During this project, our team deep-dived into all aspects of the luxury brand--YSL. We start from the broader view of YSL's controversial brand image to review every detail product line within the market. After one semester of thorough research, we designed a set of coffee-related products that match the brand language.
🙋Role
Researcher
Product Designer
✍️Skills
Bag Product Line Analysis
VBL Matrices Research
Logo and Brand Treatment
Customer Journey Map
Competitive Analysis
Style Guides
Personas
👥Team
4 Product Designers
🔧Tool
Miro
InDesign
Photoshop
Solidworks
Keyshot
The whole project includes two parts: group brand research and individual product design. To design a set of products that recall the luxury brand, we need to thoroughly know the brand YSL. We start from the way they present themselves, to the characteristics and emotions customers associate with a brand.
The following links are process books with more detailed information:• 🔗Group Research Process Book🔗Individual Co-brand Product Design
The core essence of YSL is to build an eternal style and attitude that transcend the decades. They are often being described as controversial as the brand enjoy pushing the boundaries, a trait they share with their followers. As one of their main slogans being “freedom without censorship”, YSL believes in a strong sense of self with their documentary pieces being titled as such.
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Distinctive authenticity refers to how YSL stays true to its brand heritage in order to stand out in the luxury fashion world. YSL recognizes the diversity of people it sells to with its global brand and embraces it with its messages and collaboration choices.
Revolution not evolution. It is about refusing to discount the past when imagining a future. Remaking anew with references to the old carries with it history and shapes it for the modern world.
YSL revolutionized the fashion industry time and time again, beginning with the Tuxedo Suit and continuing with the Ready-To-Wear line, Liberacion collection, and multi-gender runway shows.
Freedom of self-expression without censorship centers around individuality and confrontation. It is about being authentically yourself with no holds barred. There is a confidence in knowing who you are and how that is expressed is an attitude YSL capitalizes on.
Key Takeaways✍️: Brand core value can pivot the company's decision-making, guide the brand story or behaviors. It is an important factor that differentiates YSL from other luxury brands. YSL is a brand built to last. Although it had hard times in the past, it is seeing a growing base and a revolution from its beginnings with the latest creative director Anthony Vaccarello.
BOURGEOISIE:
bold, assertive, sophisticated, self-assured, contemporary
BOHÉME:
androgynous, sensational, nonchalant , seductive, hedonistic, confrontational, youthful, unapologetic
Bourgeoisie Bohéme refers to members of the upper-middle class that have “one foot in the bohemian world of creativity and another foot in the bourgeois realm of ambition and worldly success”. It is a derivative of the ‘Yuppie’ socioeconomic population.
Saint Laurent brand exudes this bourgeoisie bohéme attitude in everything from the posturing of models to the minute details on each runway look. The bourgeoisie side has always been an essential part of the brand, but the Bohéme side is primarily the result of form creative director Hedi Slimane’s influence.
Key Takeaways✍️: This brand personality represents an ephemeral, exclusive, and unattainable lifestyle; young, wealthy creative types chasing fleeting artistic endeavors while still enjoying conspicuous consumption and a glamorous night life.
We tried to zoom out a little bit. From looking into every smallest details within the brand, to comparing YSL with other luxury brands within the market.
The competitor analysis compared 30 luxury brands including YSL with their brand position versus their FY2019 sales. The brand position was measured through Chinese fashion reviews, cross-comparing three sources.
After conducting competitors' research, we notice YSL’s advantage which many other luxury brands lack of. The lifestyle product line continues to help YSL build an explicit tone of voice.
Key Takeaways✍️: By comparing YSL with other luxury brands within the market, we were able to determine the brand's general performance and locate their main competitors which might include Prada, Balenciaga, Gucci, etc.
In 2021, the lifestyle product is launched by creative director Anthony Vaccarello as a plan to expand the “universe and DNA” of YSL. They conceptualize the idea of a French luxury fashion house and continue to preach the brand’s strong stance of authenticity and self-confidence
The lifestyle product line is available in select flagship worldwide. The products are also available online. The continued growth in online sales and ecommerce platform makes the lifestyle product more accessible to all consumers
During the pandemic, household appliance sale has a 129% growth. YSL lifestyle product line includes product ranging from larger product such as speaker to small appliance like dishware. Creating an opportunity for YSL to increase its revenue and brand exposure to the public.
The brand collaborated with some of the world’s best lifestyle brands, namely J.L Coquet, Baccarat and Bang & Olufsen, to create the quality work of the lifestyle category.
Key Takeaways✍️: Also we noted some key design elements that are repeated within the lifestyle product line. It includes massive usage of geometric shape such as circle, triangle, rectangle, square, heart, etc. YSL often uses black as a primary color and gold or silver as the accent colors. Brass is commonly seen throughout its Rive Droite lifestyle product. Lastly, star shape, marble and leopard pattern are often seen. Also, the "Saint Lauren (Paris) logo" is more often used comparing to the YSL logo in ready to wear products.
For more detailed information regarding the research, check out our brand research process book as the link below:
🔗Group Research Process Book
After conducting the brand research, our team decided to take advantage of the lifestyle product line. Also considering the coffee trend which begin to gain popularity recently, we decided on the topic: coffee set.
