Buscemi
Obnoxiously Elegant
Hyper-luxury footwear line Buscemi creeped through the back door of the fashion world in 2013 with a rare product that left sneaker heads jaw-dropped and madly covetous. Based in Los Angeles, inspired by New York street style, and ushered into existence by the hands of the finest European craftsman, the brand makes extreme high-end footwear and leather goods beloved by iconoclasts of taste, from Quincy Jones, to Lauren Hutton and Kanye West.
When we began working with Buscemi in 2014, the company needed a strong brand voice strategy to match its stunning imagery and outsize luxury products. Our goal was to construct an exciting verbal personality that could quickly convey a sense of urban adventure and the promise of an exclusively excellent shopping opportunity.
Beginning with brand book copy, we created an elegantly arrogant lexicon that reflects the oxymoronic nature of the company—high fashion products inspired by low culture. The central feature of the Buscemi brand voice strategy is the recurring adverb-adjective coupling of two words with conflicting meaning, e.g. "Obnoxiously Elegant." The oxymoron motif occurs throughout Buscemi touch points, from social, to marketing emails and print materials.
A comprehensive style guide keeps the parameters of communication pointed and powerful, always highlighting the brand's conceptual tension between high fashion and street culture. Rules include using terse sentences to impart confidence and juxtaposing modern street slang with traditional luxury terms.
The Buscemi brand voice strategy trickles down into a plethora of collaborations with the company, from ongoing email marketing and social content, to editorial features and eCommerce copy.
SEE THE WORK --> cblackcontent.com
