Tru Livin: Giving the comfort of friendship in clothing

Tru Livin was started by two old friends, Harry and Ari. Harry was in nursing school and built an immense TikTok audience (over 2.3m followers), while Ari was helping entrepreneurs launch and grow their dream brands.

They discussed how pursuing something hard or challenging is impossible without the proper friends and support network.

Tru Livin was thus born as an ecommerce brand that centers on the idea of a "ride-or-die" friend group, creating apparel, events, and content to help people strengthen their friendships and possibly find new ones. Their motto is: “TRU LIVIN IS GIVIN”.

The Challenge

Tru Livin Co-Founder Ari approached me with a promising logo, well-crafted brand strategy, and a pastel color palette for a clothing brand that combined sophisticated streetwear and casual preppy styles.

The brand's foundation was based on Harry's playful TikTok content. The goal was to evoke fun and energetic vibes, visualizing the brand's genuine mission of creating authentic friendships, both in the visual identity and website design.

The Strategy

Tru Livin was inspired by a blend of preppy and streetwear clothing styles to create a unique fashion line, focused on comfortable clothing that brings friends together.

The brand targets college-aged individuals who place a high value on their friendships and enjoy an active, spontaneous lifestyle. They are high energy people who are fun-seeking and kind hearted too. With that, we defined the brand’s core values as fun, genuine, and positive.

The stylescape exploration helped us solidify and visualize the look and feel of the brand, drawing from the discovery research we previously did. This exploration helped us define the real elements of the brand in the following steps.

The Solution

To capture the brand's essence of genuine friendships, we used a nostalgic design approach, featuring bold collegiate serif typography, pastel colors and charming illustrations. We also incorporated a mix of thin line elements and playful section dividers to convey the brand's fun-loving, spontaneous nature.

The website's design was aimed to be both old-school and trendy, with elements like line art and brutalist design to reflect the brand's unique blend of fashion.

This new visual direction has helped Tru Livin stand out as an ecommerce brand that celebrates the comfort of friendship through clothing. With a strong presence on TikTok, the brand has successfully launched and continues to spread its mission to its audience.

See the full website: https://trulivin.co/