Elmwood rebrands Russell Hobbs

Elmwood has rebranded kitchenware company Russell Hobbs, repositioning the brand as ‘at the heart of your home.’

Russell Hobbs logo
Russell Hobbs logo

The consultancy has evolved the Russell Hobbs logo, redrawing the existing crest. New packaging aims to emphasise the ‘at the heart of your home’ positioning through ‘sensory moments’, such as images of fresh laundry or butter melting on toast.

Elmwood began work on the project last summer following a credential pitch. Nadia Romanis, Elmwood account director, says, ‘It was about giving Russell Hobbs new positioning as they expand further into Europe and new markets. They wanted to do that in a consistent way and needed a point of difference from the other small domestic appliance brands.’

The consultancy was briefed to create a compelling point of view that would be consistent across all Russell Hobbs’ markets. It created a new tone of voice, lifestyle imagery and a series of brand films for Russell Hobbs.

Russell Hobbs Iron
Russell Hobbs Iron

The consultancy created brand guidelines for the identity’s application across all the brand’s touch points, including the website, which has been redesigned in-house.

Before creating the identity, Elmwood initially conducted Europe-wide research by visiting people in their homes to gauge how people use appliances like those sold by Russell Hobbs. It found that consumers value an ‘emotional connection’ to the domestic appliances.

Russell Hobbs logo
Russell Hobbs logo

Elmwood group services director Simon Preece, says, ‘It became clear there was little emotional engagement in this category and there was a huge opportunity to drive an emotional rather than functional connection.

‘Taking these insights, we facilitated a brand articulation workshop that defined the company’s authentic attitude and focused on Russell Hobbs being at ‘the heart of the home’.

Russell Hobbs Toaster
Russell Hobbs Toaster
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Comments
  • Matthew Wyatt November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    Poor visuals…

  • Ryan Wills November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    Poor full stop.

  • Paul Hooper November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    From my point of view there was little benefit in keeping/redrawing/retaining the decidedly old fashioned crest.

    I do fully understand the use of a bright red lozenge or mark to the left of the lettering, but I’m not convinced something that looks like a seal was quite necessary. Maybe a more contemporary use of this device?

    I’m sure Elmwood would have suggested this unless it was in the brief and maybe this was one step too far for the client?

  • Jason Hunt November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    Have to agree, to a degree. Looks like one step forward (type) one step back (crest). #messy

  • Giles Taylor November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    The crest could be seen as a distraction, or somehow not completely at ease with the contemporary typeface to the right. So in the end result doesn’t achieve much at all.

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