, the catalog is easy to use and purchase products from for every budget and interest.
Throughout these years, I have enjoyed collaborating with GiftTree to work on building their brand. In addition, I have assisted GiftTree with their digital marketing design on their website and email campaigns.
