Heal’s repositions as “arbiter of style”

British furniture brand Heal’s, best known for its flagship store on London’s Tottenham Court Road, has undergone a brand refresh by Deep.

Heal’s was being “drowned out” by other brands

The consultancy was briefed to help Heal’s reposition itself as a competitor in what is an increasingly crowded market, made up of focused high street retailers and broad online offerings.

According to Deep brand and digital strategy director Charlie Eiles, Heal’s previous identity lacked personality and a distinctive tone of voice and thus was easily “drowned out by the likes of Habitat and made.com”. Eiles believes the new look gives Heal’s the “personality to make [itself] heard”.

“Where design lives”

The new look addresses this through an almost entirely new visual identity. Using the new strapline “Where Design Lives,” as a starting point, the redesign has positioned Heal’s as a design-led retailer – an “arbiter of style” as Eiles puts it.

Opening its first store over 200 years ago, the Heal’s brand has a lengthy history. Deep has developed a new roundel icon, which labels the brand as “innovators since 1810”.

Graphic “split” helps define new look

Keen to continue this throughout the project, Deep says the typography and rich colour palette in the new look was chosen to be “sympathetic to its rich design heritage”. The logo itself hasn’t been changed for the same reason.

This acknowledgement of the past has been paired with what Eiles calls a “playful element”. A distinctive graphic “split” appears throughout communications. This new layout, which can be found across posters, ads and catalogues, is supposed to allow for more flexibility and creativity across the brand’s identity.