My designs are two coffee related product as following: cold brew coffee and glass cup
The reason we choose coffee market not only because of it is a emerging market, but also considering aligning with YSL target audience demographic:
In 2021, United States has around US$81.2 billion for coffee revenue, France has US$13.1 billion while China has US$14.2 billion for coffee revenue. We concluded that all three countries show great spending on coffee.
Cold brew coffee category grew 460% from 2015 to 2017. According to Statista, cold brew market value in United States is anticipated to be around US$ 944.16 million in 2025.1
Considering the YSL target audience age range, we found that 23% of American, 18.6% French and 48.9% Chinese coffee drinkers are 25-34 years old.Both genders show equally great interest in the coffee market share, yet female generally is more frequent coffee drinker comparing to male.
1. Statista. “Size of the cold brew coffee market in the United States from 2015 to 2025 (in million U.S. dollars).” Chart. March 5, 2020. Statista. Accessed April 20, 2022. https://www-statista-com.proxy2.library.illinois.edu/statistics/659724/cold-brew-coffee-sales-us/2. “The Sensory Properties and Consumer Acceptance ... - Wiley Online Library.” Accessed May 4, 2022. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/joss.12604.3. “Us Coffee and RTD Coffee Market Report 2021.” Mintel Store, January 20, 2022. https://store.mintel.com/report/us-coffee-and-rtd-coffee-marketreport.
Cold brew coffee drinkers are more likely to have a higher household income. In United States, 17% of cold brew drinkers has more than US$ 236,400 annual household earn. It is noteworthy that about 10.3% of American earned more than US$ 200,000. Additionally, 25% of cold brew Chinese drinkers have more than ¥322,800 household income. Meanwhile 20% Chinese households earned more than ¥80,293.
On average coffee drinkers consumed around 2 cups of coffee per day. Also US consumers drink about 1.28 cups of coffee at home. Meanwhile, French has preference to have coffee at café due to different coffee culture. Still, most drinkers consume on a daily bases.
1 Crimson Hexagon. “Social media voice share of cold-brew coffee in the United States in 2016, by age.” Chart. July 19, 2017. Statista. Accessed May 04, 2022. https://www-statistacom.proxy2.library.illinois.edu/statistics/865441/voice-share-ofcold-brew-coffee-by-age-us/National Bureau of Statistics of China. “Disposable per capita income in China in 2020, by income group (in yuan).” Chart. October 9, 2021. Statista. Accessed April 23, 2022. https://www-statista-com.proxy2.library.illinois.edu/statistics/278725/available-per-capita-income-in-china-by-income-group/2. National Coffee Association. “Cold brew coffee awareness among consumers in the United States in 2020.” Chart. September 14, 2020. Statista. Accessed May 04, 2022. https://www-statista-com.proxy2.library.illinois.edu/statistics/1037056/cold-brew-coffee-awareness-us/3. Statista. “Share of coffee consumers in France in 2021, by age group.” Chart. December 1, 2021. Statista. Accessed May 04, 2022. https://www-statista-com.proxy2.library.illinois.edu/forecasts/1279552/france-coffee-consumer-share-by-age4. Technavio. “Cold Brew Coffee Market to Record 26.24 % Y-o-y Growth Rate in 2021: Increasing Popularity of Instant Coffee among Millennials to Boost Market: 17000+ Technavio Reports.” O, January 21, 2022. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cold-brew-coffee-market-to-record-26-24--y-o-y-growth-rate-in-2021-increasing-popularity-of-instantcoffee-among-millennials-to-boost-market--17000-technavioreports-301465093.html.5. US Census Bureau. “Percentage distribution of household income in the U.S. in 2020.” Chart. September 14, 2021. Statista. Accessed April 23, 2022. https://www-statista-com.proxy2.library.illinois.edu/statistics/203183/percentagedistribution-of-household-income-in-the-us/6. YouGov. “Daily consumption of coffee in France in 2019.” Chart. February 7, 2019. Statista. Accessed April 22, 2022. https://www-statista-com.proxy2.library.illinois.edu/statistics/1027509/coffee-consumption-daily-france/
Key Challenge🤔: Cold brew coffee has a relatively older consumer group which can range from 35 to 60 years old. Meanwhile, latte and cappuccino are preferred by a younger generation. However, the study also shows the increase popularity of cold brew coffee among Millennials, particularly in China and the US.In fact, according to Statista, around 76 % of American consumer age range between 25-39 has a positive opinion of cold brew coffee
Acknowledging there are various coffee cultures exist in different countries. We focused on YSL's three target markets: United States, France, and China, and moreover studied their unique coffee cultures.
After learning some general facts about the coffee cultures within the three regions, we concluded all the findings into the personas, which shows the most potential audience that we targeted.
Besides the cold brew maker, I also designed a glass cup. The Louxor collections from Baccarat were selected by YSL. I examined the glass cup proportion and developed iterations based on the existing design. I also excerpted some patterns from the collection to create a consistent experience.
An average size glass cup can range from 14 to17oz with a width around 6cm and height around 9 cm. The pattern is excerpted from the Louxor collections from Baccarat. Also, Saint Laurent logo is engraved at the bottom of the glass cup.
