X5 Group Ecosystem: engineering,
not just design
The history of X5 Group dates back to 2006, when Perekrestok and Pyaterochka retail chains merged. The new company, which united more than 600 stores, was named X5 Retail Group (X — Perekrestok, 5 — Pyaterochka).
The company's ecosystem should connect different retail stores, B2B and B2C brands, services, products and initiatives of the group into a single system for different target audiences.
The global task of X5 Group is to develop such an ecosystem of services and applications that will emphasize the brand's leadership in the food category. The company strives for conscious consumption and resources usage，including visual ones.
The main principle of X5 Group is “not to litter” both in physical and visual spaces. Therefore, LINII team's approach was content-oriented, not decorative.
The identity illuminates natural motifs and shapes through tech graphics. The visual metaphor sounds like "digital ecology".
The 3D pattern visually reminds the shape of the leaf in a technological interpretation.
Photo style allows to change the tone of communications: from a bird's view to images to cute pets.
During the project, it was decided to create unique corporate font. Paratype was chosen as developer. As a result, the brand received X5 Sans and X5 Sans UI typefaces with an unlimited license.
Thanks to the storage of pictograms, it was possible to unify their style for the entire X5 Group ecosystem.
The most emotional graphic tool was, of course, illustrations. They are divided by subject: plots, portraits and objects.
Unlike the usual branding project, there was a huge amount of media outside the commercial part: conferences and public reports, reports for investors, X5 Group social and economic impact assessment visualization, the Basket of Kindness charity program, etc.
As part of the detailed study of the brand architecture, in addition to the corporate brand identity, corporate styles were developed for the sub-brands — X5 Import, X5 Tech, "X5 Bank" and "X5 Club" — which offer different products and communicate with different audiences.
Case showreel
X5 Group:
Galina Sekirinskaya — head of corporate brand Department
Anna Sokolova — manager of special image projects
Nadezhda Usova — senior manager for image and special Programs
Stanislav Ignatiev — head of product design
LINII:
Mikhail Gubergrits — CEO and creative director
Dmitry Burenko — business partner, director of development and strategy
Maria Sorochenko — project manager
Valery Sadovsky — lead art director of the project
Natalia Kolesnikova, Yulia Plotnik — art directors
Ilya Savonkin, Anton Andreev, Alexandra Yanchukova, Anna Kamenkova, Kirill Zharkoy, Artyom Sokol — designers
Andrey Tupikin — CG, visualizer
Dmitry Kostyuchenko — illustrator
Anatoly Dudko — pictogram designer
Natalya Chetverkina — copywriter
Anna Khorina — editor
Paratype:
Alexandra Korolkova — art director
Alexandra Korolkova, Vitaly Kuzmin — designers
Gennady Fridman, Konstantin Kunarev, Olga Krylova — technologists
