This university assignment tasked me with taking an existing brand on the market that I felt had an outdated or insufficient branding. We were to research the opportunities that brand had and rebuild a new styleguide and logomark, as well as a number of executions for the revamp.

Harvey Norman's stores were most commonly built with a yellow and navy color scheme, with the typeface displayed as red on yellow. A number of their larger or newer stores were in a more modern blue, white and red scheme. Of the seven stores I visisted, all of them displayed elements of both these two brands, and they lacked a consistent style throughout the store.

I approached the logomark first, as I felt that this was a good starting point for the brand. After some development, I felt that the best execution was a simple rounded font; VAG Rounded. This typeface brought Harvey Norman into 2013, as rounded fonts were extremely popular at the time, particularly amongst tech brands.

 

Harvey Norman's newer scheme of white, blue and red felt like the right direction, and I chose to retain this in the color execution. I also chose to retain the signiature underline, as this helped tie the new design to the old one.

Harvey Norman's stores are split into various departments, so I also looked at how they might execute the new typeface and style in those departments.

The mark that would accompany the typeface required additional experimentation. I wanted to focus on the HN initials, as I felt that these made an interesting shape and could be used effectively as a unique mark.

The final solution is a relatively simple cubed design. The depth of the mark gives it a modern feel, and the HN is an instantly recognizable marker for the brand.

The combined logomark is a simple execution of the mark above the type. This gives the mark a hero quality.

For sale periods, or areas of the store where contrast is needed, I designed alternate color combinations for the mark.

It was important to be clear on how the mark should and should not be used. Consistency in branding is key.

The new uniform design retains the polo shirts present in their stores already, however I incorporated the logomark and new colorscheme.

 

A common complain from Harvey Norman's customers is that it's hard to find customers from the correct areas of the store, so I designed alternate uniforms for particular areas of the store. Furthermore, special events such as holiday sales could utilize the black or red designs.

Overall, i feel the rebrand was a successful exercise. The color scheme is being used more effectively, and Harvey Norman has a recognizable logomark they can use in a number of different applications.