When New World Viking asked me to help them develop a line of Norse-themed shirts, I was quick to say “yes!” Viking lore was a passion of mine as a kid, so I was excited to have the opportunity to get creative with the myths, legends and historical figures I had spent so much time reading about.
New World Viking’s goal was to create a product line that they could use to differentiate themselves from other Viking shops, so I did quite a bit of research and came up with a variety of designs.
For example, there are three different types of Viking beast warrior: the berserker (bearpelt warrior), the ulfednar (wolfskin warrior), and the svinfylking (boarhead warrior). Since Viking fans and pagans feel a strong desire to be independent and different, I decided not to focus solely on the well-known berserkers and instead create designs for all three types of beast warriors:
By using the same color scheme for each shirt, I created a sense of unity while still giving NWV’s customers the ability to choose the type of warrior they identified with.
Norse fans also share a feeling of general superiority to those who follow societal norms and conventions, so I created designs that catered to that belief, like this play on the classic “evolution of man” diagram.
Here, rather than evolving from monkeys like the rest of humanity, Viking ulfednar evolve from wolves to become something better and more ferocious.
In addition, it became clear from my research that there was a strong, positive potential customer base of women who wanted to feel like empowered Viking warriors. Norse history and mythology is full of powerful female characters, so I also created a variety of designs for women like this one:
In total, I put together over a dozen different designs, all of which were very well received—both by the good folks over at New World Viking and their target audience. In fact, New World Viking loved them so much that they actually used them as the basis of most of their marketing material.
As with many of the favorite projects outlined here, these designs highlight how using market research to produce something compelling and creative can generate great results. Do it right, and the product or campaign is simply magical.