Fashion retailer restyles its image

Value fashion retailer New Look is smartening up its brand image with a fresh identity and plans for a London flagship store unveiled this week, as part of the company’s move to take on the likes of TopShop, H&M and Next.

Architect Future Systems is working on the flagship store and Southampton-based Tandem has revamped the logo.

The hiring of Future Systems represents a major design investment for the retailer, says New Look managing director Phil Wrigley.

The 1765m2 Oxford Street outlet is set to open in late summer or early autumn. Future Systems has been briefed to deliver ‘an eye-catching and effective design to hoover people off the street and into the store’, says Wrigley.

‘It will provide a point of difference while being consistent with our fashion values.’ Wrigley adds, ‘Our research says value’s gone upmarket. [Discount retailing] is not about how deep people’s pockets are – everyone wants a good deal. Our customers also shop at Dorothy Perkins, TopShop, Hennes and Next. People want fashion, but also value for money.’

Tandem has revamped the logo – the first significant change to the company’s marque in more than 20 years of trading – as well as concepts for packaging, stationery, facia graphics and signage and van liveries.

Wrigley says the logo promotes the brand values of ‘feminine, fashionable and fun’, reflecting the company’s bid to distance itself from perceptions that its market is ‘cash-strapped teenagers’.

Tandem partner Frank Bell says the identity work will give New Look a ‘much more European’ styling that will also enable it to rival continental challenger brands like Zara, which hails from Spain.

Tandem was appointed following a creative pitch in April last year against undisclosed groups.