SomeOne’s vision to make Glasses Direct “more enjoyable”

SomeOne has worked with digital sister agency Someone/Else to rebrand Glasses Direct in a bid to make the process of buying glasses online “more enjoyable”.

Glasses Direct

Glasses Direct sells prescription glasses online, it has grown by over 50 per cent in the last five years and has served its millionth customer.

Recently it has raised £16 million from investors to invest in strengthening the brand.

SomeOne and SomeOne/Else say they have worked together to make buying online feel like “a curated experience” and one that “reflects the quality and service of the brand”.

Glasses Direct

A new identity and a new digitally responsive look has been applied to multiple channels while packaging has also been redesigned, with SomeOne developing an overall strategy which it says looks at the entire customer journey.

The mobile first website has been designed to be customer focussed. SomeOne/Else creative director Dave Dunlop says: “So many ecommerce sites slump into the merely transactional; here the experience is one of welcome surprise as shoppers find what they want and are inspired to try previously unconsidered options.”

Glasses Direct

The new site has been designed with usability front of mind, making choosing frames as immersive as possible.

SomeOne/Else user experience director Gavin Edwards says: “There is nothing like trying on a pair of glasses, it’s a personal and physical experience so our task was to remove any barriers to users getting these glasses in their hands.” 

Film-maker Simon Warren has been commissioned to create a series of animated GIF files, which have been used across the site to keep pages “visually calm” but “visibly alive” and Warren says: “Just as the brand is mixing up the best of retail and home service, we’ve fused the worlds of film, stills and animation.”

SomeOne co-founder David Law says that the consultacnies set out to “inspire the shopper… to lift people to make choices they may not consider in traditional optician environments”.

He adds: “The Glasses Direct brand is stamping on the old glasses of the establishment and replacing them with a far more elegant solution.”

Much of the identity has been designed by SomeOne’s lead designer on the project Thomas Dabner, who says that rather than signposting with logos, different design cues “gently remind people where they are”.

The wordmark is based on the typeface Portrait by Berton Hasebe and the branding also features the signature font Austin by Paul Barnes, originally designed for Harpers & Queen, which SomeOne says adds to the editorial feel of the brand.

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Comments
  • Helen Grant November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    Really clever and subtle way of bringing a different feel to a very same-y sector. Love it.

  • Christopher Woods November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    Sadly the one thing that really bring this site to life is the animated GIFs – and, at least for the time being, they appear to be absent from the website. And that doesn’t appear to be ‘mobile first’, instead appearing in desktop form across platforms. Hopefully these features will make it through in due course as the whole feeling is a little flat otherwise.

  • Simon Manchipp November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    Hi Christopher — thanks for the comment — Mobile is on the way.

    You’ll find the Gifs throughout the experience — but not on every page… have a look at http://www.glassesdirect.co.uk/is_boutique/true/ for example… hope that helps!

  • Christopher Woods November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    I stand corrected 😉 Cheers Simon!

  • Maurice Turner November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    That Helen Grant is a great cheerleader for SomeThing’s projects! It must be great to have such fans.

  • sally stevens November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    The idea of using cinemagraphs is really innovative. Great thinking. The still lives are super effective. I’ve not seen any other brand do something like this before.

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