De Provincia – Farhan Mian

Can a fashion catalog educate customers?

Digital Publishing \ Print Publishing

"The project inherently involved my commitment to help preserve the culture of the indigenous artisans and the economic advancement of their communities."

1\ Research

Imbabura, the “Province of Lakes,” is a province of beautiful landscapes, located in the Andes of northern Ecuador. The people of the province, whose capital is Ibarra, speak Spanish and the Quechua language. Notable features of the area include the Cotacachi Volcano (4,944 meters, near the town of Cotacachi) and the Imbabura Volcano (4,609 meters, near the town of La Esperanza).

The Province of Lakes

Visitors are drawn to Imbabura’s temperate valleys, snow-capped volcanoes, and spectacular waterfalls. Lakes such as San Pablo, Yahuarcocha, Mohanda, and Cuicocha encourage fishing and the Imbabura volcano and Cotacachi-Cayapas Ecological Reserve are wonderful for walking and hiking.

Imbabura artisans have come to be known around the world, and you can find high quality hand-crafted textiles at the Otavalo market (Plaza de Los Ponchos) you can find high quality handcrafted textiles.

The De Provincia brand pays homage to the contribution made by the small towns to the big cities. Literally translating to “from the countryside,” our products have journeyed a long way to our customers in urban centers like Los Angeles and New York. Each blanket brings with it cultural value and craftsmanship, and as such has been named after a town in the Imbabura Province of the Ecuadorian Andes.

"De Provincia originated from my long-time admiration for the indigenous artisans’ exceptional craft. I couldn’t help but share it with others overseas."

Andrea Valencia, Founder, De Provincia

2\ Define the customer

We are the intersection of Digital Publishing and Branding. To effectively cater to an appropriate audience, we must first create a persona from an interpolation of surveys and interviews.

Our intended customer appreciates hand-crafted products but shops using a digital lens.

3\ Design system

A design system is a series of components that can be reused in different combinations. Design systems allow you to manage design at scale.

For a catalog, brand guidlines within this system define logo paramaters, typography styles and color palettes. We will be designing for digital and print publishing.

Text styles

Rarely does a brand guidline for typography deviate from a single serif and sans serif pairing. However, giving the nature of our digital and print publishing ambitions, two sans serif options have been created to allow for body information sets at smaller scales. This interpolation of print and interface guideline standards allows for a robust branding system with clear, simple messaging.

Color palette

This color palette has been developed to give the De Provincia brand approachability, warmth, and pop. Variants to these swatches exist in the spectrum as sole instances. These colors are used throughout the creative in this design system.

Logo guidelines

The guidelines demonstrate how the De Provincia logo and brand name should be applied to packaging, PDF catalogs, lookbook prints and product tags. A minimal take on the first De Provincia Logo allows for the Llama to sit within most digital and print layouts without obstruction to visual hierarchies.

Hierarchies

De Provincia's biggest ambition is to educate the world about Imbabura's cultural and craft offerings. As such, we have implemented the design strategy of naming each product after the town it was fabricated in. A note about the town has been included in both print and digital catalogs with strict hierarchies for typography.

4\ Design

To activate a large market of customers who are excited to purchase, share and learn about Ecuadorian crafts, our catalog's layout must be designed for a digital interface.

It is critical to get the mission statement, focus on languages and education about the Imbabura province to be drivers behind the experience.

Typography

Wikipedia states; "A mission statement is a short statement of why an organization exists, what its overall goal is, identifying the goal of its operations: what kind of product or service it provides, its primary customers or market, and its geographical region of operation."

Sometimes it takes two statements to identify the purpose, aspirations and history behind a product. Curated typography will be our vehicle here, to get our statements across effectively.

Location

Can you locate Imbabura on a map? The varying typography of the province with lakes and the Andes Mountain Range is seldom viewed in a Nola Map format. The hope here is to identify the region to our customers immediately, all while introducing them to the color palette of the brand.

Boundaries

De Provincia's founder and owner, Andrea Valencia, issues her brand's mission in English and Spanish. The hope is to disseminate information about Ecuadorian craft and blur the lines of seperation between South America and the global retail industry. This theme of breaking boundaries using language is carefully articulated through the catalog and on every product page.

Photography

Vibrant colors bring the brand to life in every setting and De Provincia's hope is to bring its warmth to every room. The photography, expertly brought together by Bryon Garcia, showcases the product line in situ. Full bleed imagery with vibrance and ambience require little explanation about the value of quality, hand-made fabrics.

Translations

Each town in the Imbabura region specializes in local dyes, loom techniques or unique raw materials. The patterns are inspired by the history of the villages; how they were named or where they lie in the serene landscape of the Ecuadorian Andes. De Provincia pays tribute to each piece in the catalog by providing English and Spanish statements about the naming convention behind each piece.

Texture

Both the photography and typography are present in equal measure, however the muted tones arising from the color palette aim to compliment and accentuate the variety of textures the product line offers. This carefully selected palette does not detract from the pattern work and color ways of the De Provincia line.

Socials

Although a plethora of social media content is looped on an infinite scroll, local craftwork is seldom shared outside of pamphlets or brochures. Integrating social feeds to the De Provincia brand is critical to its success. With hopes for curated e-commerce in the near future, all orders are currently processed through the De Provincia Instagram and Facebook Pages.

Aggregate

With our design system, brand guidlines and the Fall/Winter 2020 catalog available digitally and through requested prints, the upcoming collection will follow suit, introducing a brand new slew of products within this identity. The aggregation of collections will strengthen De Provincia's amibitons to bring Ecuadorian craft to a global audience.

Print

For a printed copy of the Fall/Winter 2020 De Provincia Collection, please feel to place a request via the social feeds cited above and in the digital print available for download below.

DOWNLOAD CATALOG

PLACE AN ORDER

5\ Meet the Team

Hi! The De Provincia Team welcomes you to order now, before the collection runs out.

While creating a successful line of products is critical for the brand, equally important is the intention to educate current and potential customers on the beauty and character of hand-made Ecuadorian fabric wear.