Selfridges

Rebranding

Repositioning one of the world’s premier department stores by imbuing it with the ‘spirit of the city’.

Case Study

Transforming a home furnishing store into a fashion-led brand is a major change.

By evolving the brand so that it could exist independently from its infamous London site, Selfridges wanted to become relevant in fashion.

For the first time in history, the company was opening a new site in Manchester and radically evolving its identity. The project, inspired by the appointment of Vittorio Radice, called for a progressive approach towards this transition.

To avoid being labelled as snooty, the positioning developed by BBH ( a global British advertising agency), embraced the ‘spirit of the city’. It was an ideation of the thriving atmosphere that aligned Selfridges to what was happening in London, drawing on the energy and talent within.

The store environment was reinvented as a reflection of this. A ‘house of brands’ became the foundation upon which Selfridges could present and manage a diverse range of fashion brands.

We were engaged to lead the way towards a new brand identity that could embody this direction. A contemporary typeface was introduced and the illustration of the Oxford Street building was dropped to illustrate the new store direction.

We shifted the focus of outdated window displays towards an event-led model of presentation that could facilitate the launch of high profile collaborations with designers, photographers and artists.

The result is a leading retailer with a fresh approach to the bygone department store concept. Selfridges embraces the fast-paced vivacity of the city to create new experiences for a younger consumer market.

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