INVOLVEMENT
- Brand Strategy
- Identity Development
- UX Design
- Email Design + Development
- Print Design
- Marketing Collateral
- Art Direction
- Management
The Mission
First Boulevard was my own D2C lingerie and swimwear brand – built from nothing, funded independently, and run entirely by me from 2015 to 2019.
The brief was simple in concept, enormous in practice: create a modern, inclusive brand for cost-conscious consumers that felt aspirational rather than budget. Design and build the ecommerce site. Shoot and art direct the campaigns. Produce the catalogues, the social content, the packaging, the email campaigns. All of it. From scratch.
The Problem
The lingerie and swimwear market is crowded, visually saturated, and dominated by brands with big budgets and established audiences. Breaking in as an independent D2C brand – without agency support, without an existing customer base, and without the budget that established players take for granted – meant every creative decision had to work harder.
The brand also had to navigate a tension that trips up most fashion brands: feeling premium and aspirational while remaining genuinely accessible in price. Too polished and it felt out of reach. Too budget and it felt disposable. The creative had to hold both truths at once.
Insight
Lingerie had always been treated as something to hide – worn underneath, out of sight. The insight behind First Boulevard was simpler than that: what if it wasn’t? What if the fabrics, the colours, the details were meant to be seen and expressed, not concealed?
That shift – from hidden to visible, from functional to self-expressive became the brand’s entire reason to exist. ‘Be The First’ wasn’t just a tagline. It was a position. First to wear it your way. First to dress and express you.
Design Intent
Every creative decision was made to close the gap between how the brand looked and how it made customers feel. The visual identity had to be clean, contemporary, and confident – accessible in price, never in aesthetic.
Designed a distinctive logo featuring two intersecting triangle forms – symbolising the dual focus on lingerie and swimwear, versatile enough to scale across all formats and future product categories
Built a fully responsive ecommerce site in Magento 1.9 – designed around UX best practices, with a seamless shopping experience across all devices
Produced physical catalogues included with every customer purchase – a deliberately tactile, high-perceived-value touch in a digital-first brand
Art directed all social content around lifestyle and aspiration rather than pure promotion – building brand affinity alongside awareness
The result was a brand that punched well above its weight – visually, strategically, and commercially.
Outcome
First Boulevard launched, traded, and grew – entirely on the strength of the brand and creative. No agency. No external creative team. Just consistent, considered execution across every touchpoint.
Developed a brand identity, visual system, ecommerce platform, and full marketing suite from scratch – solo
