Every piece of 66°North brand material should connect to the brand codes of activity, necessity, Iceland, and the everyday. In so doing, the clothing, the content, visual identity, and brand positioning, creating a consistent, inspiring, and differentiated experience for the customer. Customers are not merely buying a jacket from 66°North, they are buying into the Icelandic Art of Living: an extraordinary, everyday life connected to nature, meeting impossible challenges with optimism, joy, and humor. Every piece of content must help create this world for customers who may not be able to come to Iceland and experience it firsthand.
The 66°North brand draws much of its meaning and power from Iceland. As such, our brand and content should emphasize that relationship. That might include the allusion to Icelandic paradoxes, aspects of the Icelandic Art of Living and speak in a voice that is recognizably Icelandic.
66°North makes life and activity possible in environments where otherwise there would be none.
Our vision for a better world involves people interacting with nature and activity every day, to the point that their everyday lives seem extraordinary and aspirational to others. For 66°North, everyday life isn’t mundane—it can be inspiring and remarkable. While our voice is plain-spoken and understated (see “voice and tone”), when we do occasionally brag about something it isn’t because we made the most difficult trek, climbed the highest mountain, or explored glacial caves. It’s because such an incredible, challenging, or difficult activity or visual stands in contrast to our explanation of it: as everyday life, just another day.
66˚North makes multipurpose clothes, is carbon neutral, and aims to send zero waste to landfill. We do not like overproduction. Similarly, brand and content should be concise and straightforward.
Beauty can be the texture of a lava rock against the backdrop of a moody sky. It can be rugged, surreal, and meaningful. Pretty is finer, dreamier, delicate.
Be beautiful.
To people outside of Iceland, the country is a mystical, surreal, and unexpected place. Use Iceland to show that experience.
Part of the Icelandic aspect of the codes are the paradoxes. These can be used to anchor the brand and its content:
66ºNorth Box Logo
Keeping Iceland warm since 1926
Made for Life
Designed and proven in Iceland since 1926
Each word we use conveys our message and customer needs and their beliefs. The context does change over the model. For example, Made for Life in the Attract phase is aspirational, letting you do what you want to do. When it comes to Care, it becomes about product warranty, repairing and maintaining your product for as long as possible. Learn more about the Coherence Model here.
This breaks down into two things that matter:
Usage in visual communications (advertising, packaging, website, etc.)
Our primary logo is the “box” logo. It comes in three color variants: red & blue, black and white, inverted. The red & blue version is to be used in most use cases. The other two are reserved for monochrome applications or when the logo is a secondary element.
The logo should be combined with the Brand Slogan in some form, to reinforce “Iceland” and “1926”.
Learn more about using our logo here.
Keeping Iceland warm since 1926 is our ever-present messaging. We need to ensure our customers are constantly reminded of Iceland and our Heritage. This helps both the technical prowess of the garments and aligns with people’s belief systems
It should be used:
It is a great tool for creating visual furniture for framing the key message and logo. Read more on composition and arrangement.
The slogan can be used as the primary advertising message when we aren’t running a specific campaign, or the placement is in a repeat viewing, or for whatever reason, we need to keep the messaging simple and conservative.
The line can be modified in campaign messaging. The “warm” verb can be swapped out for other verbs related to the brand such as:
Keeping Iceland active since 1926
This should be used sparingly not to confuse the customer with the core messaging.
Made for Life is a tenet of the brand as much as it is a tagline. It is layered with multiple meetings and seeks to evoke an emotional response from the viewer.
It is most effective when used in multiple points of the Attract, Engage, Convert and Care model to ensure the multi-layered meaning becomes apparent.
Incorporates both the lifestyle aspects of the brand: making life and activity possible where otherwise there would be none, the product promise of durability, function, repair; and the conservation and sustainability message central to the Icelandic Art of Living.
This gives the message a lot of power as it lets the customer read into what values resonate with them the most. This is particularly powerful when used in the Attract, or Engage phase of a journey. And it can become more specific when used in areas such as warranty or repairs to bring the journey full circle.
It should be used:
A proof statement to the customer: it speaks to the quality and durability of the design while connecting the viewer back to the Icelandic Art of Living and the brand’s heritage.
It should be used when