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When I first came on to All Is Fair in Love and Wear as Director, it was a mess.

All Is Fair provides binders to the transmasculine community: garments that compress feminine-appearing chests so they appear more masculine and the wearer is presented as such. This can start a transgender person's transition before or without hormonal/surgical assistance.

... But all of the branding was overtly soft and feminine.

All Is Fair was to set a new standard for aesthetic consideration in this incredibly niche, under-served market.

... But the design work was half-baked across the board, to say the least.

(I direct the brand now, so I can say this--don't worry)
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The first step in masculinizing the brand was finding the right model, a trans man who was far and comfortable enough into their transition to model for us, but still wore a binder--who was also great in front of a camera.

I was connected to Taylor "Lev" Miller, a native of Wichita, Kansas. I drove out to meet and shoot Taylor in a local nature reserve.

The second step was understanding the tone of AIFLW as a brand.
I needed to do away with the thin and suggestive lines of the original launch: bold, punchy color, fat text, all photos a little over-exposed and over-saturated.

By focusing on the natural and architectural, and how these elements play into each other, I began constructing a visual "binary" that I could play off of in our photography.

Architecture has been historically male-dominated, and nature historically associated with the maternal and feminine; I wanted to move away from that conversation and instead subtly explore "the constructed" vs "the natural" in relation to gender-identity and transition.
Most of our clientele are youth ages 12-18, so the moodiness and seriousness in our photography is important to establish but not overdo.

Counter-balancing this, the rest of the branding is playful in design and content.

For example, our safety information is presented in these chibi Crayon Shin-chan-inspired vignettes. The color palette of muted and darkened primaries with splashes of complementary contrast, gives a timelessness: it isn't stuck in childhood, but hasn't quite grown up either.
That playfulness is pushed through our language.

Informality is the key to our brand authenticity.

"We're here for ya. We're queer for ya." Over-polishing and over-stressing about details will set a silent standard for our clients. Most of them are economically under-privileged youth, some are displaced or in atypical living situations because they were ostracized by their families.

They should not feel self-conscious when they come to our site. That sounds ironic and counter-productive from a marketing perspective, but my focus isn't in providing the value of comfort they get when they wear our product: my focus is on the value of comfort they get from the brand as a whole.

Humor, spatted about the website is vital. Having a moment of respite, even just a laugh, can transform what's usually a moment of stress: looking for your first binder, often without a parent or guardian's knowing. If we don't go out of our way to ease your discomfort before you've entered your card information, we've failed at a vital point of contact in truly helping and building a relationship.
The end result of all my work is a stark contrast from where the brand was.

A dying, nearly defunct brand now works with hospitals and medical researchers to influence it's garment design and provide safety information.

AIFLW has reconnected with the community that at first pushed it away.

Most notably, it's the first brand of it's kind to have an aesthetic and marketing strategy molded around the needs and experiences of trans and gender-nonconforming communities.