Snask offers the shoe retailer shoe a contemporary new look
The shoe retailer Schuh, founded in Livington, Scotland in 1981, has developed into a retail empire that includes 130 stores in Great Britain, Ireland and Germany and sells brands from Converse to adidas as well as the own-label label Schuh.
In recent years, however, Schuh has struggled to stand out from other established shoe retailers. Additional competition came from newer, cooler brands targeting the fast growing sneakerhead community.
The retailer consulted Stockholm-based Studio Snask to give their visual identity a much-needed update and to create a brand platform that reflects typical shoe customers and the desires of the shopping experience.
"After Schuh's customer had been in business for so long, he has both aged and switched from young and cool to someone with one or two feet," said Fredrik Öst, founder and creative director of Snask.
“Schuh's customer service has won multiple awards. During our research, we found that the shoe customers were most loved by the people who welcomed them to the store.
"There was some tension in going to other coolers and being afraid to speak to people in the workshop, but with Schuh this feeling was gone, customers generally felt very welcome and everything felt down to earth."
The new brand strategy and visual identity reflect the shift of the retailer's focus from storing cool brands to the service he offers both online and in-store. Schuh employees and customers are the focus of the brand images and communication.
Snask not only intensified the existing light green brand color, but also added a more versatile color palette, a completely new font, and created a more modern iteration of the shoe logo.
"We looked at the current identity resources and found that the logo had been misused and abused for several years," says Öst. “The original logo was so long that it didn't even exist. That is why we decided to refine it and make it geometrically and graphically correct. It is not a redesign of the logo, but a refinement of the existing one. "
The new graphic with green stripes of the brand is displayed both horizontally and vertically and can be used as a device to place text, objects and other elements in your communication behind and in front of text.
“We wanted to find a 'common thread' through the entire identity that transferred the feeling of the Schuh brand to all assets without the logo having to be applied anywhere or the green being used to the utmost. That is why we created the green line as a supplement to photos as well as any form of assets. It is a brand carrier that is easy to recognize and yet very simple, ”says Öst.
While Breve Display is used to highlight shorter words or prices, Sharp Grotesk was chosen as the main font. “It not only offered a good selection of thin, light and book to medium, bold and black, but also made a big difference in the properties of the different weights. This gave the brand a coherent yet dynamic new typeface, ”adds Öst.
snask.com