A 38-year-old outdoor brand, rebuilt for the next thirty.
Northwind had outgrown an identity built in 1987. We rebuilt the brand from the positioning out — narrative, visual identity, packaging, and a Shopify site that lifted conversion 61% in the first quarter.
The brief
Northwind came to us with thirty-eight years of category authority and a brand system that hadn't been touched since the Reagan administration. Their product line had quadrupled. Their customer base had inverted from mostly-male-50+ to mostly-female-30s. Their identity was holding the company back from the market it already had.
What we built
A new positioning rooted in repair and longevity rather than 'rugged adventure.' A typographic identity built around a custom serif with sharp counter-spaces. A photography system that swapped action heroes for craftspeople. Packaging that doubled as a repair manual. And a Shopify site that ranked first for 'lifetime warranty hiking gear' inside ninety days.
What changed
Conversion rate up 61% in the first quarter, with average order value up 22%. Organic traffic tripled by month nine. Press coverage in Mint, Outside, and Monocle. Internally, the team finally stopped fighting over how to use the logo because there were now rules to fight over.
We thought we needed a new logo. Forma showed us we needed a new argument.
Halflight · 2025
From cold start to category authority in eleven months.
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