Kennedy

Below: Before and After Images in Slide Show, Video, Summary, Credits

Home to the world’s most desired watch and jewelry brands, Kennedy appointed us to help them break free of traditional retailer conventions. They needed to apply breakthrough thinking to help them look, think, and act like a next-generation luxury brand, while continuing to honor the values of the special brands in their care.

The manufacturers of elite watches and jewelry such as Rolex, Patek Philippe, Cartier and Graff put immense effort into managing their brands’ reputation and image, and in turn demand exceptional discipline from their global retail partners to present their products both beautifully and consistently, wherever they are sold.

This makes it challenging for individual retailers to stand out from one another, when offering often identical luxury products to their clientele. Our design challenge was to continue to meet the stringent brand guidelines of the luxury brand houses, while allowing more of the Kennedy brand’s personality and character to shine through.

We thought ambitiously about how design could break Kennedy out of the hidebound traditions of luxury retailing – the hushed display rooms, tailored yet bland staff uniforms, the ‘mahogany row’ of display cabinets, subdued rather than celebratory packaging. Instead, we set out to reimagine the customer experience for a new generation of luxury customers.

The new Kennedy identity system injects a stronger sense of storytelling and emotion into their marketing, while still meeting the exacting display requirements of luxury brand partners.

The design formats honor the requirement to show partners’ timepieces ‘up close and in full’, but also gives scope to integrate the Kennedy brand into messaging. Kennedy brand recognition now eclipses that of competitors still reliant on conventional co-op advertising formats.

The identity is built around the flexibility of the K symbol, acting as a window into a world of extraordinary. This flexible approach to the symbol allows the identity to challenge its audience and exceed expectations for the industry, speaking to the next generation of luxury buyers by being fresh, unexpected and extraordinary.