April Knit Studio
A brand and a site for the studio that turns a fashion label's story into knitwear, from the fiber up.
April Knit Studio is a strategic partner to fashion brands in knitwear, the hardest category a label makes. I directed its brand first and then its site from it, leading the designers and the developer who built each, so the studio's own judgment is the first thing a founder meets. The site went live in 2024.
Highlights
- One direction from the mark to the last page
- Knitwear's technical depth put on the page
- The clients' collections as the proof
- Built to grow one collection at a time
- A mark of its own, the AKS
Problem
Knitwear is not cut from cloth. The fabric and the garment are made together, from the yarn, and each size is its own set of stitches, so the yarn, the gauge and the finishing decide what the piece becomes. April Knit Studio carries a label through all of it, and a founder handing over that category decides on what they see first.
I made the brand and the site one thing, and let the knitwear speak before a word is read.
The identity
The brand came first. I worked it out with a brand designer before any page was drawn, and the brief was the knitwear itself. A good knit is simple at a distance and intricate up close, and the identity had to hold the same contrast: a mark with the weight and softness of a garment's shape, colours soft and bold at once, and enough restraint for the pairing to read as a statement. The studio makes knitwear that makes a statement, and its identity had to be one too.
The site
When the brand held, I took it to a web designer and a developer and directed the site from it, so the decisions made on the mark carried through to the page. The knitwear comes first, as film, and photography does the persuading, because the garment makes the argument better than a sentence about it. The proof is the clients' collections, each opened on a fact table for the brand that has done this before, with the story under it for the founder who has not, so the technical depth is on the page for either to check. It is built to grow, so the next collection drops in without a redesign. The film below was cut with a motion designer.
A founder who finds the studio now sees its judgment first: the knit in motion, the facts a mill would ask for, and a mark that is the studio's alone.
Live at aprilknitstudio.com since 2024. The studio's case studies for Casa de Stella, The Knotty Ones, Jakob and Noble run on the template.
