BRIEF
The brief was to rebrand an established company whose visual identity is either outdated or no longer representative of what it is a brand.
I chose H&M because while it has made significant strides towards reducing its environmental footprint by putting circularity at the heart of the business, its heritage branding is in need of a refresh to communicate this core value. This process also involved a name change that aligns better with the business’ ethos.
APPROACH
The fast fashion category is heavily populated with brands offering similar quality clothes and fashion accessories at similar prices. The new H&M needed to give customers a compelling reason to shop with them that was more than just about price, while also achieving standout amongst a competitive set of RELATIVELY homogenous branding.
The rebrand concept was borne out of research and Gen Z’s Fast Fashion Paradox - This generation demands the most of businesses in terms of sustainability and ethics, while simultaneously being the largest consumers of fast fashion.
EXECUTION
LUUP, the new name for H&M, is inspired by H&M’s business model of circularity and its commitment to reusing old clothes to make new ones.
The letters of the logo mark are crafted from shapes, creating chunky, serif-style lettering to give the brand a visual point of differentiation from its competitors who predominantly feature condensed, sans serif typefaces in their branding. black and white ARE THE colour palette’s primary colours, with secondary colours of yellow and grey (inspired by Gen Z yellow and Pantone’s 2021 colours of the year). H&M’s clothing lines tend to be colourful, requiring neutral brand colourS so they can work successfully with colour and avoid any clash.
Tone of voice is humorous to build brand connection with consumers, while communicating important messages about what the company is doing. Roll out elements demonstrate THE BRAND'S commitment to circularity, CALLING CUSTOMERS TO ACTIVELY PARTICIPATE IN THE RECYCLING OF THEIR OLD AND UNWANTED CLOTHES.
IMAGE TREATMENT IS also INSPIRED BY CIRCULARITY AND THE REUSE OF EXISTING imagery TO CREATE something new. elements of nature - sky and daisies - have been photoshopped together to create a hyper-saturated, surreal backdrop. This has been overlaid with images of gen z models wearing what would be LUUP's NEW cOLLECTION clothing items, made from recycled clothes.
