Challenge
For Early Majority, a woman-led, seed-stage startup, the answer lay in dismantling the traditional retail playbook. The company launched with an ambitious vision to reshape the fashion industry—shifting consumers from passive buyers to active stakeholders.
By blending disruptive digital architecture with an advanced physical product line, the brand pioneered a community-governed membership model, modular design systems, and an open-source approach to branding. Anchored by a holistic commitment to sustainability that influenced everything from supply chain to corporate operations, they designed an entirely new framework for how a modern apparel brand operates.
Solution
Let’s back up. Early-stage startups need the flexibility to change, adapt and evolve as they find product / market fit, expand their team and develop a sustainable business model.
And that was the case with Early Majority. They needed a branding system that could build equity over time yet be extremely flexible to adapt to change.
Our SoWhat Approach was used to create a familiar yet surprising brand identity system.
The first step was to develop core creative assets, the fixed assets that would remain constant while building brand equity.
I’m honored to be a part of SoWhat’s journey, not just because Stefan is brilliant but also because I secretly wanted to be like David Butler when I grew up.
Joy Howard, Founder and CEO, Early Majority.
ex CMO Patagonia, Sonos, Nike, Fast Company Most Creative, Forbes Most Influential
This project was a collaborative effort across the client’s in-house team, agency partners, and SoWhat. We’ve included the key people who helped shape the work below.
Team —
+ Art Direction & Design: Stefan Kjartansson
+ Design: Elise Mattingly
Client team —
+ Founder: CEO: Joy Howard
+ CCO: Dmitri Siegel
+ VP of Product: Hanna ter Meulen
