Tuft & Needle Brand Design

Bringing warmth to the mattress industry.

role
Lead UX & Visual Designer
Laptop with Tuft & Needle's homepage on the screen. The headline on the page reads: "Meet the mattresses leading the industry."
T&N went through a brand refresh in September 2018 to create a warmer, inviting feel. This refresh included updated typography, an expanded color palette, and a new style of photography. At launch, we applied the new brand styles to the site and packaging only. Over time, we continued to refresh all channels and mediums to create a cohesive experience across all touchpoints.

Tuft & Needle Homepage

Almost immediately after the Brand Refresh, we undertook a rapid redesign of the homepage. Though we had updated the type styles on the existing homepage, the simple grid of four content blocks lacked the Brand Refresh's inviting feel and could not communicate our brand story. In a three-day sprint, the Design, Content, & Marketing teams collaborated to develop a content and visual wireframe for the new homepage. I took this basic outline and created a narrative style homepage with multiple modules that could be reordered or replaced over time based on user feedback and performance. This new narrative page allowed us to tell our brand story to differentiate us from the ever-growing competitive landscape.
The new Tuft & Needle homepage with a variety of content modules telling the brand story.

Business Cards

The existing business cards were fairly stark and did not align with the new warmer brand style. In addition to updating the cards' visual style, I wanted the new cards to convey this warmth and reflect the person sharing their card. Working closely with the Content Team, we created a series of three greetings that would go on the front of the card. On the back of the card, I developed a simple typographic layout to include as much (or as little) personal information as the individual wanted. To streamline the request process, I created a simple Google Form for individuals to select their specific greetings and details. These small customizations led to cards that felt personalized but were still cohesive.
Scattered business cards. Some of the cards show a dark gray side with one of three types of greetings that read "We're your dream team," "We'll handle the rest," and "Experts in sleep stuff." The others show a side that is white and has a simple typographic layout with the Tuft & Needle logo and different amounts of information on each card.

Voice, Tone, & Style Guide

The Content Team had pulled together a comprehensive Voice, Tone, & Style Guide to help define our voice along with the Brand Refresh. I worked directly with the lead copywriter, Erin, to transform a thorough Dropbox Paper document into a visual guide shared with internal and external teams to ensure a consistent voice across all channels.
Intro page to the Voice, Tone, & Style Guide with a headline that reads: "It started with a desire to revolutionize an industry. One that needed it." It also has an image of a man and woman carrying a T&N box up a staircase.
A page from the Voice, Tone, & Style Guide with a headline that reads "Our Voice." The left side of the page contains descriptive text, and the right side has a grid of adjectives describing T&N's voice. There is a small bit of descriptive text below each adjective.
A page from the Voice, Tone, & Style Guide with a headline that reads "Our Tones." The left side of the page contains descriptive text, and the right side has the same grid of adjectives describing T&N's tone with new descriptive text below.
A page from the Voice, Tone, & Style Guide with a headline that reads "Voice, Tone, and the sales funnel." The left side of the page contains descriptive text, and the right side has an inverted triangle with a green gradient. The same adjectives are adjacent to this shape with new descriptive text below.
A page from the Voice, Tone, & Style Guide with a headline that reads "This, not that" The left side of the page contains descriptive text. The right side has a list of sentences starting with "We're humorous, not caustic." The following sentences use this same structure.

Partnerships Design

Tuft & Needle has developed several strong partnerships across wide range of industries, including CBD gummies and airlines. From tea sachets to meditation cushions, I created several co-branded designs and packaging for various product collaborations. I also developed a new Partner Directory Page on T&N's site to highlight our partnerships and modular Partner Story Pages to provide more details on brand-building partnerships.
A kraft box sits next to a light blue meditation cushion. A white headline on the box reads "Take a deep breath."
Packaging design for the Calm Meditation Cushion, a product developed in collaboration with Calm.
A tea bag next to an envelope that reads "Just your cup of tea." laid on top of a T&N foam pillow.
Collateral envelope for a Paromi Tea sachet that was placed in T&N Foam Pillow boxes for a limited time.
A mockup of a Kraft matchbox slid open to reveal a Paromi Tea package inside. The box has a headline that reads "Bring those Montauk dreams home with you."
Concept design for a "matchbox" that would contain a Paromi Tea package to be placed in all rooms of the Marram Montauk hotel, which feature Tuft & Needle mattresses.
Mockup drawing of a hanging sign over a bed with a headline that reads "You're getting very sleepy."
Concept design for interior retail signage for the T&N Mint Mattress in select Crate & Barrel stores.

Next steps

In 2020, I collaborated with our Head of Design, Head of Content, and Head of PR to gather research to help define a new brand vision. In addition to auditing our brand visuals, we also audited several competitors and non-competitors to understand current trends and missions. We interviewed several stakeholders across T&N and documented our critical insights and actionable items into a presentation we shared with our leadership team.
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