About Made by Cousin
Made by Cousin is a world leading print production agency for premium lifestyle brands with an enviable reputation for the highest standards of quality and service.
They produce truly exceptional brochures, catalogues and packaging for a host of famous global names from the worlds of fashion, beauty, premium retail, jewellery, luxury travel, interior design, yachting, home furnishings and more.
Made by Cousin work with over 60 brands across four continents and 13 countries offering expertise and an enormous wealth of knowledge in paper, formats, printing processes, colour management, workflow, postage and distribution.
Clients range from global corporations to start-ups, from bricks and mortar to digital pure play. They include: Aman Resorts, Anthropologie, Aspinal of London, Bally, Beauty Papers, Coach, Crew Clothing, Dunhill, Ede & Ravenscroft, Fatface, Frescobol Carioca, Great Little Trading Company, Hackett, Hardy Amies, Harvey Nichols, Knight Frank, Lacoste, Links London, Liberty, Michael Kors, Mint Velvet, Monsoon, Moo, Phase Eight, Purdey, Rockett St George, Sarah Raven, Smythson, Spoke, Swoon, Oliver Bonas, Winch Design and other world-class names.
The Challenge
Ngoar have been digital partner to Made by Cousin, formerly Cousin, since 2016.
Ngoar were initially tasked to:
- Look at repositioning and refining their brand from a digital transformation and business perspective.
- Review their website for functionality, user journey, content and messaging.
- Make recommendations for changes to their web presence and implement them.
The Strategy
Ngoar and Cousin worked closely in collaboration together. After a number of consultancy workshops it was agreed that a good first step would be to move the company forward by evolving the brand name form Cousin to Made by Cousin.
The name Cousin had been chosen when the business had been founded in 2002. Why Cousin? Because the ethos of the company was that they wanted their clients to think of them as an extension to a brand’s marketing team – almost part of the family – rather than some distant supplier.
And although the company had grown massively over the years those ‘family’ values had not changed. That’s why it was decided that an evolution of the brand name from Cousin to Made by Cousin was the right move.
The Results
Along with the new brand name came a new brand identity, created and designed by Ngoar. It was selected for being classic, contemporary, clean, minimal, open, warm and friendly. It functions both in print and in the digital landscape as a trusted stamp of quality, care and assurance.
With a new name and brand identity in place to focus and fortify the ‘Made by Cousin’ brand purpose, Ngoar also worked to refine and streamline their messaging, web content and brand story.
Ngoar then totally redesigned, engineered and built a new website for Made by Cousin to reflect their positioning as the definitive print production agency for premium lifestyle brands.
The site showcases examples of their work, gives details of case studies and tells the Made By Cousin story – what they believe in, what they do, and who they do it for.
Ngoar’s solution involved extensive user and strategic workshops culminating in a fully responsive design and simple, intuitive user interface built on Umbraco.
The website fully reflects the values of the Made by Cousin brand and the visual appeal of the exceptional brochures, catalogues and packaging they’re renowned for.
Testimonials
“Working on the transition from Cousin to Made by Cousin, creating a new brand identity and then redesigning, engineering and building a new website for them was a project that everyone at Ngoar is rightly very proud of. Matt, Alex and the team at Made by Cousin are a class act with a clear vision of where they want to take their company. I’m delighted that we are helping them on their journey.” – Peter Meadows, MD & Founding Partner, Ngoar
“I was really impressed by how the whole Ngoar team engaged the Made By Cousin team. The importance of this shouldn’t be underestimated, as it helped to develop a brand identity that the whole company felt a proud connection with. Jez’s idea of switching the name from Cousin to Made By Cousin, while using a clean and precise form, absolutely nailed the ‘stamp of reassurance’ that is so important to us. This also solved a historical SEO challenge, so a neat example of how creativity and commerciality can work together.”– Matt Booker, CEO, Made by Cousin
“From both a branding and UX perspective, working with the team at Made by Cousin was a real pleasure. It was a very rewarding, positive collaboration with tangible results we can all be proud of.”-Jez Frazer, Creative & Experience Design Director, Ngoar
“Made by Cousin is a world-class company producing beautiful brochures, catalogues and packaging for an amazing client list of premium lifestyle brands. Being able to collaborate with them to help tell their story has been a great experience.”- Mark Warren, Story & Communications Director, Ngoar