Refining a retail company's branding and website to better reflect its rewarding in-store customer experience: This means bringing clarity to brand messaging to refocus on expressing a lifestyle, whilst bringing product to the fore. Redeveloping the company’s website enables us to celebrate the brand's heritage and look to the future, supporting commercial growth within a retail environment that faces continued market disruption.
The Conran Shop currently operates four logos across various channels (main uses highlighted above). This fractured appearance dilutes the brand’s current impact and history. Its founder energised the British design industry post-WW2 and was integral in the creation of 'Cool Britannia' and the Design Museum.
Successive re-brands have not been carried out thoroughly and previous logos are left across various areas of the business.
The original type Futura has now been diluted with various other types (some example images at bottom of project). While many other brands stick to a single type and use multiple fonts within that family, The Conran Shop approaches graphics in an ad hoc style, picking a new type based on a use, season or window, this is atypical any international brand.
Inspired by original signage (reference image at the bottom of page) found across Marylebone and Chelsea, Futura is re-consolidated as the only type used by The Conran Shop. To make it up to date with the wider trend towards lighter fonts, Futura Heavy is dropped and Futura Medium is used instead for titles. Light is introduced for text, alongside an oblique (italic) version for quotes.
The Conran Shop currently uses 'exclusive' as its word of choice, an unofficial slogan. Yet the name 'The Conran Shop' is exclusive enough already, a customer should simply have to say the brand name when talking about a product they purchased from The Conran Shop. Therefore an appropriate slogan needed to be created.
Taking the first sentence from the about page, successive levels of refinement resulted in the common phrase 'all things considered', the first iteration felt disconnected and over branded. On the other hand, 'all things considered' matches some of the tongue-in-cheek copywriting that can be found within the brand, complementing the sense of humour associated with Sir Terence Conran
A global brand needs a global language. With a worldwide retail and digital footprint, The Conran Shop must translate seamlessly. Inspired by the pictogram still used by the visual merchandising team (reference photo at the bottom of page) when changing window displays as well as Otl Aicher, a group of pictograms allows the brand to have international consistency.
Website
The current website follows a linear grid pattern, showing a multitude of new products as well as departments. The addition of gifs creates some dynamism but the rigid grid is over-facing, resulting in loss of clarity over what is the 'latest'. In addition, the font featured within the blocks now varies.
Above can be seen the evolution of The Conran Shop website. Since its earliest incarnation it has featured a grid system to denote departments, products and features.
A proposal had to break from this repeatition, adopting modern UX & UI standards but finessing them to make them more 'Conran'.
The carousel feature allows the website to bring new products to the front page in a slick, scroll-able method, reducing the clicks needed to get to a product page and make a purchase. In addition, it brings price, designer, and manufacturer details right to the home page.
Products can be selected by buyers and merchandisers in select 'edits' or for offers/sales.
The roundel menus provide very clear navigate through refinement via designer or brand, allowing a user to search the archive of products via their preferred design persona or brand. Loyalty card holders could set reminders for their favourite brand or designer and receive notifications/emails when The Conran Shop stocks a new item from them.
An events section that appears ever changing through a single key image and a colour fade between the famous Conran blue and the event's (or key partner's branding) colour.
Reducing the over-stuffed appearance of both the search function and menu was paramount. The heart (favourite) icon features prominently on the proposed product card, while a department heading, and pictogram appears to denote the section of the brand a user is in. Filters are re-positioned on the right and therefore are always easy to be found however far a user has scrolled. The current page places them at the top, so if the user wishes to make any refinements they must scroll back up.
The current menu is overloaded with images, so much so that, without a strong WiFi connection, they take longer to load. There is also inconsistent legibility depending on the background. The proposed version removes all images, adding a department pictogram on the left and a square carousel featuring edits that include department items.
Product pages follow standard web practice of laying sections across the length of the web page. This elongates the page beyond the attention span of the average user. Highlighting specifically the own brand sofa (Build Your Own) product pages; the design collection appears below the product gallery. Further down, within the suggestions, the same collection can be seen. This occurs on other product pages, showing customers items from the same range or that are similar in use, this is a missed opportunity for sales with suggestions instead for products that can be used alongside the item the user has clicked on. If they are already looking for 'x' product suggestions should not be of the same category, but rather aesthetically cohesive items.
The response seeks to condense the web page and split sections into unfolding categories which are nestled right next to the key buttons. Alongside a larger gallery and full screen width use suggestions are given a curated focus, as if a user is re-doing an outdoor setting.
A redefined blog placed front and centre, this is the key proposition of the lifestyle The Conran Shop is trying to express. If properly executed, this journal/blog space could become the brand catalogue, releasing every season or so and priced for regular customers while free for paying loyalty card holders (more below).
The current heritage page splits decades via separate web pages yet tries to appear like a single web page with tabs for each decade. The lush heritage of the brand is condensed to 1/3 of the web page and images are icon size. The proposed page appears like a vertical design, befitting psychologically of a timeline.
Conran Loyalty Scheme
For a while The Conran Shop has been one of the few larger and up-market stores (Harrods, Harvey Nichols, Selfridges) to not offer a true loyalty scheme for repeat customers. Customers are asked to sign-up to a newsletter which provides little incentive to further engage with the brand.
To reinforce the exclusivity of shopping at The Conran Shop a unique offering is suggested.
In addition, to avoid the costly process of creating an application (or even physical cards) the loyalty card could simply be added into a user's mobile wallet via an email link.
Paraphernalia
For any Londoner, seeing a 'Daunts Books' tote bag is a near daily occurrence. A tote bag with a clear brand logo or statement is lacking in The Conran Shop's catalogue. While there is rightly much respect for subtlety, a lot can be said for the free advertising of a fashionable tote.
As seen above, Merci, have a much wider product offering (also at a more affordable price) that is instantly recognisable to the design-attuned. This simple item capitalises on tourists and customers that aspire to The Conran Shop yet cannot afford a majority of items.
Below can be seen mockups of advertising, using a more radical and minimal approach that goes beyond the products sold and speaks to feelings and emotions within a viewer. The Conran Shop's latest catalogue (a first in over some years perhaps) featured as its cover a dog. A brand with such heritage must have more to communicate (as seen in the stellar visual merchandising and new Seoul store) than a Benet Skalstol miniature and a cockapoo.
Within the Chelsea/Fulham Rd store old tire adverts can be seen (reference images at the end of page) echoing the building's past when it once was the UK headquarters and depot for Michelin, their imagery turns the mundane tire into something ephemeral. These provided some inspiration for visual direction.
Evidence
This project came from a place of love, with my mum having worked at The Conran Shop from around 1985-89 as a visual merchandiser, a time marked by the opening of the Fulham store. Her influence made me the creative I am today.
This is an ongoing project, with ever more ideas evolving, I am currently concepting Instagram story templates.
