Self-Initiated Project

Year: 2024–2025

Scope: Brand Identity, Product & Customer Experience, Textile Design

Read Time: 4 minutes

Overview: SWEARS was a self-initiated fashion experiment built on my years of experience in textile and sock design. The goal was to create a bold, provocative product for young people, and design the entire customer experience around it.

From brand identity and product construction to e-commerce UX, packaging, and social communication, I designed every touchpoint end-to-end.

The final product was a pair of ribbed white socks with a rebellious twist: P1Č0V1NA, an intentionally coded version of a Slovak vulgar word meaning bullshit. The brand quickly resonated with young customers, resulting in over 120 pairs sold.

The Challenge

The local market is saturated with generic fashion brands offering rebranded basics, repeated visuals, and low-quality product decisions. I wanted to challenge this by building a small but distinctive product brand with a clear identity.

Challenges Identified

• Young buyers (15–29) make impulse decisions and respond to bold, iconic statements

• Strong competition from established brands (Nike/Adidas aesthetic)

• Need for a concept that feels fresh, rebellious, and still wearable every day

• High expectations for fast checkout, clean UI, and reliable delivery

• Ensuring quality textile production while keeping costs under control

Research & Insights

To design the right product and experience, I combined my textile knowledge with insights about youth culture.

Key Insights

• Controversial patterns perform well, based on sales data from my previous textile design role

• The target audience gravitates toward classic ribbed white socks.

• Apple Pay significantly increases impulse purchases

• Packeta is the most preferred delivery method in Slovakia & Czechia

• Eco-friendly, EU-sourced materials improve trust and justify price

• Customers respond well to local production, quality materials, and transparent communication

These insights directly shaped the product, brand, and e-commerce experience.

Brand Identity

I created the brand from scratch, naming, logo, color system, tone of voice, and communication.

Naming

I chose SWEARS, referencing both “swear words” and youthful rebellion.

(The name later proved difficult to trademark and secure as a .com, but it supported the brand’s tone.)

Visual Identity

• A bold blue accent is used consistently across branding and the product

• Pixel-based logo referencing the pixel-grid logic of knitting machines

• Tone of voice: rebellious, direct, unapologetic

The brand identity is also integrated directly into the product, the blue strike-through in P1Č0V1NA became a key visual element.

Textile Design & Tech Pack

Leveraging my experience from both sides of textile production (designer/manufacturer), I created a 9-page tech pack that covered every detail:

• Product preview

• Technical construction drawing

• Stitch maps and pixel grids

• Material and color selection (eco-friendly cotton & polyamide sourced from EU suppliers)

• Sizing specification

• Labeling and packaging

Because the documentation was extremely precise, the first sample from the factory came out 100% accurate without additional rounds of correction, saving weeks.

Designing the Product Experience

I mapped the full customer journey:

discovery → purchase → delivery → unboxing → everyday use → social sharing

Product

• Bold but wearable

• Clear left/right indicators inside the cuff

• Eco-friendly materials

• Manufactured locally in Slovakia

E-commerce

I customized a Shopify template to match the brand identity, minimal, clean, and attitude-driven.

Key CX decisions:

• Fast checkout via Apple Pay

• Delivery via Packeta (most trusted in SK/CZ)

• Simple e-shop focusing on strong communication of product value (local manufacturing, quality, and sustainable materials, rebellious product)

• Clear communication of the joke/provocation behind the product

Social Content

I created product photos, social posts, and messaging focused on boldness, rebellion, and shared humor, encouraging customers to show the socks in everyday situations.

Packaging

Eco-friendly materials, minimal design, and a playful tone of voice created a small but memorable unboxing moment.

Outcome

• 120+ pairs sold

• Great feedback on comfort, quality, and the provocative concept

• Strong organic traction via social sharing

• First sample matched the tech pack 1:1

• Fully designed, developed, and delivered end-to-end by myself

The project concluded in early 2025 due to increasing business costs, rising taxes for freelancers, and my transition into a new full-time role.

Learnings

SWEARS showed me the power of designing a product and customer experience as a unified ecosystem.

Key Learnings

• Clear tech documentation drastically reduces sampling time

• Youth-oriented brands win with simplicity + one strong idea

• CX matters as much as the product, checkout, delivery, packaging, and communication create real value

• A strong emotional concept can outperform traditional “funny socks”

• Not every creative experiment must scale, some are meant to teach, not just sell

This project gave me hands-on experience with branding, textile design, e-commerce, and full customer experience design, and remains one of my most complete end-to-end design projects.