Women's fashion · Cairo
NH Designs
- Scope
- RebrandingLaunch campaignSocial media systemMotion & animationBrand characterApp & print
The brief
NH is a Cairo women's fashion label that had outgrown its first identity: a thin serif NH on a white sign, a feed that looked like everyone else's. The brand had three shops, a loyal following and a founder with a clear voice — warm, confident, a little playful — and nothing on screen that sounded like her. The brief was a full rebrand and a launch that would make the city look up: a new mark, a palette nobody in the category owns, a character people would recognise before they read the name, and a social system the team could run every week without us.
What we made
A heavy, rounded NH in light pink on dark chocolate, with soft cream as the third voice and El Messiri as the typeface. A faceless two-colour character — the NH girl, drawn in twenty poses — who carries the bags, bursts out of them and waves from the shop door. Then the launch: six 'Rumour has it' teasers that pretended the old sign had gone missing, twelve Stories counting down, a reveal film that turned the shopfront from line art to colour, an app intro, and three complete Instagram grids — launch, the real catalogue, and the character's own feed with six looping motion posts. Plus the shop itself: bags, hangers, labels, tags, thank-you cards and the sign.
Palette
- Light pink#FFC1C2
- Dark chocolate#362416
- Soft cream#F4EBC9
Before and after
The same shop, drawn twice — the frame the launch film opens and closes on.
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The identity
Two letters kept, everything else changed: the serif that whispered became the sans that says it.
The campaign
7 acts
Act ISix teasers before anyone said a word
Rumour has it.
Instead of announcing a rebrand, we let the city gossip about one. Six posts did it: the old sign 'coming down', a group chat that leaked, pink light under a fitting-room curtain, a fake Cairo tabloid asking whether NH was going pink, a neon 'Hey, you!' — and then the film that answered. The group chat alone was watched seventy thousand times before the brand had said a word. In order, with the views each one has today.
- 6teaser posts
- 219Kviews on the six
- 1fake newspaper
Act IIFrom the rumours to announcement day
Twelve Stories, one script.
The Stories ran as three acts: the rumours (a poll, a question sticker, a 'tap to peek' tease), the countdown (an invitation with a countdown sticker), and announcement day — four taps that tear the paper off the window, then the film, the new face in neon, and the group chat seeing it. Every sticker had a slot drawn for it, so the team could post the set in order without a designer in the room.
- 12Stories
- 3acts
Act IIIAnnouncement day
Same soul. New world.
The reveal was one idea, told three ways. A 16-second post that starts as the old black-and-white drawing and floods with colour as the pink sign lights up. A 9:16 film of the same moment for Stories and Reels. And a 'live' carousel for the shop windows — after hours, the bags with 'good things inside' — so the street saw it the same night the feed did.
Act IVThe identity in the world
A face, a colour, a weight.
Light pink is the signature; chocolate is the base whenever all three colours meet; cream never carries the logo. The rules are few so the team can keep them. Then the identity went physical — the wax seal, the bags, the woven labels, the hangers in all three colours, the swing tags, the thank-you cards cut in the character's silhouette, and the sign over the door.
Act VThe character takes over the feed
She's back.
The NH girl has no face, so every woman can be her. We drew her in twenty poses from her own reference sheet and gave her a grid: six seamless motion loops — she bursts from the bag, runs for the sale, carries the delivery, pushes a panel aside for the new drop, counts down on the giant bag, waves goodbye — between nine stills built on formats people actually share: 'me / also me', POV, A-or-B, the honest price tag.
- 20poses
- 6motion loops
- 15posts in the grid
Act VILaunch · the real catalogue · the character
One profile, three grids.
The feed was rebuilt three times over, each a complete set the team could post in order: the launch grid with its highlight covers; fifteen trend-led posts on the real catalogue — a three-tile panorama, 'the damage' receipt, 'which one are you?', a '7 pieces under 1,000' carousel, real EGP prices in every frame; and the character's grid. Nine highlight covers drawn in the character's own line so the top of the profile matches the rest.
Act VIIThe intro, the icon, the launch screen
Six seconds in the app.
The bag opens, the character jumps out, the lockup lands — a six-second intro at 30 and 60 fps, a launch screen and an icon, so the first thing a customer sees on her phone moves the way the shop window does.
The reels
12 reels
01Story 'ya banat' — a group chat spots the old sign hanging off and pink light under the curtain
These reels were cut silent — the studio's light is the soundtrack.
The posts
40 pieces
The numbers
- 0Mviews in launch week
- 0KStory views
- 0Kaccounts reached
- 0Kprofile visits
- 0Ktaps on the link in bio
- 0Kinteractions
Instagram Insights for the seven days of the launch, 26 September – 2 October 2026. 22.9% of views came from people who didn't follow NH yet.
