Logotype

Rebranding: Lush 

I've decided to undertake a rebranding project for Lush, a cosmetic store founded in the UK. Lush pride themselves on being an eco friendly company that refuse to test their products on animals and source their ingredients responsibly and organically. Their window and store displays are very organic looking with the use of hay, wooden furniture and pastel colours. 

  The main reason I chose Lush is because, in my opinion, their logo completely contradicts everything they stand for and doesn't communicate anything about the company.

  Above is an image of the current logo and slogan. It's simply bold, white Helvetica bold on top of a black background. To me, this is a poor representation of the company and how they operate. The words 'FRESH' and 'HANDMADE', to me, should not be written in bold, black and white letters and instead should have a more hand-rendered font, potentially added colour too.

 My primary researched involved going to visit the Lush store in the town centre. I went in and took note of all the sights, sounds and smells. One thing that hit me most when i got there was the overwhelming smells of bath bombs and floral soaps. All the displays were on wooden furnishings and had chalk boards above. The chalk boards were filled with the bespoke Lush typeface that they designed. Immediately, I thought that the typeface used on the chalk boards made a much better effort at representing the company as a whole.  

  I then found the font they use on their displays and downloaded it so that i could use it and manipulate it into a new logo.

  Here I've used the font I downloaded and combined it with the current colour way and structure of the logo, using white text on black background. I further combined this with the company slogan. Already, I feel as though the logo above is a better representation of the company as the font used has a hand-rendered look and is more free flowing which denotes their organic resources.

  Some examples of hand rendered work. I began by carefully hand drafting the logos i wish to carry forward. To develop on them, I then used layout paper to trace and manipulate the text. I've also included a sketch of the logo being put into practice on a Lush product.

  I decided to produce a lot of hand rendered work for this specific topic as I felt it was an apt approach to the rebranding of Lush due to their handmade, organic image they try and promote.

Using my logo in places it would be found, shop front and on products. Initial impression was that it worked well however when I put it to a group of fellow students the main feedback was that there is a lack of colour.

Having received feedback, I returned to the drawing board and decided to play around with colours. The colours I chose were based on the colours found in their shop displays. All of their products have a soft, pastel colour such as pink or yellow or green. The other reason I decided to use green was that I feel it portrayed their eco-friendly image.

After a second critique, I learnt that in order for a brand to come alive, it has to be given a place or atmosphere. I got the idea to put the text onto wood as many of the shop displays are situated on wooden furnishings. I think that it gives a very organic feel to the logo and ties in well with the aesthetics of the shop displays.

After making a decision on the font, spacing and other aspects of the letterforms, I then decided to explore adding a frame or shapes to the logo. I took inspiration from one of Lush's previous logos. The previous logo was made up of two oblong shapes of yellow and green, one inside the other, with bold white text on top. I recreated this using my lettering and more suitable colours. 

I then took this forward by changing the oblong shapes to circles. The circle logo would work well as a logo or symbol and works on a number of scales and platforms. It is easily recognisable and can be distinguished from afar.

 Final 4 ideas

Top Left: Logo or symbol using suitable colours and incorporating the text in white. Final result being a refreshing and easy to distinguish logo that can be easily adapted and used on every scale.

Top Right: White text on top of wooden background. Inspiration for use of light wood came from the shop displays I saw when I visited the store. Again, this makes for an organic look and in touch with nature. 

Bottom Left: Text in a soft green with the slogan underneath in a slightly darker shade to distinguish it from the logo. Aims to look eco-friendly and good to the earth

Bottom Left: Helvetica font for main logo and hand-rendered typeface for the slogan. At first I used the hand-rendered font for both but after gaining feedback, the general consensus was that there was too much of the font used in both the logo and shop displays. 

 I have decided that the logo above is my favourite and that I will carry forward. I've chosen this one because I feel, as well as people I've shown, that it is the most successful at communicating the company's image of being organic and green. The word 'Lush' in the hand-rendered font makes for a more 'handmade' feel, a word included in their slogan. The logo also looks fresh and healthy which is desirable of a cosmetics store.

My Logo printed onto a pot of body lotion. It stands out well with the use of colour.