The Apprentice logo challenge - s19 ep10 sustainable fashion
4th April 2025
posted 4th April 2025
We're at Episode 10 of The Apprentice, and this week the candidates were asked to create a sustainable fashion brand. Did their designs shine on the runway or do they deserve to go in the compost bin? Let’s find out!
In this blog, We’ll dive into the logos from The Apprentice Series 19, episode 10. We’ll explain this week's task, analyse the team’s logos and challenge our designers to re-imagine them.
The Task
This week, the teams were challenged to create a new sustainable fashion brand. They were asked to design a logo, produce a short promotional video, and craft the garments. Finally, they pitched their ideas to industry experts, aiming to secure as many sales as possible.
Team 1 – Express Up
Team 1 decided to create a sustainable fashion brand for Express Up, focused on redefining men's fashion through up-cycling. The concept centred on repurposing materials like parachutes, sleeping bags and sails to craft unique menswear pieces. The collection included a coat, a dress, and a crop top which were designed to challenge the ideas of masculinity and allow self-expression. The team’s tagline for the logo was ‘Express yourself through up-cycled fashion’.
Image: Express Up's logo
Image: Express Up's clothing designs
Text: This logo features an uppercase sans-serif font, which gives the logo a bold, blocky appearance which doesn’t fit the brand. Sans-serif fonts can often feel modern, corporate or industrial which could against the organic, eco-conscious values of a sustainable fashion brand. In the show the team remarked that the logo looked like something that may be seen on a budget petrol station, and we agree!
Colours: The team have chosen to use a blue and yellow colour scheme in their logo. Although blue could be a good choice for a sustainable brand, the shade they’ve chosen looks corporate rather than eco-friendly. The team then paired this with bright shade of yellow, their logic being that yellow and blue make green which represents sustainability. However, this doesn't work because colours are perceived separately in branding, not mixed. A direct use of green, along with softer, natural-inspired tones, would more effectively communicate sustainability.
Icon: The team chose to use a large upward arrow as their icon which is typically associated with growth, success, and progress. Sustainability, on the other hand, revolves around reuse and recycling, making this choice less appropriate. In this instance we feel a circular icon would have been a better fit, as it would have helped represent sustainability and the circular economy.
Team 1 - Redesign
Webfactory's re-design of the 'Express Up' logo:
Design: Since the brand focuses on up-cycling, we wanted to integrate some elements of the recycling symbol by subtly incorporating three arrowheads into the middle of the ‘E’. These arrows not only represent recycling but also highlight the "UP" aspect of the brand name. We’ve then placed the ‘E’ inside a circle to help emphasise renewal, sustainability and a circular economy.
Colour: The muted palette of greys, silver, and black was chosen to create a gender-neutral, timeless look that appeals to everyone, regardless of identity or expression. The black background also gives the logo a timelessness which helps promote the longevity message.
Font: We chose a futuristic font to reflect the new slogan, "The Future of Fashion," highlighting the importance of up-cycling and its impact on shaping a sustainable future.
Team 2 – Re-Apparel
Team 2’s idea was to create garments from recycled plastics for the 'Athleisure' market. 'Athleisure' is a hybrid style of athletic clothing typically worn as everyday wear. This comes from combining the words 'athletic' and 'leisure'. The team’s tagline for the logo was ‘Making women look fantastic, by wearing recycled plastic’.
Image: Re-Apparel's logo
Image: Re-Apparel's clothing design
Text: The Re-Apparel logo features a Script font (also known as a handwritten or cursive). Script fonts feature flowing, interconnected lines and are elegant in their appearance. The handwritten style of the font gives the logo a personal, handmade feel – whilst the flowing lines are representative of a piece of thread, which also plays into the sustainable, handmade narrative of the brand. However, the team have also decided to capitalise the ‘RE’ in ‘Re-Apparel’ which makes it look ridged and mechanical and throws off the visual balance of the text. Changing the ‘E’ to lowercase would have been a better decision here. Athleisure wear is also associated with comfort, performance, and active lifestyles. In this instance we feel a more modern, clean, and bold font might better communicate these qualities.
Colours: For the colours the team have chosen to use a mixture of brown and green which is a suitable choice when it comes to sustainability. Green is a colour strongly linked to nature, plants and the environment and often symbolises growth and renewal. Brown is also an natural colour and is often associated with trees, soil and organic materials… giving the logo a grounded, eco-friendly feel.
Icon: The team have also decided to add some decorative detail around the font, which consists of a circle with two stars at each end. As we mentioned previously, the circle is a nice touch as it’s representative of recycling, re-using and the circular economy. The stars on the other hand don’t seem to have any relevance to the brand or the products and feel a little out of place here.
Team 2 – Redesign
Webfactory's re-design of the ‘Re-Apparel’ logo:
Icon: Athleisure brands often use a combination of logotype and logomark that can be displayed flexibly across a variety of products and apparel. The original logo lacked this distinct mark, so a new icon was created. The letter 'R' and an arrow shape have been combined to represent the company's recyclable aspect, and the angled shape adds movement to the icon.
Font: The logo text is in a stylised sans-serif font for a more modern look appropriate for the athleisure industry. The bold, uppercase text also conveys a sense of strength and reliability. The slight indentation in the letter 'E' provides a dynamic touch and a sense of forward momentum. The original tagline, 'Making women look fantastic by wearing recycled plastic,' has also been updated to a catchier slogan, incorporating words beginning with 'Re-' to tie in with the company name.
Colour: Green was chosen as the primary colour to reflect the company's natural, recyclable nature and its apparel. A brighter colour was chosen over more earthy tones to give the logo a more energetic feel. The secondary grey colour has been used to achieve a neutral but professional look that is not overly harsh.
Did you miss previous designs?
Didn't you catch our logo designs from previous episodes? You can find them here:
The Apprentice logo challenge - s19 ep2 Virtual pop star
The Apprentice logo challenge - s19 ep5 Easter Eggs
The Apprentice logo challenge - s19 ep7 Kids' Bank
The Apprentice logo challenge - s19 ep8 Hot Sauce